Jim is certainly correct when he says that Massachusetts Democrats can beat competitive Republican candidates when they are not taken by surprise. Yet I cannot help but think that Mass Dems aren’t going to take any chances in 2012. I have said it before and I
Despite a mediocre term in office, Massachusetts voters easily re-elected Deval Patrick to a second term as Governor last night. While Republicans were triumphant throughout the country, they were shut out in the Bay State. This will no doubt embolden Democrats as they look to regain “Ted Kennedy’s seat” from Scott Brown in 2012. The question now, of course, is who will challenge Brown in two years time. I would put my bet on none other than Deval Patrick. He is surely no Martha Coakley. One might not think a great deal of his legislative achievements, but Patrick is a first class campaigner and Massachusetts Democrats are going to need that when they face off against the personable and popular Brown. Just as Patrick isn’t Martha Coakley, Brown is neither Charlie Baker nor Kerry Healey or for that matter any other Republican in Massachusetts. A week before the vote, I attended a forum for Massachusetts GOP congressional hopefuls including Sean Bielat and Jeff Perry. While Bielat and Perry the other candidates made a good accounting of themselves in front of a friendly audience, there was something missing. They all lacked Brown’s populist touch and innate charisma. It should be noted that Brown nearly closed the gender gap with female voters. His good looks certainly didn’t hurt him. I mean even Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg wouldn’t walk out on him. Or put another way, I don’t think Bill Hudak could have gotten away with posing nude for Cosmopolitan. Even if Coakley did run the most inept senatorial campaign in American electoral history one could still make the case that she might have pulled it off had she run against anyone other than Brown. All of this to say that Democrats in Massachusetts will need a big bat against Brown and as of right now Deval Patrick carries the biggest stick.
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Brown vs. Patrick ’12?
A Boston Globe poll shows incumbent Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick just narrowly ahead of his Republican challenger Charlie Baker. Republicans are tied or within striking distance in the race for almost every statewide constitutional office in Massachusetts, with the single exception oddly enough being Martha Coakley’s bid for another term as attorney general. I have recently written about the possibility of Massachusetts Republican gains on the main site.
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A Mass. Miracle
Finally a write-in campaign we should get behind. That’s right, no one bothered to even run against Martha Coakley, last seen being trounced by Scott Brown, for her currently-held AG seat. They figured she was just too much of a… Visit link: Jim McKenna: Gee, No One’s Running Against Martha Coakley For AG? The Do-Nothing Massachusetts Republican Party Isn’t Even Putting a Name On the…
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Jim McKenna: Gee, No One’s Running Against Martha Coakley For AG? The Do-Nothing Massachusetts Republican Party Isn’t Even Putting a Name On…
Last week, I wrote about some encouraging signs for Republicans in Massachusetts. Stacy was also up on the main site with a piece about Barney Frank’s Republican challenger. But unlike in the January special election, the Democrats aren’t taking this lying down. In two trips to Massachusetts before that election, I saw exactly one Martha Coakley sign. It was in Boston. There was literally no indication of palpable grassroots enthusiasm for Coakley in the suburbs and very little of it in the urban Democratic strongholds. As evidenced by signage at least, an imperfect indicator, Deval Patrick looks strong in the places you’d expect him to be strong: Boston, Cambridge, Newton, Brookline. There were a fair number of Barney Frank signs in Newton. Charlie Baker signs were much thinner on the ground than Scott Brown signs and bumper stickers earlier this year. Even Brown, despite doing nearly everything right while his Democratic opponent did nearly everything wrong, only won with 52 percent of the vote. So Massachusetts Republicans wishing to replicate his success are going to have to pull out close races against Democrats who aren’t taking the election for granted.
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Democrats Not Giving Up in MA
