It was not to be that the citizens of Massachusetts would turn over the DEMS.....I can say that I am truly disappointed in the electorate....
Tim Cahill cost Charlie Baker a chance at being Governor. There's no other way to put it.
The Alcohol tax was repealed but the sales tax lives on....
What will it take to get the people of Massachusetts to understand that the POLS up on Beacon Hill think that the taxes we pay are their own personal piggy bank??
I hope that the National swing to the right will be enough to make sure that some sanity is interjected into the fight to bring Government back to the middle....
Like I had said before, the new POLS we would elect can't be any worse than those who are in there now....
Tim Cahill cost Charlie Baker a chance at being Governor. There's no other way to put it.
The Alcohol tax was repealed but the sales tax lives on....
What will it take to get the people of Massachusetts to understand that the POLS up on Beacon Hill think that the taxes we pay are their own personal piggy bank??
I hope that the National swing to the right will be enough to make sure that some sanity is interjected into the fight to bring Government back to the middle....
Like I had said before, the new POLS we would elect can't be any worse than those who are in there now....
The image above is centered left for the specific purpose of showing we stay left here when common sense would tell most to GO RIGHT.....
Republicans’ revolution fades in Massachusetts
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff November 3, 2010 - Boston Globe
So much for the Scott Brown revolution, at least in his home state.
He was a national inspiration and a local hero — an against-the-odds winner from Wrentham — who inspired Republicans up and down the ticket to challenge the state’s powerful Democratic establishment. He campaigned throughout the state last weekend, telling sign-holding Republicans at rallies that he was getting “flashbacks’’ to his own improbable US Senate victory.
Yet 10 months after that seismic result, Massachusetts turned decidedly blue again. All statewide elected offices, including a closely fought governor’s race, and the entire 10-member US House delegation remained in Democratic hands, despite a national tide that left Republicans celebrating large gains last night.
“I don’t know how they view this as anything but a total disaster,’’ said Peter Ubertaccio, a political science professor at Stonehill College in Easton. “I just don’t know what a political party does if all indicators across the nation, across the state, all point to a Republican year and they can’t win any races of note.’’
To make a significant statement that Massachusetts has become a true two-party state, the GOP would have had to claim the governor’s office, at least one US House seat, perhaps a constitutional office or two, and at least a dozen new seats in the state Legislature.
The party didn’t come close.
Democratic Governor Deval Patrick, despite a poor economy, dispatched a GOP candidate, Charles D. Baker, whose arrival in the race last year had been heralded as a coup for the party. Baker had been the darling of Beacon Hill when he served as the sharp aide for two Republican governors in the 1990s and then went on to private sector success running Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
The Republicans’ top nemesis in Congress, US Representative Barney Frank, won easily. And, in the race for the state’s only open US House seat, Democrat William R. Keating bested Republican Jeffrey D. Perry in a district that Brown had won by 20 percent.
The party’s only major victory came in the state Legislature, where Republicans appeared to have increased their membership to 34. They currently hold 20 of the 200 House and Senate seats.
“It will continue to be a blue state until Republicans are able to make a case for the kind of changes that they campaigned on,’’ said Dennis Hale, a Boston College political scientist. “They didn’t make the sell.’’
By just fielding several credible candidates and forcing Democratic incumbents to campaign harder than usual, Republicans tried to claim a modicum of progress for the long-dormant party.
“Changing the color of Massachusetts to purple won’t happen overnight,’’ state chairman Jennifer Nassour said in a statement, emphasizing the legislative victories. “The important fact is that entrenched incumbents, who often fly beneath the radar, had to stand up to public scrutiny this election cycle.’’
But Massachusetts Democrats, with most power preserved, may now feel a renewed sense of invincibility after withstanding the Republicans’ best shot, even as the Democratic Party felt sweeping losses elsewhere in the nation.
“The campaigns run by most Republicans were beneath the dignity of a democracy, and I am delighted they were repudiated,’’ Frank said in his victory speech, sounding a defiant note after a race that forced him to campaign harder than he had in years. But Frank, and the rest of the delegation, will nonetheless lose significant clout in Washington, where Republicans gained control of the US House.
