As we near the end of a month that’s brought us numerous signs that the end is indeed nigh, we’ve been visited by a more subtle horseman of the apocalypse: A member of Massachusetts’ most enduring political dynasty appearing next to a misspelling of one of the state’s most iconic towns, in print.
Just a few days before the Massachusetts Senate primary that pits Joe Kennedy III—a lab-grown politician with a jaw that appears carved from Plymouth Rock—against the progressive incumbent Ed Markey, an ad appeared in the Sunday edition of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette promising the young ginger was “right for Massachusetts” and “right for Worchester.” This is, ultimately, very funny, but mostly to anyone who is both familiar with Worcester and knows how the town is spelled and pronounced.
Though the ad was placed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and vetted, one might imagine, by the good people who put together the paper itself, there’s been a real lack of accountability over the error. The IBEW told the Boston Herald it had received a letter of apology from the Telegram; the Telegram tells the Herald it is “not taking responsibility” for the typo.
Unfortunately for Kennedy, this is not the first time his campaign has appeared to misunderstand the fundamentals of Massachusetts geography. Last month, the campaign sent out an email blasting Markey for ignoring the towns of Dana, Enfield, and Prescott in the course of his political career. As Markey’s people were quick to point out, those towns were razed and flooded in the 1930s and now rest empty at the bottom of the Quabbin Reservoir.
Kennedy, who resembles nothing more than a private school kid who rats out his friends in a rambunctious caper about teenagers doing crime in Southie, remains well behind Ed Markey in nearly every poll. Perhaps things would have turned out better for the young Kennedy had he spent less time acquainting himself with the geography of the Cape.