Snark-Infested Waters by Mike Bailey

Snark-Infested Waters by Mike Bailey

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The week in politics

Friday, April 16th, 2010

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.

***

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.

***

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.

Mr. Wolf is getting ready to launch his campaign website. The URL is www.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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.”

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

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The week in politics

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Man, have things gotten wacky over the past couple of weeks.

The man at the center of this big ball of crazy is Congressman William D. Delahunt (D), who is expected to announce this month whether he will run for re-election. There’s been a lot of idle speculation that an eighth term isn’t in the cards, and that speculation intensified last week in light of several news stories detailing $560,000 in campaign spending in 2009, a lot of it on things only somewhat related to actual campaigning (like expensive meals and fees to relatives in his employ).

(more…)

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The week in politics

Friday, January 29th, 2010

I assume by now you’ve heard the news? If not, let me drop the bomb: State Representative Jeffrey D. Perry (R – Sandwich) is “very interested” in challenging Congressman William D. Delahunt (D) this year for US Representative of the 10th Congressional district.

The prospect of Rep. Perry taking on Big Bill gets me absolutely giddy. Having worked with Rep. Perry since he got into the State House, I know for a fact he would run a powerful, punishing, and perhaps most importantly, positive campaign against Rep. Delahunt.

It would, I think, be a truly awesome race that would seriously test both men, and a rare win-win situation for voters in that, no matter which of these guys won, the Cape would have a strong voice in Congress.

I want this to happen! It’d be like the Thunderdome of local politics…two men enter! One man leaves!

Of course, for this to come to pass Rep. Perry would first have to win what is shaping up to be an active Republican primary.

Last week Republican Joseph D. Malone of Scituate, former two-term state treasurer (1991 to 1999), announced he would “almost certainly” challenge Rep. Delahunt. Mr. Malone unsuccessfully challenged Ted Kennedy in 1998 and, 10 years later, lost the Republican nomination for governor of Massachusetts to A. Paul Cellucci.

Then there is Ray Kasperowicz of Cohasset, a US Navy veteran and a nine-year member of the Cohasset Sewer Commission, who announced his candidacy back in September, and Donald A. Hussey of Hingham. Another possible challenger from the GOP: State Senator Robert L. Hedlund (R – Weymouth).

***

Let’s talk a minute about the predicted surge of Republican candidates for 2010 (the catalyst for which is, of course, Senator-elect Scott P. Brown’s big win last week).

The Massachusetts GOP this week launched this year’s recruitment initiative, dubbed “The New Majority.” Prospective candidates can go to www.massgop.com and file online an recruitment form. “The staff of the MassGOP will respond to each online application with information on how to run a campaign and an assessment of the district in which the individual has an interest in running,” stated the official press release.

“When a potential candidate decides to run for elected office, the MassGOP provides assistance including candidate trainings, voter identification information, district information, message and campaign timeline development, incumbent voting records, as well as other opposition research.”

Not too dissimilar to past recruitment efforts, but the GOP is trying an interesting new tactic: offering this service to unenrolled candidates (hence the “New Majority,” making the Democratic Party the old majority). This should be interesting…

***

Now that Martha Coakley has blown the US Senate race (face it, folks, she choked), what about that nice little attorney general gig she’s had for the past four years?

Word among her aides last week was that she was planning to run for re-election, and boy, doesn’t that set the stage for some big fun? The GOP is eyeballing Coakley the way leopards eyeball a wounded gazelle, and why not? She muffed a race against a solid opponent who was better at getting his message out and connecting with voters, and it could easily happen a second time if the Republicans can find someone who can bring the pain.

AG Coakley won her seat in 2006 by beating Lawrence W. Frisoli, a Belmont attorney who did not campaign that well, so one could speculate that AG Coakley herself is not a strong campaigner and won the post by dint of having a weaker opponent.

(The shame is, she has done good work as AG and it would be a shame to lose her simply because she’s lousy at selling herself, but I digress.)

