Big night in Massachusetts politics (as well as New Hampshire, Delaware, and a few other states). Here in the Merrimack Valley, State Rep. Barry Finegold won the Democratic nomination for the state Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Susan Tucker. Finegold is a liberal's liberal and I cannot believe he won. The district is made up of Lawrence, Andover, Tewksbury, and Dracut. He did not win Dracut (thank goodness) but did win Lawrence and Andover. I voted for Jack Wilson, a reasonable Democrat. In Lowell, Eileen Donoghue beat Chris Doherty for the state Senate seat there. I cannot stand Donoghue but Doherty was no better.
In statewide primaries, hack Steve Grossman beat Steve Murphy for Treasurer and Suzanne Bump took the Auditor's election. I took a Democratic ballot this morning and voted for Murphy and Bump but I will be voting for the Republicans in November.
Happy to see Rep. Stephen Lynch survive his primary in the 9th Congressional District. Lynch is a solid guy, an old school Democrat and I hope he gets re-elected. I am worried, however, that overall the Republicans have nominated some unelectable people. The nominee for the GOP in my congressional district stands no chance nor do many legislative nominees. The GOP has no farm team so they've had to rely on nobodies and wingnuts to run for office this year. It's not going to pretty this fall, I am worried. The GOP needs to recruit people to run for local boards and get their town/city/ward committees active. The party risks being run by Tea Party folks with no appeal to centrists. I lean right but the Tea Party doesn't appeal to me at all, there are just too many crazies in that group. The Democrats had the same problem after 2004 and they did a masterful job of getting more conservative people to run as Democrats and they ended up winning posts in states like Montana.
I also worry that with Charlie Baker's campaign hurting, the party will make the same mistake they've made in the past and devote all of their energy to that race while forgetting the down ballot races. If they keep focusing on the top, they'll never build up from the bottom.
Let this be a lesson to them for 2012.
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1 comments:
Finegold did not win Andover, Silberstein took it. Wilson knew he was out- gunned in Lawrence (by the mayor's machine that came out for Finegold) and in Andover (where Silberstein has a strong record. He really went after Dracut in a big way.
I, too, can not believe Finegold won. He has been racked with scandal but Lawrence put him over the top- how’s that for a telling factor?
District is going to go to the GOP- no way Finegold can win with his record. People want change- which is so needed on Beacon Hill. Finegold has been a state rep for over a decade. He is not what the people will want in Nov.
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