If only press releases could vote...
He does not have a federal campaign account, he has never held elected office, and not one person has joined his "YouTube video campaign" channel.
But in the Fifth Congressional District, you have to give Independent candidate Kurt Hayes credit for creativity, a heavy dose of optimism, and a press release frequency that rivals the major-party candidates, Democrat Niki Tsongas and Republican Jim Ogonowski.
Hayes is a Boxborough businessman who, after growing tired of a partisan Congress, announced his candidacy at Fifer's Day in his home town. He gathered signatures at train stations and municipal dumps. Conventional wisdom says he'll have a tough time entering the field's top tier, but he'll do his best to try and convince you otherwise.
Consider:
* When a WBZ-TV poll showed him with 2 percent, he sent out a titled, "Tsongas and Ogonowski have peaked too soon." "This is not false bravado or delusional thinking," he said in the release.
* Three days later, he put out saying he was leading in a poll of unenrolled voters. The hitch? The poll was done by his campaign, and only included 200 people. "I understand this shift is hard for the media and everyone else to grasp," Hayes said in the release. "It has been 'Republican versus Democrat' for so long, they just don’t know how to cover this."
* On Sept. 6, Republican candidate Jim Ogonowski challenged his chief opponent, Democrat Niki Tsongas, to three debates. Four hours later, Hayes sent out a press release, "Hayes accepts Ogonowski's invitation to participate in debates."
* He also titled recent press release, "Marty Meehan endorses Kurt Hayes for Congress?" because Meehan made statements on TV that Hayes has made before, too.
