On the Road with Ed

Below is a post from one of our supporters who was traveling with Ed on August 13th, 2008 at the Powderhouse Square event in Somerville, MA. I hope you enjoy reading his post and reading about how people received Ed at the event!

Best Wishes,
Greg Agnew
greg@edoreilly.com

Dear Readers,

Yesterday I went with Ed to Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone’s Annual Senior Picnic at the beautiful park at Powderhouse Square in West Somerville.

Ed spent more than three hours meeting the 800-plus seniors who came out for the afternoon’s entertainment. As well as the guests, Ed met with Mayor Curtatone and many of the city’s Aldermen and School Committee members as well as many of the city’s activists.
The atmosphere was carnival-like as the seniors enjoyed music from George Landers, the city’s most famous DJ, the great Somerville Sunsetter’s Group, and a massive raffle with hundreds of prizes! Ed, along with other local politicians, donated gift cards for local businesses in the area. Sponsors also provided a picnic lunch for all attendees.

The reaction was fantastic. Many of the seniors had heard Ed’s interview on the Dan Rea show the night before and more than one even recognized Ed from his voice alone! The people Ed met were very responsive to his candidacy and hundreds promised him their votes. They seemed thrilled that Ed spent the time to meet with them and hear their concerns; many noted that they never see John Kerry around. Even more said that Kerry was out-of-touch and that they would be voting for Change this year.

Somerville seniors are a very active bunch – they are among the best voters come Election Day and I believe that Ed will do very well with them on September 16th. Somerville is Ed O’Reilly’s kind of town – working families and decent ordinary people. I expect that he will do very well here on Primary Day.

There is a highly-contested State Representative race in the western part of Somerville, and turnout in that area in particular will be very high. Many of the people Ed met invited him to visit their senior homes before the election and the campaign will be setting that up in the next few weeks.

Cindy Hickey, the tireless head of the Somerville Council on Aging – who organized the event – told me afterwards that she had never seen a candidate stay as long as Ed did. That is what Ed O’Reilly is all about of course – grassroots campaigning.

Sincerely,
Feargal O’Toole
Chair Ward 1 Somerville Democratic City Committee