In blogosphere, Democrats provide a first
4 candidates for lieutenant governor gather to debate, make their case to state's voters online
(Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story about the lieutenant governor's debate in yesterday's City & Region section misstated the surname of the mayor of Lowell. He is William F. Martin Jr.)
LOWELL -- At the bloggers' table, everyone was in fine spirits. So what if the four Democrats running for lieutenant governor were running late to yesterday's debate? It gave the bloggers more time to exchange witty commentary, more time to work in an allusion to Samuel Becket, even.
''No Godot," blogged Mike Ball of Marry in Massachusetts, referring to the character who famously never showed.
This was a momentous occasion in Massachusetts political history: For the first time, political bloggers got some statewide candidates into a room to answer their questions. Many of the bloggers met one another for the first time yesterday, so they were happy to gab around a rectangular wooden table in a designated ''bloggers' area," just upstairs from the television studio at Lowell Telecommunications Corporation.
At the forum, the candidates -- Deborah Goldberg, Sam Kelley, Timothy Murray, and Andrea Silbert -- emphasized the differences in their resumes more than their disagreements over policy. On the few occasions that they went on the attack, the target was always a safe one: the Republican administration of Governor Mitt Romney and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.
A couple of dozen local Democrats provided a live studio audience; some of them couldn't help ducking upstairs to check out the bloggers before the show got going. Mayor William F. Franklin of Lowell said hello.
''I read everything you write," announced Craig Caldwell, the husband of lieutenant governor candidate Silbert.
A pair of lawmakers wandered in. ''I read you, but I've got to learn how to respond," one said.
One of the two questioners at the forum was David Kravitz, co-creator of Blue Mass. Group (www.bluemassgroup.com), perhaps the largest and best-known of the Massachusetts left-leaning blog community. Last week, he took suggestions for questions from his site's visitors.
And yesterday, the other bloggers directed their readers to Blue Mass. Group, where they offered a running report and commentary on the debate as it unfolded. Anyone who wanted to catch the debate over cyberspace could watch it live on the LTC website. (The Globe also filed posts to the newspaper's Political Intelligence blog, at www.boston.com/politics).
And at last, the debate got going.
As the bloggers hunched over their keyboards, typing furiously, the candidates in the other room made their pitches.
Silbert said she would focus on job growth and ending hunger and poverty, building upon her experience as a founder and former CEO of Center for Women & Enterprise, a nonprofit she started to provide jobs and training for women.
Murray, the mayor of Worcester, said that his tenure in office had prepared him to work with cities and towns across Massachusetts. He said that strategic investments on improvements to the commuter rail could make communities outside Boston more affordable, which would encourage companies to move to Massachusetts.
Goldberg, whose family started Stop & Shop supermarkets, said she would combine her experience working for her family's business with her six years on the Board of Selectmen in Brookline to improve schools and provide more aid to cities and towns.
Kelley, a child psychiatrist who has served as medical director for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, called for single-payer universal healthcare and said that the state should cut health costs by buying prescription drugs from Canada.
Murray had the sharpest criticism of Healey, faulting her for failing to find funding for infrastructure improvements that could have prevented some of the damage of the recent floods.
The bloggers seemed to have a great time. When Kravitz asked the candidates what they would do to expand wireless Internet service, the video of the debate suddenly disappeared from the television screen they were watching, and appeared on someone's desktop screen. They burst into laughter.
The desktop's wallpaper? A picture of Stonehenge.
Lisa Wangsness can be reached at lwangsness@globe.com. 