John Connolly Had a Post-Election Twitter Tiff
Let this be a political axiom for the 21st century: In the hours after losing an important race, don’t check Twitter. Resist that temptation to see what your gleeful detractors are saying about you. And if you break that rule, let this one be ironclad: Whatever you see there, don’t respond.
Late into the night, mayoral runner-up John Connolly seemed to break both guidelines. Whoever was tweeting from his account (context suggests it was the candidate) was set off by a thread of tweets suggesting his family would quickly move out of Boston to somewhere more luxe (in keeping with opponents’ accusations that he’s an elitist.)
Simple and bold unifying step:name @JohnRConnolly headmaster of English High #bosmayor #bospoli
— RightWingWatch MA (@RWwatchMA) November 6, 2013
@RWwatchMA @johnrconnolly They’ll be out of that 2-family & back to Newton before sunrise… or perhaps the Cape for a fall visit
— Kate Fitzpatrick (@kfitzpatrick6) November 6, 2013
@kfitzpatrick6 lol, all good options.
— RightWingWatch MA (@RWwatchMA) November 6, 2013
That’s when Connolly jumped in:
@RWwatchMA @kfitzpatrick6 You are both classless. You should go celebrate, & stop the negativity.
— John Connolly (@JohnRConnolly) November 6, 2013
And then another Connolly detractor chimed in.
@JohnRConnolly @RWwatchMA @kfitzpatrick6 classless? Hey Connolly, this was your first Tweet since your concession speech? #SoreLoser
— Tim Sullivan ® (@The_Sull) November 6, 2013
Connolly decided to respond to him, too, revealing how he knows the guy:
@The_Sull here’s #2. You’re my sons hockey coach & you spend all your time beating me up on twitter. That makes you classless and pathetic.
— John Connolly (@JohnRConnolly) November 6, 2013
(A perusal of @The_Sull’s feed previous to election night shows he occasionally negatively mentioned Connolly, but not in a particularly trolly manner.)
@JohnRConnolly I’m your son’s hockey coach? U yanked him in week 2 after you realized ur kid’s coach supported @DanFConley. Obv ur pathetic
— Tim Sullivan ® (@The_Sull) November 6, 2013
@The_Sull you’re just making stuff up, don’t care who u supported, running 4 mayor 24/7, can’t make all games U r so angry & don’t know why.
— John Connolly (@JohnRConnolly) November 6, 2013
From there, others started chiming in, but that was, blissfully, all they got out of Connolly. Not that he isn’t free to engage in these kinds of conversations if he likes. But take it from those of us who live on the web. It’s just not the best therapy.
