I’m registered to vote in Belmont, the small suburb of Boston, and since I will be in New York on primary day, February 5, I requested an absentee ballot, which arrived today. On the left is a simple column with the usual suspects, where I get to select my “presidential preference.” McCain, Huckabee, Romney, no surprises here. On the right is the column for the town’s Republican committee. Firenze, Speller, Leone, Romney . . . wait a minute. Mitt Romney?
He’s running for town committee, too? Turns out the answer is yes. And not just Mitt. Ann, Taggart, and Jennifer Romney are all listed on the ballot as well. I can vote nearly half the Romney family into public office this primary season.
Actually, these seem to be party positions rather than public ones, though the ballot isn’t clear on this at all. Regardless, my vote could help make both my town’s Republican committee and my country run by Romneys!
Seriously, who is going to pose any competition for Mitt Romney in Belmont, Massachusetts? Do Walter A. and Marlene A. Flewelling of 120 Bright Road have the experience, financial clout, and hand-shaking capabilities of our former governor? Can Huckabee or McCain move in under the radar and say they live on Chilton Street? Never mind that for town committee you can vote for “not more than Thirty-Five” of the, um, thirty-five candidates on the ballot. Even if Romney doesn’t carry the day at the Republican National Convention, his backers can take comfort knowing that he stands a pretty good chance to win a seat on Belmont’s Town Committee. Unless, of course, Dorothy Boyle on Watson Road gets her smear campaign rolling in time.