State Representative Karyn Polito (R – Shrewsbury) has been mentioned as an early possible challenger, as has Peter Flaherty, a former prosecutor, one of W. Mitt Romney’s aides during his stint as governor, and a Senator-elect Brown campaign supporter.

On the flip side, the prospect of AG Coakley running again has already caused one Democrat to rethink his candidacy. C. Samuel Sutter, Bristol County’s district attorney, had been kicking the idea around but has since backed off.

Democrat William Keating, Norfolk County district attorney and a former state senator, is as of this week still planning to run for the office.

***

We have an early dropout in Joe Connolly, the Democrat and Norfolk County treasurer who intended to run for state treasurer. He posted a notice on his website stating that he was bowing out due to health concerns.

This leaves Republican Brian J. Herr and Democrat Steve Grossman all by their lonesomes.

***

To bring this baby full circle, Senator-elect Brown is scheduled to make an appearance at the Falmouth Inn this evening (January 29) at 7 PM, as a thank-you to folks who showed up at a pre-election rally.

Political news and announcements may be sent to Michael Bailey, Region editor and senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net

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The Clean Election Pledge

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

Well, the special election has totally soured me on politics.

That is not a statement about the results, but rather the process — more specifically, the tactics both the major candidates resorted to throughout the campaign. Forget for a minute who cast the first stone and focus on the fact both Martha Coakley and Scott Brown engaged in negative campaigning (yes, Brown supporters — it happened), disseminated misleading and sometimes entirely false information about each other’s credentials and positions, and allowed outside parties to only exacerbate the situation by tacitly supporting their aggressive and at time borderline slanderous ads (in that neither candidate did anything to renounce ads taken out on their behalf but without their express consent). (more…)

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The week in politics

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

And the winner is…State Senator Scott P. Brown (R- Wrentham)!

And I gotta tell you, I’m not surprised to be writing this. Martha Coakley made some disastrous missteps in the later weeks of the campaign: tossing out the first harshly negative TV ad; passing on local campaigning to attend functions in DC; and bringing in the President, which absolutely smacked of desperation, just to name a few.

In short, this was Martha Coakley’s race to lose, and she did, spectacularly. Her complacency and garden-variety weak campaigning cost her what I think was, very early on, a sure-fire victory.

Whether Sen. Brown now lives up to his promises to be an independent voice in the US Senate is the big question now, but if he proves just another party loyalist, expect the Dems to make a major push to reclaim the seat in 2012.

Meanwhile, the immediate repercussions of Coakley’s loss could be significant. For a Republican to defeat a Democrat to claim the late Ted Kenney’s seat in Blue State Massachusetts could serve as a HUGE rallying cry for the GOP in the coming regular election cycle, and we could see a major party resurgence this year after several years of foundering.

Was Senator-elect Brown’s victory a mandate by the voters? Debatable; a five percent margin of victory in and of itself is hardly a mandate, but considering the surrounding circumstances, it’s clear voters were sending a message.

Was that message in essence a repudiation of the Obama Administration? Hardly; one man does not a repudiation make, and I’m sorry, while Obama hasn’t been as aggressive in making his much-ballyhooed changes as he said he’d be, it’s unrealistic to expect eight years of damage by the Bush Administration to be magically fixed in a year.

Nevertheless, every Massachusetts Democrat now has a target on their backs, and it should be interesting to see who goes gunning for whom.

As for Coakley herself, her post as Massachusetts Attorney General is now very vulnerable. Her blood is in the water, and the GOP would be remiss not to capitalize on it.

Look for detailed coverage of the special election elsewhere in this section, and in the front section of the Enterprise for town-by-town results.

***

As if on cue: we have a possible race for a local legislative seat!

Last week David T. Vieira of Falmouth said he was considering running against State Representative Matthew C. Patrick (D – Falmouth) this year. Mr. Vieira, who oversees the Cape’s Triad programs through the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Department and is finishing his 10th year as Falmouth’s town moderator, has filed his paperwork Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance and expects to make a final decision on his candidacy soon.

