Former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden took time out of their busy schedules to pay tribute to Tom Menino yesterday — while other Bay State politicians refused to hit pause on the campaign trail.
While hundreds packed Most Precious Blood Church in Hyde Park and took a moment to reflect on Menino’s life and service, the candidates in the 6th Congressional District race — Democrat Seth Moulton and Republican Richard Tisei — kept pounding away on social media.
One person who texted Boston Herald Radio’s “Morning Meeting” wrote about those who didn’t slow down: “I live in Tewksbury now, but lived in Boston for years. A lot of us left for the suburbs but lived there when Tom was mayor. Bad move.”
This text was in response to an email we read aloud on “Morning Meeting” that Moulton sent out 30 minutes before Menino’s funeral was set to begin. It alerted the media to a phone call: “This afternoon, President Bill Clinton will call homes in Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District urging voters to support Seth Moulton in tomorrow’s election. The call will be placed around 4 p.m. today, and will reach 42,000 people in 37,000 homes. To hear President Clinton’s message, visit Seth Moulton’s website.”
It was a poorly timed move to send out an email when every politician across the commonwealth — and several from outside Massachusetts — were mourning the death of the people’s mayor.
Clearly, the media is not focused on a robocall from Clinton. The only relevant Clinton story at the moment was his role in Menino’s services.
Both Moulton and Tisei were tweeting up a storm, too. Meanwhile the man one of them will be replacing, Congressman John Tierney, attended Menino’s funeral.
Congressman Bill Keating is in the fight of his life trying to hold on to his seat but, respectfully, his campaign went dark during the services.
Now that Boston’s beloved mayor has been laid to rest, pols can proceed feverishly with last-minute campaigning. This is especially true for the governor’s race, considering the change in tone the campaigns were forced to take over the last several days. Coakley better pray on a strong Democratic Election Day field game. Baker better hope all those recent polls were right.
Jaclyn Cashman is co-host of “Morning Meeting” on Boston Herald Radio.
Copyright © 2024 Jaclyn Cashman.
