I’ll make this quick. Here at the Dig we never try competing with the crush of post-election news across the state. For one, we just don’t have the resources. For two, it’s more our style to sit back, watch everybody squirm, whine, and accuse, and then drop the hammer.
With that said, I didn’t hang at Evan Falchuk’s campaign office on Tremont Street past midnight just for kicks this morning. Nor was I only there for the beer, much of which was being sipped and spilled in celebration. I was there to watch the United Independent Party become official.
It was a close one, though nobody at Falchuk headquarters or at their party downstairs at Teatro beforehand seemed to be sweating. After more than a year of crisscrossing Massachusetts with their message – that the Republicans and Democrats are both complicit in selling voters out for campaign contributions, among other things – they were confident their guy would cross the 3 percent threshold required for full party status. In the end he did, with 3.3 percent. That’s more than 71,000 votes. Nothing to sneeze at, and a nice thumb in the eye of media chumps who started to believe their own bullshit that Falchuk deserved to be ignored for some reason or another.
As one of the few publications in the commonwealth with a vocal interest in seeing things get shaken up on Beacon Hill, we’ll be following Falchuk and his party over the next weeks and months, as they attempt to urinate on Republican lawns and shatter blue dreams. There’s more than just a little change in the air, and that’s a great thing. Like Falchuk told his campaign workers last night, “We founded a new party. That’s a big fuckin’ deal.”
FURTHER READING
EVERYBODY LOVES EVAN (PROFILE)
AN OCCUPY BOSTON ALUMNA GIVES PARTY POLITICS A TRY
MASS GUBERNATORIAL POT POLITICS
CANDIDATES DISCUSS THE FUTURE OF THE ARTS
A Queens, NY native who came to New England in 2004 to earn his MA in journalism at Boston University, Chris Faraone is the editor and co-publisher of DigBoston and a co-founder of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. He has published several books including 99 Nights with the 99 Percent, and has written liner notes for hip-hop gods including Cypress Hill, Pete Rock, Nas, and various members of the Wu-Tang Clan.