I’m hopeful he’ll go for it. I expect Mr. Vieira would run a solid campaign against Rep. Patrick, now in his fifth term, and a robust campaign is always a good thing (particularly for voters, who would actually have to give some serious thought about who to vote for).

If he runs, Mr. Vieira would be the third Republican to challenge a Democratic incumbent in the Cape delegation; folks have already popped up to challenge State Representatives Cleon H. Turner (D – Dennis) and Sarah K. Peake (D – Provincetown).

I want to see the trend continue, until we have a chock-a-block full ballot. That said, I don’t expect anyone to announce a run against Senate President Therese Murray (D – Plymouth). She has some crazy cash in her war chest – she ended 2008 with more than $150,000 – and from a strategic standpoint, losing her would greatly diminish the region’s clout in the State House, and the Cape and Islands cannot afford that (literally or figuratively).

Who is the most vulnerable to the GOP? That would be State Representative Timothy R. Madden (D – Nantucket). First-term legislators are generally good targets because it’s easy to claim they haven’t done anything of substance. While this is technically true – precious few freshman lawmakers get anything huge accomplished in their first outing – it’s also a bit disingenuous for the same reason.

***

Now that the US Senate special election has wrapped, expect the race for governor of Massachusetts to take center stage as The Big Race. There are five people in the mix right now: incumbent Deval L. Patrick; Timothy P. Cahill, the state treasurer, who is running as an independent; and Republicans Christy P. Mihos and Charlie D. Baker Jr.

Number five is Jill E. Stein of the Green-Rainbow Party, who announced her candidacy earlier this month. Dr. Stein ran for secretary of the Commonwealth in 2006 and for governor in 2002 (and got trounced in both races).

While Mr. Mihos has been a bit more active than his Republican rival in the early days of the campaign, it looks like Mr. Baker has been quietly building a well-financed support base. The Boston Herald reported last week that Smilin’ Charlie Baker raised $1.85 million in the last five months of 2009—twice the amount Gov. Patrick raised over the course of the entire year.

If Mr. Baker can put some substance behind the spending and put in some solid work into getting his name and message out to voters, he could be the man to beat in the primary and—dare I say it?—in the general election. Despite its widespread Blueness, Massachusetts has never been hesitant to put a Republican in the Corner Office; 20 of the state’s 34 governors since 1900 have been Republicans.

However, a recent poll by the Boston Globe suggests that neither GOP hopeful will prevail in a three-way race against Gov. Patrick and Mr. Cahill. About a third of those surveyed currently back the incumbent, despite his low approval ratings, with Mr. Cahill coming in second. Regardless of who represented the GOP, that man came in third.

I can’t take this poll seriously, not this early in the process. If this had come out, say, in October, I’d say the Republicans are in deep trouble, but a lot can change over the next 10 months.

***

Speaking of our treasurer (part the first), a fellow by the name of Brian J. Herr has filed his paperwork with the OCPF as a candidate for state treasurer. Mr. Herr, a Republican, is currently a selectman in the town of Hopkinton. He was elected to that post in 2007 and this year is the board’s chairman.

He joins Democratic candidate Steve Grossman.

***

Speaking of our treasurer (part the second), Mr. Cahill has chosen his running mate: former state representative Paul Loscocco. “As a former Republican, Loscocco makes the ticket truly bipartisan and independent, helping the campaign represent the 51 percent of Massachusetts voters who are not affiliated with either major political party,” read a press release from Cahill’s camp.

***

So with AG Coakley not going anywhere, where does that leave Democrat William Keating, Norfolk County district attorney and a former state senator? The man who threw the state Senate in a tizzy back in 1994 when he challenged William M. Bulger for the Senate presidency he’d held for 15 years announced his candidacy recently, but will that change with Coakley potentially staying put?

His campaign website is up at www.billkeating.org.

