Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Sometimes name recognition isn\u2019t all it\u2019s cracked up to be.<\/p>\n
Just ask Geoffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n
Epstein, who\u2019s running for mayor in Framingham, Massachusetts, is \u2014 obviously \u2014 a different one from the disgraced late New York financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is back in the headlines as Republicans wrestle with each other over the release of documents related to his trafficking of underage girls.<\/p>\n
But the shared name does draw some comments from people online pleading with him to \u201cshow us the list,\u201d Geoffrey Epstein said. Take one Redditor<\/a>, who recently posted a photo of an Epstein for Mayor mailer under the header, \u201cIs this guy for real?\u201d Other commenters, familiar with the former Framingham School Committee member, offered support: \u201cHe\u2019s got good ideas about the city\u2019s finances,\u201d wrote one.<\/p>\n The Framingham mayoral hopeful \u2014 who goes by Geoff \u2014 says it\u2019s not much of an issue among locals, who know him from his work with public schools.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one locally cares about that at all,\u201d said Epstein, a former theoretical physics professor who moved to the U.S. from Australia decades ago. Among the abundance of differences between the two: \u201cHe’s a dead American, and I’m an alive Australian,\u201d Epstein said.<\/p>\n Epstein, who served on the school committees in both Newton and Framingham, both major Boston suburbs, got in the race to tackle problems he sees the city facing. His campaign, he said, is focused on education, infrastructure and environmental action, and he has no shortage of solutions<\/a> he\u2019s pitching \u2014 from expanding solar installations on school roofs and in school parking lots, to shifting more of the city\u2019s budget toward education.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll face a demanding fight against incumbent Mayor Charlie Sisitsky, who had more than $61,000 in his campaign coffers as of last month, compared to Epstein\u2019s roughly $5,000.<\/p>\n Luckily for Epstein, a tough name doesn\u2019t necessarily tank a campaign. Look at Harvey Epstein, the New York state assemblymember, whose name unfortunately evokes two of New York\u2019s \u201cmost notorious sex perverts,\u201d as comedian John Mulaney put it in a spoof campaign ad<\/a> on \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d<\/p>\n That Epstein recently won the Democratic primary for a New York City Council seat, spoiling the attempted political comeback of former Rep. Anthony Weiner\u2014 yet another notorious sexual miscreant \u2014 in the process.<\/p>\n Harvey\u2019s tip: \u201cMy advice to Geoffrey would be to lead with your values and who you are as a candidate,\u201d the New York Epstein said over the phone. \u201cPeople will support you if you do the work and follow through.\u201d<\/p>\n This reporting first appeared in Massachusetts Playbook.\u00a0Sign up<\/a>\u00a0to receive it in your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n