Dan Dunn

Sunday night I posted about a couple of the sketchy aspects of the Charley Murphy mailing. It turns out I only knew half of it.

If you look at the first photo, the first person is George Laite. The second is Murphy. The fourth person is Joanna Gonsalves, Woburn Alderman and Democratic challenger to Senator Havern in ’06. She hasn’t endorsed Murphy either!

I posted about this on Blue Mass Group, and Murphy responded. He took responsibility for the poor photo choice, but said the photo was chosen by someone who didn’t recognize Laite. It has to be someone who didn’t recognize Laite or Gonsalves. I ask myself how many pictures Murphy has available, and how many of them include Laite and Gonsalves, and how this one was chosen.

There are two interpretations. The first is that it’s an honest mistake – and then I wonder how such brutal errors get through in such an expensive campaign mailing. It doesn’t speak well to Murphy’s powers of organization. The second interpretation is that it was intentional. That, of course, would rule him out on ethical grounds. Either way, he’s dug himself a pretty deep hole. In such a short election with such thin coverage, he’s not going to get himself out.

Oh, and for final humor value, read the fourth bullet point. I’m sure that a number of his constituents agree that open pubic spaces are a top priority. I’m just not sure that’s a campaign point.