Since Brown’s upset victory over Attorney General Martha Coakley, Republicans have been dreaming big. Maybe, just maybe, Massachusetts would begin feeling like a two-party state.
National factors — a weak economy, an unpopular Democratic leadership — combined with local factors — a series of scandals on Beacon Hill and one of the largest pools of Republican candidates in decades — gave a renewed sense that the party could regain relevance.
Baker’s entry into the race last year energized many in the party. The momentum continued when US Representative William Delahunt decided to retire, leaving an open seat in a congressional district where Brown won big; and even the unexpected turned Republicans’ way when US Representative John Tierney’s wife pleaded guilty to federal tax charges.
Conservative talk radio was abuzz last week at the prospect of reshaping Massachusetts politics, continuing to remake the state that had long been associated with the Kennedy family. Yet there was also a strong sense of anxiety. What if the party fails, despite all the favorable conditions? Would treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, an independent running for governor, siphon just enough votes from Baker to preserve the slim lead Patrick held in public opinion polls?
And there were other signs that years of exile had left the GOP with a weak bench of candidates, and thus, unable to take advantage of all the opportunities. Coakley, for example, despite showing political weakness on a national stage, would have gone unopposed in the general election, if not for a last-minute write-in effort from James McKenna, a first-time candidate who qualified in the primary.
Likewise, when Tierney faced the unexpected guilty plea of his wife, Republicans had already locked in a candidate, Bill Hudak, who was best known for putting a sign on his lawn comparing President Obama with Osama bin Laden.
“They missed an opportunity to nominate someone who could have benefited from that late breaking news about Tierney and his family,’’ Ubertaccio said.
And as much as the Brown victory motivated Republicans, it also inspired some Democratic activists. Sydney Asbury, Patrick’s chief of staff, said recently that when she woke up after Coakley lost, she was determined never to feel that way again. The feeling was not just that the party had lost, but that it had not given its all, like an overconfident basketball team that rests its starting players before the final buzzer sounds, only to realize the other team never gave up.
Despite the national mood that seems to favor Republicans, the state party has tried to keep its public expectations more modest, noting that the party has been steadily losing seats in the State House for most of the last two decades.
“The revolution is occurring if the pendulum starts going in the other direction,’’ said Brad Jones, the House Republican leader.
Jones said he would be “thrilled’’ to increase its count to 17 or 20 House seats, a gain of no more than five, and that 30 seats in the 160-member chamber would constitute a “huge wave.’’
Before the results were known last night, Nassour said a defeat would require serious consideration. “We have to figure out what we did wrong,’’ she said. “Maybe we took for granted some feelings of the electorate and we just have to work harder and produce better candidates and work on our field organization and our farm team.’’
Michael Levenson of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.
Republicans’ revolution fades in Massachusetts
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff November 3, 2010 - Boston Globe
So much for the Scott Brown revolution, at least in his home state.
He was a national inspiration and a local hero — an against-the-odds winner from Wrentham — who inspired Republicans up and down the ticket to challenge the state’s powerful Democratic establishment. He campaigned throughout the state last weekend, telling sign-holding Republicans at rallies that he was getting “flashbacks’’ to his own improbable US Senate victory.
Yet 10 months after that seismic result, Massachusetts turned decidedly blue again. All statewide elected offices, including a closely fought governor’s race, and the entire 10-member US House delegation remained in Democratic hands, despite a national tide that left Republicans celebrating large gains last night.
“I don’t know how they view this as anything but a total disaster,’’ said Peter Ubertaccio, a political science professor at Stonehill College in Easton. “I just don’t know what a political party does if all indicators across the nation, across the state, all point to a Republican year and they can’t win any races of note.’’
To make a significant statement that Massachusetts has become a true two-party state, the GOP would have had to claim the governor’s office, at least one US House seat, perhaps a constitutional office or two, and at least a dozen new seats in the state Legislature.
The party didn’t come close.
Democratic Governor Deval Patrick, despite a poor economy, dispatched a GOP candidate, Charles D. Baker, whose arrival in the race last year had been heralded as a coup for the party. Baker had been the darling of Beacon Hill when he served as the sharp aide for two Republican governors in the 1990s and then went on to private sector success running Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
The Republicans’ top nemesis in Congress, US Representative Barney Frank, won easily. And, in the race for the state’s only open US House seat, Democrat William R. Keating bested Republican Jeffrey D. Perry in a district that Brown had won by 20 percent.
