After several weeks of will-he-or-won’t-he-tinged press releases, Ronald R. Beaty Jr. of West Barnstable announced this week he will – run for the Barnstable County Board of County Commissioners, that is.
In a press release Mr. Beaty said he has pulled nomination papers and is now out and about collecting signatures. The self-described “fiscal conservative/social progressive” is running as a non-party candidate, meaning he skips over the primary race phase and, assuming he collects enough signatures, will be on the November general election ballot.
The two seats currently held by Mary L. (Pat) Flynn of Falmouth and Sheila R. Lyons of Wellfleet are up for grabs this year. There have been no official announcements from either commissioner whether they will run for re-election.
Mr. Beaty in his announcement made much ado about the fact he had signed a Citizens for Limited Taxation “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” but those things are worthless as far as I’m concerned. Pledges, like campaign promises, have a habit of falling by the wayside when certain cold realities hit a lawmaker square in the face.
The real key here will be if Mr. Beaty, who has turned himself into something of a scholar of county government, can parlay that knowledge into a viable campaign platform that overcomes his lack of political experience. According to the man himself, his only forays into the world of elected office are two unsuccessful runs for the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates.
The other issue for Mr. Beaty – and I’ve broached this topic before – is his criminal background. In 1991, Mr. Beaty spent time in prison after he was convicted of sending threatening letters to President George H.W. Bush, US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and then-State Senator Lois Pines.
Mr. Beaty, who is seeking a presidential pardon for those offenses, called that episode in his life “mainly a terrible lapse in judgment” brought about by an alcohol problem he has since overcome.
Whether this truly matters will be, and should be, up to the voters, but I’ll give credit where it’s due: the man has been very open and forthright about this skeleton in his closet, which is a whole hell of a lot more than what we’ve seen from some of our politicians.
Anyone who would like to read up on Mr. Beaty and his background, head on over to my blog and look up the Week in Politics columns for December 16 and 23, 2011.
Political news and announcements may be e-mailed to Michael Bailey, senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net.
You heard it here first: Daniel A. Wolf (D – Harwich), state senator of the Cape & Islands district, will run for re-election in 2012.
Sen. Wolf made that official this week during a phone interview with the Enterprise (by which I mean me). He’s had a good first year in office, and if he can keep it up through 2012 he will be a tough man to beat.
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Who is Ronald Beaty Jr. and why is he so interested in county government all of a sudden?
We might find out more as the local election cycle powers up, but for now Beaty is a good reason to scratch your head and say “Huh?”
The West Barnstable man has become a man of letters, so to speak, over the past month, speaking out about Barnstable County government issues. Earlier this month he wrote to the Enterprise exhorting a special commission charged with studying and, if appropriate, submitting recommendations for changes to the county governmental structure to leave things as they were.
Okay, so far, so benign. Then Beaty wrote a second letter berating the same county officials he had previously praised for failing to fill the very minor position of county clerk. The post has been vacant since Scott Nickerson, who is also the county clerk of courts, resigned to focus on his court duties (and, perhaps, in response to a noteworthy bungle in his office regarding five candidates for the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, whose nomination paperwork was not processed properly).
The county clerk has few responsibilities, but Beaty called the vacancy a “major problem” and the need to fill it an “urgent matter.” Okay, maybe overstating things here, but nothing controversial.
Then I got a copy of an e-mail that I present in its entirety:
It seems a bit “ironic” that County Commissioner Bill Doherty should advise and encourage a man with “my background” to run for election next year for one of the Barnstable County Commissioner seats. After all, a little over 20 years ago (1991) I was arrested, convicted and sentenced by federal authorities for threatening various elected public officials, including the President of the United States. I will have to reflect long and hard about Bill Doherty’s proposal. I shall seek advice, feedback and counsel from family, friends, and the public at large before any firm decision can be made. Perhaps after twenty years, it is also about time that I finally ask for formal “forgiveness” from the federal government as well. With that in mind, I will be seeking a Presidential pardon from President Barack Obama relative to the previously mentioned legal issues…
HubbaWHAH?!
First of all, what’s up with all the unnecessary quotation marks?
Second, here’s the deal: Beaty filed a letter of interest for a vacancy on the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission. Bill Doherty, sitting chairman of the county commissioners, saw it and (according to copies of e-mails Beaty received from Doherty and sent to me for some reason) remarked:
Now that I read your resume I must tell you that I have a greater reason to support the possibility of your candidacy for public office…The fact that you have a background in civil rights issues and want to continue that by joining the HRC says to me you already have two of the qualifications for public office (in my opinion) Intelligence and a good heart. The third is an ability to work hard. Think about it if not the county the town there is so much need for new and younger people at all levels.