***

Over in the surprisingly active race for state auditor – five candidates so far! – Republican Earle Stroll has launched his campaign website at http://stroll2010.com, and Democrat Michael E. Lake has his site up at www.electmikelake.com.

Political news and announcements may be sent to Michael Bailey, Region editor and senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net

For more political commentary, visit Michael’s blog “Snark-Infested Waters” at http://capenews.net/blogs/snark-infested_waters/

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Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

The morning news has been punishing today. More precisely, the advertisements in-between segments of the morning news have been punishing, because every other commercial has been for Scott Brown or Martha Coakley, and I think both sides are running nothing but their slate of negative ads.

Thank you both for souring me on this election.

I was soured on Brown from almost day one, because — as a recipient of his campaign e-mails — I’ve seen nothing from him but condemnations of everything Coakley said or did throughout this process (“Martha Coakley drinks Pepsi Throwback, deprives the high-fructose corn syrup industry of vital revenue!”), followed by very superficial retorts meant to extol Brown’s virtues (“Scott Brown will support high-fructose corn syrup by drinking one bottle of Karo every day”).

His denouncement of Coakley’s negative ads are, in this light, hypocritical, but I have to agree: they’re low-road politics and are distracting voters. That Coakley ran negative at all, much less launched the first high-profile volley, is hugely disappointing and, as WHDH-TV’s Andy Hiller observed, not something a candidate with any confidence in her campaign would do.

This always has been Coakley’s race to lose, and she may well lose it. Eschewing on-the-street meet-and-greets with Massachusetts voters to go to out-of-state events? Jeez, Coakley, who are you? Mitt Romney? Running negative instead of pushing hard your considerably positive record as AG? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!

Should Brown win Tuesday, well, first I’m going to bang my head against a wall to dull the pain of seeing Coakley blow the election, then I’ll start looking for candidacy announcements from people looking to boot Coakley out of the AG’s office (because if she loses Tuesday, the GOP is going to just see blood in the water). Then I’m going to hope all this talk about intentionally dragging out the certification process to delay Brown’s entry into office is just that — talk — because I don’t know if I could calmly handle with any degree of aplomb the second most flagrant flouting of good public process since Massachusetts changed the Senate succession laws to allow Deval Patrick to plop Paul Kirk in Kennedy’s seat. If Brown wins, then he wins. Seat him.

Otherwise, everyone involved with such an affront to the political process will be facing voter wrath come November.

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The week in politics – special editior director’s cut

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Happy New Year, everyone!

Normally I would only now be welcoming everyone to the triumphant return of my weekly political column, but thanks to the US Senate special election this puppy has been rolling for a few months now. Yet, in about two and a half weeks that election will be over and, hopefully, the state and local races will start to pick up.

And this year stands to be fairly active as all our constitutional officers – governor and lieutenant governor, secretary of the Commonwealth, attorney general, treasurer, and auditor – are up for re-election along with all state legislators. More locally, the positions of Barnstable County sheriff and Cape & Islands district attorney are up for grabs, along with one seat on the Barnstable County Board of County Commissioners. (more…)

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The week in politics

Friday, December 11th, 2009

I’ve gone into detail elsewhere in this section, but in case you’re the type who jumps right to this column so you can groove to my wit and wisdom, Attorney General Martha Coakley and State Senator Scott P. Brown (R – Wrentham) won Tuesday’s primary race and will now face off in the January 19 special election for the seat previous held by the late US Senator Edward W. Kennedy.

As a wise parrot once said, I could have a heart attack and die from not surprise over the results.

Now, to address pieces of business old and new. The old business: after last week’s issue I heard from a few people who wondered why Stephen G. Pagliuca and Alan A. Khazei got the full interview treatment while everyone else got mini-profiles.

It’s very simple: if they bothered to return my phone calls and made time for me, they got interviewed; if they blew me off, they didn’t.