The party’s only major victory came in the state Legislature, where Republicans appeared to have increased their membership to 34. They currently hold 20 of the 200 House and Senate seats.
“It will continue to be a blue state until Republicans are able to make a case for the kind of changes that they campaigned on,’’ said Dennis Hale, a Boston College political scientist. “They didn’t make the sell.’’
By just fielding several credible candidates and forcing Democratic incumbents to campaign harder than usual, Republicans tried to claim a modicum of progress for the long-dormant party.
“Changing the color of Massachusetts to purple won’t happen overnight,’’ state chairman Jennifer Nassour said in a statement, emphasizing the legislative victories. “The important fact is that entrenched incumbents, who often fly beneath the radar, had to stand up to public scrutiny this election cycle.’’
But Massachusetts Democrats, with most power preserved, may now feel a renewed sense of invincibility after withstanding the Republicans’ best shot, even as the Democratic Party felt sweeping losses elsewhere in the nation.
“The campaigns run by most Republicans were beneath the dignity of a democracy, and I am delighted they were repudiated,’’ Frank said in his victory speech, sounding a defiant note after a race that forced him to campaign harder than he had in years. But Frank, and the rest of the delegation, will nonetheless lose significant clout in Washington, where Republicans gained control of the US House.
Since Brown’s upset victory over Attorney General Martha Coakley, Republicans have been dreaming big. Maybe, just maybe, Massachusetts would begin feeling like a two-party state.
National factors — a weak economy, an unpopular Democratic leadership — combined with local factors — a series of scandals on Beacon Hill and one of the largest pools of Republican candidates in decades — gave a renewed sense that the party could regain relevance.
Baker’s entry into the race last year energized many in the party. The momentum continued when US Representative William Delahunt decided to retire, leaving an open seat in a congressional district where Brown won big; and even the unexpected turned Republicans’ way when US Representative John Tierney’s wife pleaded guilty to federal tax charges.
Conservative talk radio was abuzz last week at the prospect of reshaping Massachusetts politics, continuing to remake the state that had long been associated with the Kennedy family. Yet there was also a strong sense of anxiety. What if the party fails, despite all the favorable conditions? Would treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, an independent running for governor, siphon just enough votes from Baker to preserve the slim lead Patrick held in public opinion polls?
And there were other signs that years of exile had left the GOP with a weak bench of candidates, and thus, unable to take advantage of all the opportunities. Coakley, for example, despite showing political weakness on a national stage, would have gone unopposed in the general election, if not for a last-minute write-in effort from James McKenna, a first-time candidate who qualified in the primary.
Likewise, when Tierney faced the unexpected guilty plea of his wife, Republicans had already locked in a candidate, Bill Hudak, who was best known for putting a sign on his lawn comparing President Obama with Osama bin Laden.
“They missed an opportunity to nominate someone who could have benefited from that late breaking news about Tierney and his family,’’ Ubertaccio said.
And as much as the Brown victory motivated Republicans, it also inspired some Democratic activists. Sydney Asbury, Patrick’s chief of staff, said recently that when she woke up after Coakley lost, she was determined never to feel that way again. The feeling was not just that the party had lost, but that it had not given its all, like an overconfident basketball team that rests its starting players before the final buzzer sounds, only to realize the other team never gave up.
Despite the national mood that seems to favor Republicans, the state party has tried to keep its public expectations more modest, noting that the party has been steadily losing seats in the State House for most of the last two decades.
“The revolution is occurring if the pendulum starts going in the other direction,’’ said Brad Jones, the House Republican leader.
Jones said he would be “thrilled’’ to increase its count to 17 or 20 House seats, a gain of no more than five, and that 30 seats in the 160-member chamber would constitute a “huge wave.’’
Before the results were known last night, Nassour said a defeat would require serious consideration. “We have to figure out what we did wrong,’’ she said. “Maybe we took for granted some feelings of the electorate and we just have to work harder and produce better candidates and work on our field organization and our farm team.’’
Michael Levenson of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.
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