There’s no indication that Doherty was aware of Beaty’s criminal background, which is this: according to several stories I found online (including two Beaty himself provided links to), in 1991 Beaty was convicted of sending threatening letters to President George H. W. Bush, Ted Kennedy, and then-State Senator Lois Pines (he also made threats against his then-wife, but he doesn’t mention those in his e-mail) and spent time in prison for it. As you can see, Beaty is not hiding this fact.
In Beaty we have, in a microcosm, a lot of the challenges that have become so commonplace in politics. Here is a man who was convicted of some pretty serious crimes, but did his time and has by all accounts stayed out of trouble for a considerable period of time. What has greater weight: the severity of his acts, or the life he has led since? Is 20 years enough time to erase what is either a terrible lapse in judgment or a sign of an unstable and violence-prone personality?
As is too often the case, partisan politics could play a role. To use the late Ted Kennedy as a somewhat ironic example, his foes never forgave him for Chappaquiddick, while his supporters were quick to dismiss that dark chapter in Kennedy’s life as ancient history. Right now, Newt Gingrich’s boosters are turning a blind eye to his infidelity, but a lot of those same people would wag a damning finger at Bill Clinton for his sexual shenanigans.
One thing’s for sure: if this guy runs, I’m going to have some interesting things to write about next year.
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Tom Conroy, we hardly knew ye.
The Democratic candidate for US Senate has withdrawn from the race, citing (and boy, have we seen a lot of this lately) his inability to compete against front-runner and candidate apparent Elizabeth Warren, who has a ton of money and the party’s blessing.
Those same factors have previously shoved Setti Warren and Alan Khazei out of the race prematurely — by which I mean LONG before any of us pesky voters get our say on the matter.
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Speaking of early dropouts, Thomas Hodgson, Bristol County sheriff, announced this week he is not going to run for Congress after all. Sheriff Hodgson had been toying with the idea of running in the Fourth or Ninth District, also known as, respectively, Barney Frank’s (D) soon-to-be-former district and William R. Keating’s (D) soon-to-be-new district, but decided to stay put.
Just a brief entry this week. It looks like Sheila R. Lyons is already planning to run for re-election to the Barnstable County Board of County Commissioners. Ms. Lyons is hosting a campaign fundraiser today at the Crown & Anchor in P-town beginning at 5:30 PM.
When it comes to the county commissioner race, the question here is who among the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, if anyone, will attempt to jump over to the executive branch of county government? Two of the county commissioners’ three members — Lyons and Bill Doherty — are themselves former Assembly members, and it’s not unusual for someone from the Assembly to throw their hat into the county commissioner ring.
Of course, on the opposite end of the interest spectrum, Lyons could run utterly unopposed this year. Remember that Doherty had no opponent when he ran for re-election last year.
Hey, candidates! A friendly reminder that the deadline for turning in your completed nomination papers for any district or county seat is coming up! Party and non-party candidates have until Tuesday, April 27 to get their paper in.
Party candidates for statewide and federal offices have until May 4, and non-party candidates have until August 3.
As of this week, there are still a few local races with no stated formal challengers to the incumbents: William Doherty, Barnstable County Commissioner; James M. Cummings, Barnstable County sheriff; Michael D. O’Keefe, Cape and Islands DA; and State Representative Timothy R. Madden (D – Nantucket).
Even more curious is how no one from the GOP has emerged to take down Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. No one. The closest we’ve come? There was a rumor that Peter Flaherty, former aide to Governor W. Mitt Romney and former Suffolk County assistant DA, was considering a run, but nothing’s materialized.
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The Sandwich Democratic Town Committee opened up on Sunday their shiny new headquarters for the 2010 election season, and the ribbon cutting attracted no less than Governor Deval L. Patrick.
You may be asking yourself what the big deal is. The big deal is that Gov. Patrick’s presence sends the message that the Democrats are going to be focusing on Sandwich this year. The town’s been firmly in the GOP camp since State Representative Jeffrey D. Perry (R – Sandwich) was first elected to the seat in 2002, and now that he’s moving on to focus on his Congressional run, the seat is vulnerable to a Democratic takeover.
The two gents lined up to duke it out for state rep of the fifth Barnstable district – which includes all of Sandwich – are Democrat Lance W. Lambros and Republican F. Randal Hunt. That’s going to be one of the stronger local contests and could be a very close race.
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Daniel A. Wolf, Democratic candidate for state senator of the Cape and Islands district, has announced his campaign kick-off event for Saturday, April 24. That will be held at The Paddock in Hyannis and run from 4 PM to 6 PM.
This is actually the third, final, and closest stop on a three-town tour that day which begins in Provincetown and stops in Orleans before ending in Hyannis. To RSVP for the Hyannis event call Stefanie Coxe at 508-360-9074 or kickoff@danwolfforsenate.com.