The exception to this rule is Sen. Brown. By mutual agreement we’d planned to get together after the primary election since, at the time, he was the only Republican running — then Jack E. Robinson popped up at the 11th hour. After speaking with him about this, he said he was cool following our original game plan and we will be getting together soon.

Presumptuous, you say? In principle, yes, but it’s hard to hold it against him in light of his opponent; Robinson simply was not a viable candidate, especially when he appears in the race at the 11th hour and apparently goes out of his way not to make himself especially visible.

Or maybe Sen. Brown has a low-grade precognitive ability and predicted Robinson’s defeat, along with AG Coakley’s win; the day before the election, Sen. Brown issued a press release challenging the Democratic candidate to “tell the special interests to stay out of the Massachusetts special election.”

Sen. Brown was referring specifically to a $214,000 radio ad campaign funded by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in support of AG Coakley.

“It reinforces the perception that she is the candidate of the status quo who will protect big government spending programs at the expense of taxpayers,” Sen. Brown said in a press release. “Martha Coakley needs to tell the big government unions to stop trying to buy this election. This election can’t be bought and we should let the people decide without any outside interference. We should be looking out for the people’s interests and not the special interests.”

Uh, Sen. Brown? Question over here. The SEIU represents (as per their website): “nurses, LPNs, doctors, lab technicians, nursing home workers, home care workers…local and state government workers, public school employees, bus drivers, and child care providers…workers who protect and clean commercial and residential office buildings, and…private security officers and public safety personnel.”

Are you saying the SEIU is a big government union – slash – special interest and not looking out for “people’s interests”? They seem pretty people-interest-oriented to me. Just sayin’.

Follow-up question: will you be returning the $1,000 donation from the United Services Automobile Association Employee PAC, which represents employees of the USAA, which provides insurance and financial services to military personnel? Or the $4,500 from Mitt Romney’s “Free and Strong America PAC,” which supports candidates who conform to an arch-conservative platform? Or are those not big government unions and/or special interests?

And what about the PAC money you received in your 2008 state senatorial campaign? Will you be returning any donations from the PACs representing Bank of America, the Mass. Credit Union League, the FMR LLC (Fidelity), MA Correction Officers Federated Union, the MBTA Police Association, the Association of Builders and Contractors, the Fraternal Order of Police, Insurance Agents and Brokers of Massachusetts, the Mass. Association of Realtors, the Mass. Hospital Association…

Again: just sayin’.

(FYI: the above lists provided courtesy of, respectively, the Federal Election Commission and the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance.)

Now, I’m not trying to insinuate that AG Coakey’s campaign is free of PAC influence because it sure ain’t – 27 PAC donations and counting! – but if Sen. Brown is going to play the “refuse special interests money” card, he should play by the same rules.

Political news and announcements may be sent to Michael Bailey, Region editor and senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net

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The primary post-mortem

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

One election no one really cares about down, one to go.

Yeah, I know it’s a primary election held at a weird time of year, but c’mon, people. If you’re reading this and you didn’t vote, I am officially revoking your right to crab about anything the eventual winner of the election does once he or she gets to the US Senate.

And that’s the new question: who will voters send to the Senate next month? Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley or State Senator Scott Brown (R – Wrentham)?

Before I weigh in on that, let’s look at the primary race and how Coakley and Brown got their wins.

Well, with Brown it’s an easy answer: Jack E. Robinson sucks as a candidate. Sorry, Jack E., but it’s true; you popped up about a month before the election, then didn’t do a whole heck of a lot to promote yourself. You waste space on the ballot every time you half-heartedly run for something. Next time, get serious or get out of the way.

Coakley benefited from several factors, only some of which were within her control. Frankly, her ideas didn’t stand out in any huge way from Congressman Mike Capuano’s, Alan Khazei’s, or Steve Pagliuca’s, so I think it’s not unfair to say that she got by on superior name recognition born of a strong grass roots campaign, her mostly positive track record as AG, the fact that she wasn’t part of a federal government structure that has spent much of the year spinning its wheels and getting bogged down in pointless in-fighting (especially among the Dems), and her very disciplined presentation.

