The family that votes together, even if on opposite sides of an issue, stays together?

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Father and Son Declare a Political Truce, for 60 Seconds
By Jess Bidgood, September 17, 2013

Carl M. Sciortino Jr., a Massachusetts state representative who is running in a special Democratic primary for the Fifth Congressional District seat, released a jovial television advertisement on Tuesday featuring a sitcom-like exchange between the candidate and his father, Carl M. Sciortino Sr., who is a Tea Party Republican.

“I’ll never forget that conversation with my dad,” the younger Mr. Sciortino, who is gay, says in the ad as he sits in a light-filled living room, “where I had to come out and tell him … ”

“Wait for this,” interrupts his father, seated in a comfortable armchair in a different, darker living room.

“… That I was a Massachusetts liberal,” the candidate says.

The eye-catching commercial is drawing new attention to Mr. Sciortino, 35, of Medford, who is one of seven Democrats running for the seat in an election that is part of a chain of events set off when John Kerry became secretary of state. (The Fifth District seat had been held for 37 years by Ed Markey, who was elected to replace Mr. Kerry in the Senate in June.)

Mr. Sciortino’s campaign manager, Matt Larson, said the campaign planned to spend “hundreds of thousands of dollars” airing the minute-long spot until the primary on Oct. 15.

The banter between father and son emphasizes Mr. Sciortino’s liberal credentials. He has worked to present himself as more progressive than the other Democrats in the race.

“He wrote the buffer zone law!” his father says in the ad, referring to a Massachusetts measure that restricts protesters from demonstrating within 35 feet of abortion clinic entrances and exits. “That’s gone all the way to the Supreme Court; I was kind of proud of that,” he adds sheepishly.

The elder Mr. Sciortino, who raised his son as a single father, is 73 and, according to election records, voted in Republican primaries in 2013, 2012 and 2010.

“He wants to go to Congress to take on the N.R.A. And the Tea Party!” he says.

His son continues, “I won’t give up on the assault weapons ban.”

“Or,” his father adds with exasperation, “universal background checks, or banning high-capacity magazines.”

Only one other candidate has released an ad: Katherine Clark, a state senator. Her 30-second commercial features her mother.
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