I like voting. There's just something magical about going into the polling place and announcing, "Hello, I am here to perform my civic duty, that privilege given to me by the founding fathers, that vital brick in the great wall of democracy... I am here to cast my VOTE!!"
Not that I did that. I didn't. But I kind of felt like it as I marched into the local school this morning to vote. Especially in local elections, there's a certain feeling of power when you go cast a ballot, because you feel like you actually matter in the grand scheme - because the scheme locally isn't so grand!
I did a whole lot of research recently trying to get behind a candidate in the Somerville mayoral race. What it came down to in the end for me was partially information, partially lack of information. While Joe Curtatone did in fact get me a recycle bin, his website didn't have a whole lot of information on it. In fact, it only had about three paragraphs of info that were not handed to me in leaflet form by a Curtatone campaign worker. Most of the info there was about the school system - I don't have kids - and about this 311 non-emergency line which worked wonders for the city of Baltimore. Mayhap Joe has not noticed, but Somerville ain't Baltimore.
In the end, the recycle bin didn't earn my vote. I felt like Lafuente had a lot more to say about the issues that actually interested me while the Curtatone campaign seemed to just be spinning its wheels (and hemorrhaging money, which doesn't bode well for any administration that might follow from it).
Also, from my standpoint, any man who claims to want to do all he can to make Someville schools a better place to be "for the sake of his newborn son Cosmo" needs to realize that Somerville schools - ANY schools - are going to be really fuckin' difficult for a kid whose name is Cosmo. That boy is going to be abused.
Keepin' my fingers crossed for Lafuente.