Yesterday was voting day for the primaries in Massachusetts. So Democrats Bill Clinton and staunch Clinton supporter Mayor Jon Mitchell felt it was a perfect time for the former President of the United States to stand in front of a New Bedford polling station with limited parking and access. This event actually took upwards of two and a half hours although I heard some absurdly claim that it was only for 10 minutes! The voting hours were as usual, 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. Police tape went up around 11:30 a.m. and remained up after 2 p.m. so the Police tape keeping the public back was up for more than 20% of the voting hours. In a city that struggles to get 15% of their voters to a primary, one would question the wisdom just based on that alone but this was far bigger an issue.

I was there yesterday and I saw much. While the Clinton appearance, promoted equally by the City of New Bedford and the Campaign to Elect Hillary, was announced for 12:05 p.m., I knew better to show up on time. C'mon, Clinton is a typical liberal politician. He was last here in the Fall of 2002 when he was supporting the Democrat candidate for Governor, Shannon O’Brien, which did her no good in the end.

Bill knew the adoring suckers...err liberal fans of his were out in the cold November damp afternoon waiting and took his time over a 5 course lunch with MA senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry at Freestone’s restaurant just a half block away yucking it up. Two and a half hours later he popped on stage. Like yesterday, never once considering the people taking their lunch hours in vain, suffering the cold and having to stand around with arthritis or other debilitating conditions.

Anyway. Here is what transpired yesterday;

I saw Bernie Sanders supporters kept farther back than Clinton supporters and they were ordered to retreat back toward the legal radius; 150'. That is as close as one can get to a poll station while campaigning on election days. I would venture to say that, even though they had equal right to support Bernie, the authorities there made them feel unwelcome.

I saw and heard Mayor Mitchell electioneering specifically for Hillary well within the illegal radius found in very well understood law:

Imagine a taxpaying elderly resident taking his or her only window of time to vote at the Buttonwood Park Warming House polling station only to face the taped off area, all parking taken and a mob of police, Secret Service, fans and media which blocked the entrance to the driveway and again at the building. No, this was a travesty of proper use of power. Laws were broken and there was unequal treatment of citizens, depending on who one supported.

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I walked with an older couple from the Rite-Aid parking lot on Route 6 and walked to the venue, they were going to vote. I don't know if they ever made it. They did what I needed to do to find parking. They bought something inside the pharmacy so they could use the lot for parking. Police were ticketing virtually everything they could in between. I leaned out of my window and told a cop writing out a violation at Oneida and Lake Streets, "The city is going to make a killing today." He responded, "I hope so."

How much did the City of New Bedford spend to police and secure the area that the ex-president wasn’t even allowed to be around once he campaigned for his wife, which was instantly?

How many city workers were given the Okay to stop doing the people’s work and fill the parking lot to show a successful event run by the city?

An official off the record told me that the city bussed people to the event. If true, how much did that cost and was the city reimbursed by the Clinton campaign, secondly, is that even permissible? I doubt it.

 

Within 150 feet of a polling place...no person shall solicit votes for or against, or otherwise promote or oppose, any person or political party or position on a ballot question, to be voted on at the current election. No campaign material intended to influence the vote of a voter in the ongoing election, including campaign literature, buttons, signs, and ballot stickers, may be posted, exhibited, circulated, or distributed in the polling place, in the building where it is located, on the building walls, on the premises where the building stands, or within 150 feet of an entrance door to the building. ( 950 CMR 53.03(18); 54.04.22))

In the small sample we were allowed to see up close and personal in Bill Clinton's life, we were reminded that this Democrat Monarchy scoffs at rules and laws and they do whatever they damn well please. Violent sexual assaults, campaign finance abuse, extortion, treasonous practice of corresponding Top-Secret emails and blatant violation of basic election laws.

Who could blame them? With minions of many levels throwing rose petals at their every step, they must have the understanding that they are above the law.

I like Jon Mitchell. I think he is basically a good guy with a good moral compass but I think there was something awfully unfair about his use of office on March 1, 2016.

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