Keller @ Large: Youth Movement
BROCKTON (CBS) - Who in their right mind would run for office in this era of political dirt and dysfunction and voter apathy?
We met two men in Brockton tonight - from different ends of a very wide generation gap - who still care enough to put themselves out there and try to make a difference.
Welcome to the red-hot race for Ward Six Councillor in Brockton, where 18-year-old Jack Lally is taking on veteran local political activist Steve Foote for an open seat.
Why would a college freshman want to spend his free time stumping for votes in bars where he can't drink? To try to fix what he sees as broken.
"I said, you know what? If I don't get off my butt, if I don't go try to make a difference, I'm gonna go crazy just sitting here," explains Lally.
It's a motivation strikingly similar to Foote's.
"You can sit around and complain about things or you can get off your butt and try to fit in and do something," he says.
In a generally polite campaign following Lally's first-place finish in the preliminary election, Foote has tried to make hay off the age gap.
"We're talking about the real thing here now and I think experience means a lot," he says.
But Lally is ready with a snappy rebuttal: "Neither of us have served on the council before, so we're at the same level of experience."
Both candidates cited the possible closure of the ward's lone fire station as a key issue. But whatever differences they have are trumped (no pun intended) by their good-natured altruism. The two campaigns will hold their election-night parties in the same place, Tin Ray's Family Restaurant; Foote had booked it first but invited the Lally campaign to join him when he learned they were eyeing the popular spot. Foote says of Lally: "It's been a pleasure to run against him."
And if age does triumph over youth on Election Day, Lally will hardly be deterred.
"I'm 18, I can walk it off," he says with a smile. "I'll be back in two years."