Well, Election Day is tomorrow and it can’t come soon enough!
On Wednesday (hopefully) electoral politics will be over, and then the hard part begins. Elected officials will all have to come together, and start to work on governing.
Can it happen? Can we come together after a hyper partisan election? On a national level gridlock is, unfortunately, expected.
But locally? Following recent developments of Manchester’s state Senate campaign over the last week, I am not so sure. For those not familiar, please let me take a moment to recap:
A SuperPAC, funded by billionaire Thomas Peterffy, has turbo charged GOP candidate Cheri Pelletier, to the tune of over $100,000 dollars. With both attack ads and saccharine puff pieces, Pelletier is benefiting from the largesse of a Forbes 400 billionaire. When confronted about his sudden interest in our community, Peterffy responded: “I looked him up and he seems like a nice guy.”
Cheri Pelletier has promoted herself as a sensible mother out to do the right thing, but her continued “non-denial denials” regarding this SuperPAC now fueling her campaign, make her appear as not leveling with our community.
In the world of politics it didn't take long for the gloves to come off.
Pelletier’s SuperPac turbo charged campaign has spawned an incendiary, mysterious website, "Cheri 'The Censor' Pelletier" replete with different videos attacking Pelletier for censorship on an article found in the Manchester Patch.
In one video, a narrator intones: “We deserve a Senator that believes in what she says, not someone who deletes when she feels the heat”. Even a parody video of Pelletier’s Campaign Manager sobbing, “Leave Cheri Alone” is also included on the website.
What’s worse is this bitter fued has spilled onto national blogs like FireDogLake and the Daily Kos characterizing Pelletier as a "Citizens United Bonus Baby." Amazing.
With this partisan rancor back and forth, I am concerned about our Greater Manchester community coming back together. One side will win and another will loose but in the end, we should all come together.
I hope after this election we can come together, but the mess made during the campaign will take real leaders to clean up.
