Today's election in Massachusetts is not exactly the smokin' contest to watch. Midterms in my fair state generally end up producing breast-beating reports from the local media about low turnout and voter apathy.

Even the Scott Brown-Martha Coakley debacle this past January—and, boy, did that generate a "wicked horrified" reaction on the part of local Dems and progressives—can't push us to the polls this time around. 

Part of the problem in Massachusetts, of course, is that it's traditionally been wrapped up by the Democrats. In the People's Republic of Cambridge, where I live, elections that don't involve governors or presidents generally come down to a contest between stock types: Long Gray Ponytail vs. Union Organizer vs. married Gay/Lesbian Local Businessperson.

I'm being facetious, obviously, because I'm a progressive, and I like many of these people, and on the neighborhood/community level the political differences among them do matter—and I'm thrilled that I get a variety of appealing candidates to choose from rather than a few hold-the-nose choices. (Note: I used to live in California.)

However, none of that was going to get me to the polls today. When we started receiving swaths of junk mail for the primary weeks ago, I made an almost instantaneous decision to forget it. The ballot includes match-ups for such scintillating posts as treasurer, auditor, and state senator.

These are all worthy roles in state government, and I should care. But the only thing that has motivated me to vote today is a phone call I received from Tim Flaherty's mother.

Now, I like Tim Flaherty's politics. I like his firm opposition to the Arizona immigration statute, for example, which he claims contrasts sharply with his opponent in the state Senate primary, Sal DiDomenico. Flaherty is a progressive, but this is a primary, and DiDomenico is also a Democrat.*

I needed more to walk the two blocks to my local polling place, and the extra shove came from Flaherty's mother. Her recent call was not a robocall. This was his mother, live, asking me if I had any questions about her son's political positions—and expressing her undying love and support for him.

If my son were ever to run for state Senate (or auditor), I'd probably make phone calls for him, too. Yet no matter how much I love him, I will not support my guy publicly if he ever ends up a George Bush wannabe (or even a Scott Brown or Sal DiDomenico wannabe).

So I'm going to the polls. I'm using one of those cognitive shortcuts for voting that political scientists talk about, often with veiled contempt. But I believed Tim Flaherty's mom; I think it was really her on the other end of the line, not an impersonator, and her support means far more to me than the fifteen-plus robocolls from an array of candidates on my answering machine yesterday. (As I'm typing at this moment, another just came in from the Flaherty campaign.)

None of the droning, mechanical voices I routinely screen got me doing a bit of election research or writing this post before I vote. Only a real human being who cared managed that.

We citizens should all be voting in every election. I admit to feeling a little guilty about needing a shove for this one. But the possible small triumph of organizing from the ground up—knocking on doors, getting bedrock supporters like your mother to make phone calls for you—rather than constantly massaging sound bites and raising big bucks from vested interests...son, I call that wicked good.

* How-the-mighty-have-fallen background: Sen. Sal DiDomenico is the incumbent. Last spring, he won a special election for Anthony Galluccio's state Senate seat. Galluccio, a former mayor of Cambridge, had violated his parole by failing an alcohol breath test and went to prison. (He had been arrested and charged the year before after a hit-and-run accident. Yep.)

This April, Flaherty almost won the special election for Galluccio's seat. Here's how one community news site, Wicked Local Saugus, puts it: "Flaherty lost by a small margin in the election but took Cambridge with 46 percent (1,347 ballots) of the vote to DiDomenico’s 6 percent (173 votes)."

Wicked small can make a difference—so go vote!