Ten Reasons to Vote in Massachusetts on Tuesday

I urge you to vote for Alan Khazei in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate Primary on Tuesday, December 8.

I could give you some good reasons, and will come back to that below, but I know that’s not what you want. This is politics and you want some cold, hard, cynical reasons to vote for Alan Khazei.

(1) Stick it to the snobs on Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill. They think, whatever other great experience in public life a candidate like Alan Khazei may have, you have to be a career politician or multimillionaire to run for public office.

(2) Stick it to the PACs and lobbyists. The gall of Alan Khazei thinking he could run as a reformer on contributions directly from individual citizens and not take their PAC or lobbyist money. The gall of not making the usual promises to the special interests to get that money. The gall of you even thinking for a moment of voting for such a candidate.

(3) Stick it to the candidates who’ve cluttered your TV and all your favorite web sites with their incessant ads (that PAC and lobbyist money goes a long way). At least Alan’s ads are entertaining - you’ve got see the talking babies in Change Washington if you haven’t already (it would be a gimmick if it weren’t so true).

(4) Stick it to baby boomer politics. That’s right: Martha Coakley, Mike Capuano, Steve Pagliuca, and even Republican Scott Brown were born in the 1950s and came of age in the 1960s or early 1970s. Alan Khazei was born in the 1960s and came of age in the 1980s. And if you are a baby boomer and reading this, it’s not that we don’t like you, it’s the divisive baby boomer politics we don’t like.

(5) Stick it to Bill Clinton. The news is that he plans to robocall 500,000 Massachusetts households Monday on Martha Coakley’s behalf. He’s the baby boomer in chief.

(6) Vote to let Martha Coakley finish her first term in the job she took on as Massachusetts Attorney General. You notice how whenever a state Attorney General goes on crusade, like New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer against Wall Street in the early 2000s, they always get promoted to higher office, and put out of the way?

(7) Vote to keep Mike Capuano in his job as Congressman so he can get the MBTA Green Line Extension into his beloved Somerville. Do you think Capuano’s replacement will be from Somerville? His district includes most of Boston, so it’s most likely his replacement will be from Boston and not give a fig about the Green Line Extension. No advocate in the House of Representatives means no money gets appropriated.

(8) Vote to keep Steve Pagliuca creating jobs in the private sector. Come to think of it, where can I buy stock in Pagliuca Industries?

(9) Vote for the two and half year free trial for Alan Khazei. If he’s elected in January 2010, he’ll have to run again in fall 2012 for a full six year Senate term and, if it works out that you don’t like him after all, the other candidates will still be around.

(10) If you are a Democrat or Democratic leaning independent, vote for the luxury that you can vote for whoever you like the most in the Democratic race. It’s not like Republicans Scott Brown or Jack E. Robinson have a chance against any of the four Democratic candidates. If you are a Republican leaning independent or an independent independent, here’s your chance to send the Democratic political establishment a wake up call.

If you find any of these reasons compelling or even just funny, please feel free to forward this article to anyone you know who lives in Massachusetts.

For non-cynics, here are five reasons why you should vote for Alan Khazei:

(A) He’s a great leader who cofounded City Year, the youth service program now in 20 cities around the U.S.

(B) He’s made his career around building consensus and making things happen, and has always shared the credit and given others the spotlight.

(D) He believes in helping innovators and entrepreneurs find solutions.

(E) He’s good on all the issues facing our state and our country from job creation to health care to Afghanistan.

(F) His relationships with political and business leaders around the U.S. would help Massachusetts regain the clout we lost in the U.S. Senate with the death of Ted Kennedy.

Some endorsements Alan has received:

The Boston Globe – “Massachusetts’ best chance to produce another great senator”

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette – “a deeply genuine and expansive vision of public service”

Cape Cod Times – “insight, depth of knowledge on local, national and international issues”Blue Mass Group – “best positions on the issues” and “best philosophy of governance”

West Roxbury Transcript – “knows how to create programs from the ground up”

Caroline Kennedy – “it would be amazing if this guy won”

General Wesley Clark – “we need more patriots and public servants like Alan Khazei representing the people’s interests in Washington”

P.S. Final note to all BHO gamers: you can stop hiding from the pollsters as the regulars in the other camps will have completed their media buys by Monday night. The watchword from BC at ONC: 2 ifg by C