Paul Giorgio: Charlie Baker’s Tea Party Problem: Mark Fisher
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Fisher, although he is not my cup of tea, is a serious candidate. A businessman from Shrewsbury, Fisher brings a different set of views and values to the GOP debate. And that is what worries Charlie Baker and his campaign. In order for Baker to win In Massachusetts, he can’t appear to be too conservative.
Baker is already being forced to run on a right wing GOP Platform that attacks women’s rights and marriage equality. In addition to the backwards-looking platform, Baker now has a Mark Fisher Tea Party problem to boot.
Stranger than fiction
In one of the strangest stories to eventually emerge from the Republican nominating convention, which was held back in March, Baker’s challenger Fisher now claims that Republican operatives offered him $1 million to get out of the race. This all came to light last week in court filings and counter press conferences held by the State GOP leadership and then Fisher.
In a law suit filed in Superior Court, Fisher claimed that he was illegally kept off the Republican Primary ballot. This occurred when the State GOP changed the rules at its state convention and opted to count blank ballots as votes. The effect was to drop Fisher below the 15% of the vote required to get on the primary ballot. The net effect of the party ruling was to drop Fisher down to 14.75 % of those voting at the convention.
All these shenanigans do not reinforce Baker’s claim that he is a good manager. It seems that he can’t even manage his own campaign or the state GOP. This raises the inevitable question, if he can’t do this, how will he run the state?
Fisher prevailed in the lawsuit and will now be on the September primary ballot along with Baker.
Fisher is now suing the GOP for damages. I can’t wait to see what comes out in those depositions and that trial.
Unanswered questions
Several unanswered questions remain to be answered in this intra party squabble. The primary question is this? What did Charlie Baker know and when did he know it. I believe that very same question emerged from the Watergate trial and was asked about President Nixon.
The other question that remains is: Who offered Fisher $1million to drop out of the Governor’s race?
And was anything else coupled with the $1 million dollar offer? Such as: “Mr. Fisher if you don’t take this deal, you will be (fill in the blank). If that is the case, could this be considered extortion?
Finally, do these two occurrences constitute a violation of any Federal or state law and if so are there any active investigations going on?
This clearly was a bad week for Charlie Baker, his campaign and the State GOP.
To paraphrase Ricky Ricardo in I Love Lucy, “Charlie you got a lot of splainin’ to do.”
Paul Giorgio is a longtime Democratic Party Activist who has worked on numerous campaigns. He was a Lead Advance Person for President Clinton & Vice President Gore. He was Deputy Director of Special Events for President Clinton’s first Inauguration. He has been elected a delegate to numerous Democratic National Conventions and recently served as one of President Obama’s representatives on the Platform Committee. In 2013 he was chosen as a Presidential Elector. He is the President of Pagio, Inc., publishers of Pulse Magazine, Vitality Magazine and Worcester Medicine.
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