Monday, May 22, 2006

Maybe Patrick was actually looking for someone who gets what he's trying to do and who believes in it himself? You admit you "don't know Chacon at all"...so why so cynical before you have the information at hand?

I like to have some basis for my cynical musings...

And yeah, I'm a Patrick supporter but seriously, there's just far too many reasons to be cynical already without going looking for more.

I agree. What Patrick needs is a heavy-hitting political communciations director not some guy from the Globe who has basically been answering letters from readers who have been bitching! This doesn't seem like a smart move at all. How is this guy going to help in crafting the campaign's message? Seriously. Patrick has come a long way from nowhere but he seems rudderless right now. The last thing he needs is more amatuers.

This is from the Patrick campaign's release: "In nearly a dozen years at the Globe, Chacón’s reporting and editing experiences have covered everything from Boston City Hall to Latin America as a foreign correspondent.

Before joining the Globe in 1994, Chacón worked as an editorial writer for New York Newsday, where he specialized in cultural affairs, local politics, and sports. In 2004, Chacón was named a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University.

Chacón’s broadcast journalism background includes work as a television reporter for KTSM in El Paso, Texas; as a public affairs producer for WCVB-TV in Boston; and as a radio reporter for WBUR-FM in Boston.

Chacón has previously worked in government and politics. In 1992, he served as deputy media director for the Democratic National Convention, and before that as a speechwriter in the administration of New York City Mayor David Dinkins."

Now, I'll grant you that the guy doesn't have a terribly long political resume. But for heaven's sake, he's been a pretty high-powered journalist for many years - and he's the communications guy, not the campaign manager. Seems to me there's something to be said for having a grown-up like Chacon who knows how media works in that position, instead of a twenty-something politico who's been campaign-hopping ever since s/he got out of running the College Democrats. To call Chacon a "total greenhorn" strikes me as quite unfair. And, for the record, I'm undecided in the Gov's race.

"Seems to me there's something to be said for having a grown-up like Chacon who knows how media works in that position, instead of a twenty-something politico who's been campaign-hopping ever since s/he got out of running the College Democrats."

Right on!

Speaking as a campaign-hopping post College Democrats twenty-something (by the way, cut us a little slack there, guys. We work our asses off for 90 hours a week to get your progressive darlings elected....)

You're right, I wouldn't hire me to be the campaign's communications director, either. You definitely need someone with more experience and gravitas in that role.

But I would hire a thirty-something or forty-something "politico" with some substantive campaign experience under their belts. I think it's great Chacon has media experience - make him deputy communications director for media relations or something - but that's not all there is to political communications. Patrick could use someone who has weathered a few electoral storms.