With the primary election just two weeks away, I’m more attuned to efforts by the candidates in the final stretch. Nothing arrived in today’s mail but late last week I received pieces from each candidate in the First Middlesex Senate race. Chris Doherty’s was a postcard thanking me for signing his nomination papers and asking for my vote. On the reverse side he repeats his “A Prosecutor, Not a Politician” theme. Eileen Donoghue sent a larger piece that promotes her experience in local government: In times like these, we can’t afford to waste any time. We need a Senator who knows how to get results – and that’s just what Eileen Donoghue did as Mayor of Lowell.

Last night I wrote about my experience at yesterday’s Billerica Democratic Town Committee cookout but I neglected to mention lawn sign sitings that I made. The race to fill the state representative seat being vacated by Bill Greene has the most attention in town. There are two candidates on the Democratic side: Kevin Conway and Jarrett Scarpaci; and two on the Republican side: Marc Lombardo and Brion Cangiamila. Former selectman Jim O’Donnell is running as an Independent. Along route 3A coming from Lowell, Lombardo had the most signs by far (and many of his locations also contained “Golnik for Congress” signs alongside). Conway had the second most followed by Scarpaci. Of course, signs don’t vote, etc.

Today I had a work-related meeting in Boston and I chose to driver rather than take the train. (The traffic was very light – my driveway to the Boston Garden parking garage in just 45 minutes). Zipping down Route 3, I caught a “Jon Golnik for Congress” spot on WCAP. Closer to Boston there was a (Republican) Mary Connaughton for State Auditor ad on either WBZ or WRKO. Coming out of the city there was a (Democrat) Guy Glodis for auditor commercial.

Eventually I tuned in to WRKO which I do sparingly because it’s “bash Deval Patrick and Barack Obama 24/7 radio” but today curiosity got the better of me. I was treated to a hour-long infomercial on the Jim McKenna for Attorney General campaign on the Charlie Manning show. Neither McKenna nor anyone else apparently cared enough about running to have obtained the nominations signatures required to get on the ballot so now he’s running for the nomination on stickers. He needs at least as many write-in votes as he did nomination signatures which is 10,000. What struck me wasn’t anything McKenna said or did but Manning’s unabashed advocacy of McKenna’s candidacy was really astounding. Over and over again he urged listeners to “get rid of Martha Coakley” by supporting this guy. I knew radio talk show hosts spare nothing to rip apart Democratic officeholders but I hadn’t realized they had become such overt supporters of Republican Party candidates. The main reason I kept listening was that I found the commercials to be so amusing: everyone of them was for some medical malady that afflicts aging white males or for ways to beat your creditors out of the money you owe them.