Another Republican is eyeballing State Representative Demetrius J. Atsalis’s (D – Barnstable) seat. Charles C. Case Jr. of Centerville, an attorney, filed his paperwork with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance last week.
This sets us up for a primary race as James F. Munafo Jr., a Barnstable town councilor, is also running as a Republican.
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Senate President Therese M. Murray (D – Plymouth) has given her official website a facelift. It boasts better aesthetics, more features (including more multimedia content), and more active updating. Go to www.theresemurray.com and poke around.
Sen. Murray is running for re-election this year to her ninth term.
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What the –?! Another candidate for governor’s councilor of the first district?
Yep, and her name is Patricia L. Mosca, and she hails from Bourne. She’s a retired probation officer with the Plymouth District Court and a former social worker supervisor with the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance.
She officially launches her campaign on Saturday, May 8 with a reception at the Hemisphere Restaurant in Sandwich. That starts at 6 PM.
Ms. Mosca is one of four people – all Democrats – running for the seat currently held by Carole A. Fiola, who is not running for re-election.
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Poll time!
The latest Rasmussen Reports poll of 500 likely voters revealed that Gov. Patrick might be reclaiming a little of his mojo. In a theoretical race between Gov. Patrick, Republican Charles D. Baker Jr., and unenrolled candidate Timothy P. Cahill, the incumbent comes out on top, edging out Baker by an eight percent margin.
This is a better lead than Gov. Patrick had only a month earlier, when he came out winning the same three-way contest by only a three percent margin.
In a scenario in which Christy P. Mihos is the Republican pick, Mr. Mihos replaces Mr. Cahill in the third-placer; Gov. Patrick wins this theoretical election over Mr. Cahill by a five percent margin, and Mr. Cahill beats Mr. Mihos by an 18 percent margin.
(There was absolutely no mention of Green-Rainbow Party candidate Dr. Jill E. Stein, nor of Grace Ross, a former Green-Rainbow Party member who jumped to the Democratic Party to challenge Gov. Patrick in the primary – in theory, at least, because she’s been pretty quiet since she entered the race.)
The poll suggested that Mr. Mihos’s standing is slipping, while Gov. Patrick may no longer be the sitting duck he was a few months ago. The Boston Globe reported last week that the governor has over the past few months displayed a renewed energy and hit hard on some key issues.
No, readers, it’s not at all cynical to think that Gov. Patrick is cranking the volume up to 11 because it’s an election year and his job’s at stake.
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Mr. Cahill, by the way, is claiming that he is the first candidate to reach the 10,000 signature mark, meaning (assuming all the signatures are certified) he has secured his spot on the November ballot.
“People are sick of the petty bickering between the two major parties, where one party says ‘no’ to an idea simply because the other party came up with it,” campaign mouthpiece Adam Meldrum said in a press release. “This year, the people of Massachusetts are not going to be saddled with the same old partisan choices they’re always been presented with. This year, voters will have a viable third alternative to the Democrats and Republicans who have created the mess this state is in.”
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Back to the polling thing. While poking around online I found on MassBeacon.com an informal poll to see who the favorites are in the race for US Representative of the 10th Congressional District. The poll – completely unscientific, by their own admission – had our two local boys in the lead: Rep. Perry came out on top on the Republican side, besting Joseph D. Malone by a crushing 54-point margin; and State Senator Robert A. O’Leary (D – Barnstable) beat William Keating by a smaller but still decisive 18-point margin.
Perhaps tellingly, “other” was the third most common choice above other confirmed and rumored candidates in both races. Alas, the site did not hold a theoretical race between the two party candidates and unenrolled candidate Peter A. White.
The odds of an all-Cape slate candidates are not guaranteed, of course, but it would definitely be cool.
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On a Joe Malone-related side note, Mr. Malone has added Ted Langill to his campaign staff as his political director. Mr. Langill previously worked as a legislative aide to State Senator Robert L. Hedlund (R – Weymouth). Point of interest: Sen. Hedlund himself was for a time a rumored candidate for the 10th district race.
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Finally, Suzanne Bump, Democratic candidate for state auditor, has launched her campaign website. That’s up at http://suzannebump.com.
The auditor race is unusually active this year – six candidates! – but then again, long-time auditor A. Joseph DeNucci is stepping down, and open seats tend to attract more interest than those with incumbents.
Special online bonus time!
I came across this campaign ad, which is NOT for J.D. Hayworth, the guy trying to oust US Senator John McCain (R – Arizona) in the primary race, but for McCain himself. It’s remarkably whimsical for a campaign ad so I thought I’d share the cheap yuks with y’all.
Political news and announcements may be sent to Michael Bailey, Region editor and senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net.
