Things are interesting on the political front here in MA. The most action is around the Governor. As it stands, there are four candidates:
As it stands, the primary two candidates are Healy (R) and Patrick (D) with Mihos and Ross thrown into the mix as background noise. Interestingly, the two independents continue to be included in all debates which seems pointless to me. They serve as a distraction from the what we really need to know which is the differences between the two real candidates. These independents also spend most of their bashing Healy which is bothersome. It is not that Healy is great, but the debates should be focused on issues and positions and not on attacking one candidate.
Patrick is currently the clear leader, but there has been some odd stuff going on. The news just came out that he wrote four letters of support for the parole of a rapist and sent a check for $5,000 to the same guy. The awful thing is that the rapist was terrible. He raped and abused a woman for 8 hours straight. That is just plain sick and someone who does that deserves to spend a life in jail. Which is why I find Patrick's position so confusing. Why would he support some who assaulted someone so viciously? It appears like Patrick knew very little about the guy he was supporting. Why would you write to a parole board on behalf of a vicious criminal whom you know nothing about? Don't you think that you would want to research someone before recommending parole?
Patrick issued an apology for the above actions today. However, it has been difficult to get a straight answer from the guy on the issue. Specifically, he previously "forgot" the scope of his help to the rapist. He first acknowledged one letter, and then it later came out that it was not one but four letters and $5,000 in cash. Now he apologizes. Truthfully, the whole thing sounds like contrived damage control to me.