(That latter point, which was a plus in the primaries, may be a drawback from here on out, but I’ll get to that in a bit.)

That she was the sole female in the race? I think that heightened her visibility, but it’s tough to say whether it crossed the fine line into swaying voters…let’s just say it didn’t hurt her.

Capuano sank himself by playing the Ted Kennedy card as hard as he did. Perhaps he was trying to appeal to voters who liked Kennedy — and they are many — but instead he came across as a wannabe Kennedy carbon copy at a time when people are kind of tired of the same-old same-old.

Khazei’s story is lamentable. Of the four Dems I believe his desire to serve the public was the most sincere and selfless, but he showed his political inexperience by failing to get his message out early and often. He made a decent showing in the final weeks of the campaign — enough to barely surpass at the polls Steve Pagliuca, who came out of the gate at a respectable gallop — but it was too little too late. I for one would like to see Khazei regroup and take another shot, if not for this office in 2012 then for another major elected office.

Pagliuca, as mentioned above, started strong but couldn’t keep the momentum up, and time eventually proved his enemy. The more people got to know him, the more he came across as a businessman dabbling in politics rather than a serious candidate. And really, wheeling out a Celtics championship trophy during your later campaign stops just smacks of desperation.

So, now we come to January’s Big Game, and I think most would agree that Coakley has the edge in a state that, despite the fact more than half of its voters are unenrolled, is still very blue. She also has the advantage of greater exposure; Brown has been pounding the pavement a lot, but the limp GOP primary did him no favors as the Boston media’s spotlight has been solidly on the Democrats — therefore on Coakley — for months.

Brown is doing himself a disservice with some of the stuff he’s tossed out in his opening salvos against Coakley. On Monday he threw down what has become a standard gauntlet for whoever has less money to blow on a campaign: the challenge to refrain from accepting special interest money. Yeah, that old chestnut.

The Brown campaign issued the challenge earlier this week in response to an SEIU-sponsored radio ad series supporting Coakley.  It read, it part:

“The news that SEIU is supporting Martha Coakley with a six-figure, last-minute expenditure is obscene. It reinforces the perception that she is the candidate of the status quo who will protect big government spending programs at the expense of taxpayers,” said Brown.

Brown said public employee unions like SEIU have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo at a time when people are looking for a new direction in Washington.

Brown added: “Martha Coakley needs to tell the big government unions to stop trying to buy this election. This election can’t be bought and we should let the people decide without any outside interference. We should be looking out for the people’s interests and not the special interests.”

“Accepting this money shows that Martha Coakley is already playing the role of the Washington insider. If she becomes the nominee we should expect more money from more special interest groups trying to influence this election.”

Now, for the record, Coakley is raking in some crazy union/PAC money (more than two dozen such donations according to the Federal Election Commission), but Brown himself has accepted a couple PAC donations during the campaign (and even more during his last state Senate run) — but more to the point: the tactic has to my knowledge never worked, either in terms of a candidate agreeing to turn down such hefty donations or in convincing the public Hey, I’m not some “Rich Uncle Pennybags Goes To Washington” type; I’m just an average guy who’s going to fight for you!

As I write this, Brown just fired off another favorite cliche, the I Won’t Raise Your Taxes And I Challenge My Opponent To Say The Same gambit. Again: has this ever worked? No one likes paying taxes and God knows people are digging it even less nowadays, but this is and always has been empty pandering.

Brown has also displayed a mildly combative attitude in the opening day of Phase Two. In his primary night acceptance speech, he called the Democratic primary a race for the title of “most liberal,” and said Coakley as US Senator would be a “partisan placeholder,” a “rubber stamp” for the Democratic supermajority, and (my favorite) “another robot who’s programmed to vote like the rest of our (Congressional) delegation.”

