Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader is no threat to upset anyone in Massachusetts next month, but the Bay State has been one of his strongest for fund-raising ($3.2 million nationally as of his last report, according to the Center for Responsive Politics). Massachusetts generated $31,050 in contributions to Nader, trailing only California, New York, and the District of Columbia. Among local contributors are enviro-activist and unsuccessful 1998 congressional candidate John T. O'Connor of Cambridge, and writer Richard Goodwin of Concord. Both gave $1,000.
Gore will stick around to talk it up
The upstart WTKK 96.9 FM talk station appears to have scored a major coup. Station sources say Vice President Al Gore has agreed to show up at its Morrissey Boulevard studio the morning after his Boston debate with George Bush and banter with Don Imus, the nationally syndicated talk show host who will be in the Hub for the event.
Station sources said that Gore's campaign has sent word to Imus that he will be there sometime during the 6-10 a.m. program slot on Wednesday. ''Of course not until the Secret Service scout the place out will we know for sure,'' said one source.
Imus, who has 5 million listeners nationwide for his New York-based show, plans to have Tim Russert, a regular on his show and the host of NBC's Meet the Press, join them on air, along with debate moderator Jim Lehrer.
Campaign financing will be topic of bipartisan discussion Tuesday
Amid the partisan frenzy that will engulf Boston on Tuesday, there will be some interesting bipartisan cooperation at a Beacon Hill restaurant. Former US representative Chester Atkins, a Concord Democrat, and GOP strategist Ray Howell, along with Wordsworth Books, are sponsoring a discussion at No. 9 Park on campaign finance. The featured speaker will be Jeff Birnbaum, the Fortune Magazine Washington bureau chief, who has written a book, ''The Money Men.'' Also speaking will be Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift and Democratic fund-raiser Alan Solomont.
Balfour helped father, now aids son
Old advance guys never die. Some of them just go to the MDC. Commissioner David Balfour used to advance events for former President George Bush. Now, in addition to his day job, he is helping out the ex-president's son, George W., as the GOP try to figure what to do with the Texas governor for a postdebate rally.
Balfour is renting out an MDC rink in South Boston to the Bush campaign to rally the troops on Tuesday night, just after the GOP nominee finishes his debate with Gore.
Sticker campaigns pay off for two GOP House hopefuls
Massachusetts Republicans had some minor successes gaining ballot access in the Sept. 19 state primary election. Two candidates for House seats qualified for the November election by getting more than the required 150 write-in or sticker votes. They are Israel Reyes of Lawrence, who is bidding to unseat Democratic incumbent Jose Santiago, and Patricia Cuddemi, who will challenge Democrat Mark Falzone and independent Albert DiNardo in the race for the Saugus-based seat being vacated by Steven Angelo. Despite those successes, the GOP will not contest 100 of 160 House seats on Nov. 3, and Reyes must still survive a recount of 98 absentee ballots challenged by Santiago. Another Lawrence recount involves the apparently failed attempt by City Councilor Marc Laplante, a Republican, to qualify to challenge US Representative Martin Meehan of Lowell on Nov. 7. Laplante fell 460 votes short of the 2,000 he needed, but is challenging the tally in Lawrence.
Finneran will go first against Cellucci
House Speaker Thomas Finneran has again one-upped his Beacon Hill archrival. Finneran, who showed no inclination to debate Governor Paul Cellucci over the governor's income tax rollback ballot question, has agreed to meet the GOP leader Saturday, Oct. 21, on Channel 56. The half-hour debate which begin at 8 p.m. will be moderated by the station's political reporter, Jon Keller. That will take place just days before Cellucci debates Senate President Thomas Birmingham.
Haley spending his downtime far away from the State House
Most Bay State legislators take advantage of the inertia-laden days of informal session to tend to law practices and other work that churns out income-essential pin money. But for Representative Paul R. Haley, the Weymouth Democrat who leads the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee, the downtime has been spent in the Persian Gulf aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George Washington. Haley, a captain in the Naval Reserve, is helping with contingency planning for the battle group commander, Rear Admiral Gary Roughhead. Compared with working with Finneran and Haley's perennial sparring partners in the Senate, cruising the Gulf to watch Saddam Hussein may seem like a vacation.
Something 2 parties can agree on
The legislative campaign season is notable more for what's not happening, than for what is. But MassINC, the nonpartisan think tank, has prepared a policy briefing book for candidates that is notable for its seal of approval from both of the state's major parties. The book is organized around four initiatives - economic opportunity, lifelong learning, safe communities, and civic engagement - and is being mailed to candidates, pundits, consultants and pollsters, said Tripp Jones of MassINC. The public can read or download the book from www.massinc.org. ''It is a rare occasion that we find an opportunity to join together in support of the work of a public policy organization,'' wrote John Brockelman and Mark White, the executive directors, respectively, of the Republican and Democratic state committees.
Walter V. Robinson, Brian C. Mooney, Frank Phillips, Brian MacQuarrie, and Sacha Pfeiffer, all of the Globe Staff, contributed to this report.
