Joe Kennedy for Senate or Jeff Johnson for Congress?

Today's the day. The good people of Massachusetts are heading to the polls to send a new Senator to Washington. Most pollsters and analysts are calling the race a toss-up, while others see Republican candidate, Scott Brown, with a slight advantage over Demorcat, Martha Coakley. The one person many people aren't talking about is Libertarian Joe Kennedy. No, he's not this Joe Kennedy. In fact, he's not even related to the Kennedy family, but having the same last name as the guy who's seat you're trying to fill sounds like something right out of a movie. Oh wait, there was a movie about that...

In "The Distinguished Gentleman," Eddie Murphy plays Thomas Jefferson Johnson, a conman looking for the next big opportunity. He finds it in a Congressional race where the incumbent, Jeff Johnson, has died. He shortens his name and gets himself on the ballot with the slogan, "Jeff Johnson, the name you know."

That was the thinking behind the latest round of robocalls in Massachusetts. From Talking Points Memo:

Boston reader A.F., a registered Democrat, received a recorded call recently from Right March PAC, a right-wing PAC led by Dr. William Greene, a conservative activist.

In the call, Greene urges listeners to vote tomorrow for Joe Kennedy, a conservative third-party candidate with no realistic shot at winning, who has been endorsed by Right March.

Kennedy is no relation to Ted Kennedy, whose death last year created the vacancy that tomorrow's election exists to fill. But the robocall's script -- which affirms that "Joe Kennedy is the name you can trust" -- suggests it may be designed to use the coincidence of names to confuse low-information voters into thinking that Joe Kennedy is the candidate backed by the famed Kennedy clan.

Surely, this gimmick will work on some folks who don't realize Joe Kennedy is not a relative of the Kennedy's, but how much could this sway the vote? Who knows...