Now, if that fire can be reined in and strategically doled out in modest doses, it could add some much-needed zazz to a race that has thus far been a major league h0-hummer. It could even take Coakley off her carefully crafted and disciplined game and lead her to make a crucial misstatement; Coakley showed that she can handle a cool room with ease, but she hasn’t shown whether she can maintain that poise in the face of a more direct attack delivered with a side of hot sauce.

Yet, as we’ve seen too often, that fire can burn out of control too easily, and Massachusetts voters traditionally hate candidates who run aggressively negative. Recall if you will the 2004 effort to reinvigorate the GOP’s presence in the state Legislature, which flopped hard in part because the candidates ran negative, fast and furious and frequently (and I’ve heard the same accusation from local Republicans of a much more reasonable and level-headed nature).

An element of that negativity that has become increasingly common in Republican campaigns is an over-reliance on the GOP Big Book of Sound Bites, a collection of slogans, mottos, and high-concept sales pitches that, for starters, reveal an appalling lack of imagination on the candidate’s part.

Personally, I don’t want to hear Brown talk about how the country is going in the wrong direction, how anything with the tag “liberal” attached to it is bad bad bad, or how one-party rule is ruining things (it is, but it’s always disingenuous when coming from whichever party currently has the short end of the stick). I don’t want to hear Brown regurgitate the national platform chapter-and-verse in small easily digestible chunks that use lots of small words so I don’t get confused. I want to hear HIM; HIS ideas, explained to me at length and in detail, free of partisan contexts. Appeal to my intellect, please. Assume I have a guiding intelligence, a sense of reason and logic;  don’t try to ply me with empty cliches that provoke a visceral response but tell me nothing.

An independent voice? Sure it is.

But I digress.

From a strategic standpoint, speaking in sound bites leaves one vulnerable. To wit: his crack about Coakley voting like a robot in lockstep with the Democrats? What, and he wouldn’t? Am I to believe Brown wouldn’t diligently vote exactly how the GOP wants him to, i.e., in direct opposition to anything coming from the Dems? He’s talked about limited government and honoring personal freedom, yet the standard GOP platform is pro-life and anti-same-sex marriage — in other words, things that limit an individual’s freedom to make very personal choices.

Ah, but what about Coakley, you ask? I’m not under any delusion that she’s a loyal Democrat and is going to vote as Democrats do, speak ill of the GOP as Democrats do, and yeah, probably support some new and creative ways to dig our national debt hole a little deeper and suck more money out of my pocket. Democrats have yet to prove to me they can shake off the “tax and spend” stereotype in any serious way, and in all honesty, I tend to like Republicans’ fiscal policies a lot more the Democratic policies (except for the whole “free market” thing…ask any retiree who saw his 401(k) vanish in a cloud of smoke if that system worked out well for him).

In her acceptance speech Coakley said she’d be a different kind of leader. Hm, let’s see: a Democrat running to replace a Democrat on an all-Democrat Congressional delegation that helps comprise a Congressional supermajority. Yeah…real different.

But Coakley I think has yet to truly reveal her big weaknesses, and again, I think that’s due to how carefully she’s crafted her message to minimize the chinks in her armor, but if Brown and the media do their respective jobs, Coakley will get a nice trial by fire and either reveal herself as a solid candidate or, as Brown put it, a Democratic placeholder in the US Senate.

If I could set the tone of this campaign, I would insist that each candidate tell me and my fellow voters why they’re not just clones cast in their respective party molds. I would insist that they stick to talking about ideas rather than political philosophies (or dogma, if you prefer). I would insist that they never play the blame game and try to build themselves up by tearing down their opponent and their opponent’s party. I would insist that they emphasize their own strengths rather than their opponent’s real or imagined weaknesses.

And I would insist that the voters, unlike in the primary, paid attention and got involved.

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The week in politics

Friday, November 6th, 2009

First of all: of you haven’t already picked up your copy of this week’s Enterprise, go do so now to read my interview with US Senate candidate Steve Pagliuca, who was kind enough to give me some time last week following his visit to WHOI.

***

YOU! You’re the campaign consultant!

