McCrea's blog for Mayor blog!

Kevin McCrea is running for mayor, but he's already won the prize for Best Candidate Blog in Years in my heart. I doubt he stands much chance against Menino, or city councilors Yoon and Flaherty, but he's got easily the most entertaining candidate blog I've read in a while. I'm not going to go all meta, but many of my favorite blogs have been people talking about the oddities of a daily life very different from mine -- one of my favorite blogs of the past was an often sarcastic blog from a little-used NBA backup that went dark a couple years ago. McCrea does the same thing: it's not a campaign ad in blog form you're reading, but a true blog of a campaigner.

McCrea's writing does a great job of sharing an unusual experience: being a candidate for mayor. His electioneering is there to be sure, but the highlights are invariably his tales of going about the city and trying to find support. One funny thing about politics is that it doesn't take much time to recognize the same faces, be they supporters, hangers-on, or candidates. Like 'em or hate 'em, you get to know your rivals quickly, and well. McCrea's ruminations on Yoon, Menino, and Flaherty slyly reveal the combined familiarity and tension that exists between all rival candidates. For instance, take these passages from today's post, a paragraph apart:

I attended the Mayor’s budget presentation to the City Council...Mayor Menino said to me at 8:05: “Look, it’s five after eight and there isn’t a single City Councilor here."...The Mayor joked to me that they used to serve full breakfast but that was axed due to budget cuts.

The Mayor started the presentation right off by either showing he doesn’t know what he is talking about, or is just not being truthful.

One second we're yukking it up, next one we're calling him out. On another candidate:

"I attended the City Council hearing on Oversight widely publicized by Sam Yoon with campaign funds tonight. The meeting was slated to start at 6:00 but Sam didn't take the microphone until 6:43, nothing like making the public wait."

While it would be nice to see some of the heroic stuff moved to his site so that the blog would become still more entertaining, I'm enjoying this read. Who knows, I could get to like the idea of this guy having a big role in Boston. For example:

I did an interview with a magazine which had a premise that 'Do you think all these new candidates are getting into the field because of the recent corruption in Massachusetts?". I asked the reporter, "What new candidates?"

He's got a point.