Comments on: Why I won’t be voting for Ayanna Pressley

By: jik

jik — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:43:45 +0000

But if I wrote off every politician/vendor/etc who didn’t respond to me, I’d run out of people to vote for and places to do business.

I disagree.

By: Frisky070802

Frisky070802 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:53:45 +0000

You’re surely right that a responsive campaign would be better than a nonresponsive one. But if I wrote off every politician/vendor/etc who didn’t respond to me, I’d run out of people to vote for and places to do business. I think over the years I’ve developed a thicker skin for such things.

I just hope you aren’t throwing the baby out with the bathwater — that you have other reasons besides email for selecting your candidate.

By: jik

jik — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:31:02 +0000

If somebody wants to add me to a bulk email list that they think I’ll be interested in, then they need to admit up-front that they did that. I would not have been nearly as upset with the spam from Pressley if she had put even just one sentence in her spam to the effect of, “We’ve added you to our list because we thought you might be interested in Ayanna Pressley’s campaign. If not, please click below to unsubscribe.” There was no such acknowledgment.

As for the issue of lack of response, the buck stops with the candidate. She is responsible for the conduct of her staff, and the conduct of her staff reflects on her ability to do the job she’s running for. If she can’t maintain a staff that is capable of responding to voter concerns during the campaign, then why should I believe that she will be able to maintain a staff that is capable of responding to constituent concerns if she is elected?

By: Frisky070802

Frisky070802 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:17:18 +0000

I too give out customized addresses, and I have repeatedly found that political addresses have a habit of being reused in other contexts. Usually there is a link to unsubscribe, and when I find it’s someone I’m not interested in, I do that uneventfully. I don’t think that the fact that they used it to contact you should be such a negative that you use the spam to decide whom to vote for, nor do I think their failure to respond (which is an issue of their campaign, not the politician herself, and could be a result of lots of emails bouncing messages back to their address and overwhelming them) is fatal. A factor, sure, but no doubt a small one?

And no, I have no stake in a Boston battle, and I’m not in Boston. I started following your blog when you posted about your kid being sent to Newark by mistake, and I found enough other interesting stuff to start following the blog … and then haranguing you over science museum policies

By: Ayanna Pressley Supporter

Ayanna Pressley Supporter — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:22:18 +0000

I’m attend school out of the state, which is not rare. I was born and raised in Boston and am a registered Boston voter.

By: jik

jik — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:32:49 +0000

It is not one incident, but two, that prompted me to decide not to support Pressley. As I noted, not only did she spam me, but she also ignored my complaint about the spam. Spamming says something significant about politicians, and so does ignoring complaints from voters.

When it comes to making decisions about candidates, we often have very little information to go on, and what the candidates say about themselves is a far less reliable indicator of their true character and ability to serve than what they do. For this reason, the little “tells” that a candidate reveals through his or her actions should be taken seriously; they are usually a very good indicator of a candidate’s true character.

By the way, I find myself wondering what someone at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, which is where your comment was posted from, is doing involving him/herself in a local Boston political campaign.

By: Ayanna Pressley Supporter

Ayanna Pressley Supporter — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:11:32 +0000

It is unfortunate that a one-time spam incident will overshadow the great work that this amazing woman has done for the City of Boston. I urge you to consider Ayanna’s candidacy more seriously. The future of our city is of greater importance than your irritation at receiving an unsolicited email. Ayanna will be an incredible city councilor, and I hope that you would forgive her and her campaign staff for the mishap.