Or, you can be – kinda-sorta – by going to the official website for US Senate candidate Alan A. Khazei and checking out three campaign videos and voting on which one gets pasted all over the Internet.

One is a straightforward (read: dull) endorsement by Max Kennedy, son of the late Robert F. Kennedy; the second attempts a kind of mild whimsy (and comes off as kind of dopey); and the third…oh, lordy, the third one just sucker-punched my brain. It knocks off the theme to “Cheers,” badly, and includes the lethal line, “But nobody knows his name.”

That’s really not the kind of thing you want to admit, dude.

I dare say whoever participates in this exercise might make a better campaign consultant than whoever came up with these videos.

***

State Representative Matthew C. Patrick (D – Falmouth) has released a letter of endorsement for his choice in the US Senate race, Congressman Michael E. Capuano (not Martha Coakley, as previously and erroneously reported).

“Mike is a real down to earth guy who is not too important to discuss issues with the average person,” Mr. Patrick wrote. He extolled Rep. Capuano’s work in promoting “progressive values” in Congress over the past decade, and urged voters to support him in the upcoming primary (December 8, by the way).

***

Our last US Senate race-related note of the week: Martha Coakley’s supporters are holding visibilities (a fancy name for “standing in the freezing cold to wave at cars”) in Bourne and Falmouth tomorrow. The Bourne visibility runs from 1 to 3 PM, the Falmouth visibility from 9:30 to 11:30 AM.

For more info on these or other campaign events, contact Mike Falcone at mfalcone@marthacoakley.com or 617-241-0200.

***

Republican Mary Z. Connaughton of Framingham is joining the growing field of candidates for – get this – state auditor. Who’d’ve thunk that this would be one of the races to draw early attention?

Ms. Connaughton ended last month her tenure on the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority’s board of directors, which she was appointed to in 2005. She previously ran, unsuccessfully, for state representative of the seventh Middlesex district.

In addition to Ms. Connaughton, the brewing race includes fellow Republican Earle Stroll and Democratic incumbent A. Joseph Denucci, who has served six terms in that seat.

***

Charles D. Baker Jr., Republican candidate for governor, has launched a revamped website with a new look and, at last, some decent content. Go scope it out.

Among the new bells and whistles: “Conversations With Charlie,” a feature that allows visitors to submit video or e-mail questions, to which Mr. Baker will respond via the magic of Internet streaming video.

***

Mr. Baker’s sole rival in the primaries (so far), Christy P. Mihos, seems to be having some campaign difficulties. The Boston Globe reported this week that his fundraising has been floundering, and was thus unable to launch his planned TV ad campaign in October.

The more disconcerting news to me was how his director of communications, Kevin Sowyrda, was fired: he learned he’d been terminated not from Mr. Mihos himself, but from someone else within the campaign. Mr. Sowydra was quoted as saying, “Apparently, [Mihos] has told people on the campaign that I resigned a month ago and have been working pro bono since then, which of course was news to me. However, we all love Christy dearly for this type of eccentricity, because that’s what makes him the very special person that he is.”

WHAAAAAAAAAAT?! You get canned indirectly, the man who should have done the dirty deed himself lied about it, then divested himself of all responsibility, and your attitude is, “Oh, that rascal!” ?

Is this really the sort of behavior we want in our Corner Office guy? I personally am not crazy about the idea of a “very special eccentric” running the state…

***

A reminder: Ray Kasperowicz, Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives – 10th Congressional District, will meet with the Sandwich Republican Town Committee on Tuesday, November 10. The meeting will begin at 7 PM and will be held at the Riverview School on Route 6A in East Sandwich.

The press release I received added that one attendee will receive a door prize. My bet is it will be a stuffed toy Honky the Republican Elephant, official mascot of the GOP.

Hey, it’s better than the Tickle Me Rush Limbaughs they were giving out during the last election…

Political news and announcements may be sent to Michael Bailey, Region editor and senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net

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