With the Super Tuesday results coming in after deadline, this column sums up a part of the political activity leading to the Massachusetts primary vote.

The battle for Massachusetts Democratic delegates in the Super Tuesday escalated over the weekend with a rally attended by 4,750 people for Sen. Bernie Sanders on Feb. 28, followed by door-to-door canvassing efforts on Saturday and Sunday by representatives for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as well as former South Bend, IN, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Buttigieg surprised many by announcing on March 1 that he was suspending his campaign.

The Sanders rally last week marked a second time the candidate had appeared in Springfield. He conducted a well-attended rally in the arena of the MassMutual Center four years ago.

This time the event was conducted in the first floor exhibit hall as the Thunderbirds were playing in the arena. The two events created traffic snarls around parking areas downtown as well as requiring two long lines of people – one for the rally and one for the game.

When asked about any public safety concerns prior to the two events, William Baker, the director of Communications for Mayor Domenic Sarno told Reminder Publishing, “We had no concerns about the two events happening around the same time and place. We have hosted numerous events where we’ve had thousands of people coming into our downtown (Red Sox Winter Weekend, Enshrinement, etc.). Our police department and Springfield Parking Authority have a very good game plan in place.  Besides the increase vehicle and pedestrian traffic, which is a good problem to have for our downtown and local businesses, we just asked that everyone remained patient and try to get down there as early as possible.”

As far as the cost of the rally for police protection, Ryan Walsh, the spokesperson for the Springfield Police Department told Reminder Publishing, “The additional police details will be billed to the MassMutual Center.  The cost was around $1,800.  Whether or not they, in turn, bill the campaign I wouldn’t know.  There were some resources redeployed to the Metro area to deal with the crowds and traffic, there may have been some limited cost in terms of overtime, but those are not any figures I would have by today.  The head of the MassMutual Center called the Commissioner and thanked her, the event went smoothly and was incident free, as have been all of our major events downtown since MGM Springfield opened. The Metro Unit does a really nice job with these events.”

What interested this reporter was the fact that Sanders and his team elected not to have a single supporter from Springfield or Hampden County as part of the introduction team who extolled the senator before he appeared.

Northampton State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, who is the co-chair of the Sanders’ state campaign, made the final introduction. She said Sanders and his platform represented something she believes in: “big, bold structural change.”

Sanders was not only on time but appeared energetic after flying to Massachusetts from South Carolina. According to polls last week he was in a dead heat with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren for the front-runner position in the Commonwealth.

Sanders lost no time attacking Trump, which was his only target.

“The American people are sick and tired of a government that works for the rich and nobody else,” he declared.

Sanders delivered a standard stump speech over almost an hour. He spoke about Medicare for all, free college education, climate change and raising the minimum wage. Each of his talking points was met with cheers and chants.

At one point, Sanders said, “We’re having fun tonight.”

Sanders made a point of saying he was building a multi-generational, multi-racial movement. The irony was the crowd was overwhelmingly white.

At no time did Sanders reference any issue facing Springfield or Massachusetts as a whole. If you had been blindfolded and dropped into the rally, there would have been no way to determine where you were.

This lack of any attempt to localize his remarks surprised me and other local reporters.

Sanders said he would sign an executive order on his first day as president to legalize cannabis, but he never mentioned how Massachusetts has already done so and is starting to reap tax benefits from it.

Members of the press theorized why Sanders made a last-minute effort to come to Western Massachusetts. Was it simply to say that winning the state’s delegates should not be considered a given for Sen. Elizabeth Warren?

For people attending the rally they may have been witnessing a little bit of history.

They’re acting like babies

I’ve not been watching the Democratic debates as they often conflict with work, rest or cigar-smoking.

I turn to the Internet though to read accounts or to see greatest hits videos.

I did see some of the recent CBS Democratic debate and I came away with one thought: the majority of these folks are acting like seventh graders.

I’ve had, through FOCUS Springfield, the opportunity to moderate several political debates and with few exceptions the local candidates have been polite to one another and have followed the rules.

If either myself or the person operating the timer said it’s time to be quiet they generally accept that.

I deeply appreciate that good behavior from local candidates and I genuinely felt badly for the team of CBS journalists who were attempting to moderate the most recent Democratic debate.

This is the 10th such debate and the candidates are showing an increasing urgency in getting out their message. There almost seems to be a level of panic.

They spoke over each other, yelled over each other and took other candidate’s time.

It didn’t look good at all.

If I had been the producer of that debate I would have gathered all of the candidates in the green room prior to broadcast and read them the riot act: obey the timer or get your mic turned off. Keep it up and be ejected from the debate.

At the very least the moderators should have all had air horns.

This isn’t professional wrestling, folks. This is about providing information so voters can make decisions based on fact.

Why I don’t do endorsements

With a very active political scene and, of course, the presidential race going on, there are people who ask me for an endorsement. Generally, these are people who’ve not read this column over the years.

I don’t make endorsements for candidates or ballot questions. I believe my role is to provide information about people and issues so voters can make a decision on their own.

There are issues I support and I make no bones about it in this column. High speed rail is an example. If it were on a ballot as a question, I would not be writing about it as part of an editorial.

I’m not being noble and I’m not criticizing those media outlets that do make endorsements. It’s just how I define my role.  

Candidates, please send us your press releases and let us write stories.