10-31-2008, 08:43 AM
vision63 wrote:
Bloomberg reminds me of Riordan. I think he's a decent mayor. Mayor is usually a non-partisan race anyway. If they didn't tell you what party they belonged to you wouldn't know.
Bloomberg, who grew up in Medford, MA - a couple miles from me, is a Dem who could only outflank the NYC machine by running as a Repub. Dick Riordan is a wealthy independent more than a Repub, one who recently stepped out and endorsed Obama.
I ran for office as a Dem and later ran a county campaign for a Repub (who won in a solidly Dem county).
Use to be in Mass you could go into a booth and indicate one party or another, pull a lever and vote a straight ticket. For anyone wanting to split their vote or in primaries they would provide you with a paper ballot that unfolded like an over size roadmap. After voting you would refold the ballot and deposit it in the box (election workers were forbidden to help or touch that ballot) -- ever refolded a road map?
The lines outside were often 3-hours long -- two of those hours directly attributable to peoples inability to to refold a friggen ballot.