The race for the new Ninth Congressional District is heating up in earnest (sure glad something around here is warm).
This month alone Democrat C. Samuel Sutter, the Bristol County DA, has announced the formation of an exploratory committee and could challenge the de facto incumbent William R. Keating (D) for the primary nomination; and non-party candidate Peter A. White of Mashpee announced he was abandoning his bid for US Senate to run for the Ninth.
Now let’s welcome to the race our first official Republican, Christopher Sheldon of Plymouth, businessman and member of the Plymouth County Charter Study Commission. This is, according to his official bio, his first run for public office, but he has served as a campaign manager for MaryAnne Lewis, who ran as a non-party candidate for the soon-to-be-retired 10th Congressional District in 2010.
“Like many from the South Shore, South Coast, Cape and Islands, I am very concerned about the direction of our country, and especially our economy,” Mr. Sheldon said in a press release announcing his candidacy. “I believe in the American dream and I believe that, if we start now, there is still time to get our nation back on track.”
Mr. Sheldon is pitching the “we need new blood” angle and calling for an ouster of the career politicians in Washington, as well as an end to partisan bickering — two points I can totally get behind, personally.
The candidate plans to formally kick off his campaign on March 20.
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Republican Thomas F. Keyes, the not-quite-official candidate for State Senate of the Plymouth and Barnstable District, is holding a meet-and-greet on Sunday, February 4. That will be held at the Trowbridge Tavern & Canal Club in Bourne from 7 to 9 PM.
The evening will feature the music of Andrew Botieri and a silent auction to benefit Mr. Keyes’ campaign. Donations of any amount are also welcome.
To RSVP or for more information, call Agatha Bodwell at 774-208-3480 or e-mail her at events@votekeyes.com.
(PS: Tom. Dude. It’s pretty obvious you’re running again. Make a formal announcement already.)
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Regardless of what anyone thinks of either US Senator Scott P. Brown (R) or Democrat Elizabeth Warren, you have to appreciate their willingness to play fair…or, at least, as fair as you can in the political world.
This week Sen. Brown and Ms. Warren signed onto a pledge to actively condemn any negative ad campaigns funded by third-party sources, and to personally shoulder the penalty for an infraction by an outside organization. Each candidate has promised to donate to charity 50 percent of the cost of any third-party ad that explicitly supports their own candidacy or attacks their opponent by name.
Sadly, there’s one potentially crippling flaw in this pledge: the political action committees (PACs) responsible for the mudslinging ads don’t have to honor it; legally, the candidates have no control over these PACs or the ads they put out, so don’t be surprised if the overall negativity does not subside to any appreciable degree.
Ironic postscript: as I was writing this, the pro-Republican PAC American Crossroads (Karl Rove’s group) sent me an e-mail claiming that all the loopholes in the agreement are totally Warren’s fault. Way to embrace the message, guys.
Political news and announcements may be e-mailed to Michael Bailey, senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net.
Tags: 10th Congressional district, Christopher Sheldon, Elizabeth Warren, Ninth Congressional District, Peter White, Sam Sutter, State Senate - Plymouth & Barnstable, Tom Keyes, William Keating
The views and opinions in the Enterprise blogs are those of the author and are not neccessarily shared by Falmouth Publishing.
