Paul Giorgio: On to November
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
The big stories from yesterday were not that Martha Coakley beat Steve Grossman and Don Berwick in the Democratic Primary or the Charlie Baker got the GOP nod. The big story of the day was that longtime Democratic Congressman John Tierney lost his seat to relatively unknown Seth Moulton. Tierney has survived two elections while embroiled in scandal. Moulton goes on now to face former State Senator Richard Tisie. This was not the kind of night Tisie had hoped for. He figured in a non-presidential year he could pick off the seat. His campaign plan was thrown out the window last night. Tierney became the first Massachusetts Congressman in over 20 years to lose his seat. The last being Chet Atkins, who lost to Marty Meehan 22 years ago.
A star is born
The second major story was the resounding victory that Maura Healy had in the democratic primary for Attorney General, clobbering former State Senator Warren Tolman a favorite of party regulars and organized labor. With Healy’s stunning victory, a new star was born in the Democratic Party.
However the marquee race this fall pits Martha Coakley against Republican Charlie Baker. Some had felt that if Steve Grossman had won, he would be more evenly matched with Baker. I disagree, I feel that Coakley will be a better candidate and the Democratic Ticket will win again.
The Democratic ticket has some pizzas compared to the GOP. You have Coakley, a woman trying to become the first women elected governor of Massachusetts. She is teamed up with Steve Kerrigan, a leader of the party who ran the Democratic National Convention and President Obama’s Inaugural. Kerrigam is openly Gay. Rounding out the ticket is Healy, an openly Gay women, Deb Goldberg, a business women, Susanne Bump and Bill Galvin who are running for reelection as Auditor and Secretary of State respectively.
I had to look on line to find out who the Republican’s where running for the down ticket offices. They are Mike Heffernan for Treasure and John Miller for Attorney General, hardly household names, even in their own homes. Outside of Baker/Polito there is nothing close to star power, and Baker with his soft manor and dry personality has a long way to go.
Markey is running for re-election
In addition to the Governor’s race, we have a little watched United States Senate fight, with Ed Markey running for a six year term against totally unknown Hopkinton lawyer Brian Herr, who previously lost a Republican primary fight to take on Jim McGovern.
In local races, you will have long time State Senator Harriette Chandler, who had a decisive primary victory taking on the very conservative Paul Franco.
Most of the State Representatives in Worcester have free rides in November with no Republican challengers. So Jim O’Day, John Mahoney, Dan Donahue and Mary Keefe will all be reelected. Both Keefe and Donahue survived tough primary challenges. In Donahue’s case, challenger Josh Perro spend in excess of $120,000 most of it his own money. The 20 year old Perro, a college student found out the hard way that you can’t buy an election. I grew up on Grafton Hill in Worcester, the same neighborhood that Perro did and I and my friends had trouble scraping up gas money, never mind spending $120,000 to run for State Representative.
In the other Worcester State Rep. race yesterday, you had Doug Belanger of Leicester, beating Moses Dixon and former City Councilor Mike Germain. Although, Dixon lost, he impressed a great many people with his hard work and grasp of the issues. I hope he runs for something again. This is the beginning of his career, not the end. The same can’t be said of Mike Germain who has lost two races in a row.
It is too early to make predictions in the state wide races but I think today the advantage goes to the Democrats who are more Intune to the electorate that the Republicans.
Related Slideshow: Experts Make Predictions on Primary Outcomes
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