Senate candidate Scott Brown (R) reminds us how far Democrats have drifted from JFK *UPDATED*
Bookworm on Jan 05 2010 at 1:12 am | Filed under: Congress
Good ad:
Massachusetts has drowned itself in the Kool-Aid since 1972, but maybe a strong Republican candidate, a strong message, and an insane Democratic party can make the difference.
UPDATE: If you’d like to contribute to Brown’s campaign, here’s his website. As Kate said in the comments when she provided the link, the Dems are pouring money into his opponent, while the GOP has abandoned Brown. Once again, it’s up to “we, the people” to rescue the government.
Related posts:
- Pelosi did it. Now, will Senate save us? *UPDATED*
- Slogans for Democrats *UPDATED*
- Michael Steele reminds us why I wanted him for the RNC
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Scott Brown is running for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts…
And ads like this have got to help: Pretty powerful… with props to Bookie….
Scott Brown is running for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts…
And ads like this have got to help:Pretty powerful… with props to Bookie. Crossposted(*)…….
While my Taxachusetts sister and brother-in-law will enthusiastically vote for Brown, as they have done so for Republicans over the years, both of them see it as a protest vote. This is a state that would elect a Dead Kennedy if given the chance. Rasmussen says the gap is now 9 points, which for the state is pretty good. Don’t get your hopes up, though it would help if the RNC would pour some funds into the place.
Rasmussen came out with a poll today that shows that Coakley holds a 9 pt. lead over Brown with 7% undecided. Viewed from the ground here (my area of MA could be considered as Marin East – my neighbor even rented his house to some Hollywood people over the summer!), Brown has become very popular. Not that anyone would admit it, but my guess is that the vote will be closer than anyone thinks. Too bad that Coakley is getting big bucks from out-of-state (Emily’s list etc.), while Brown got the shaft from the GOP – although Crt Shilling and John McCain both endorsed him. He could use the support:if you’d like to see his site here’s the link: http://www.brownforussenate.com/ Gringo: We’re actully not really Taxachusetts anymore. Now
<snip> Estimated at 9.5% of income, Massachusetts’ state/local tax burden percentage ranks 23rd nationally, just below the national average of 9.7%. (http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/35.html)
Further down the page: ” Per dollar of Federal tax collected in 2005, Massachusetts citizens received approximately $0.82 in the way of federal spending. If the average voter realized that, the picture of the Kennedy clan next to “Jesus on the cross” would come down really quickly!
There is another factor that can help. Joe Kennedy- no, not THE Joe Kennedy- is running as the Libertarian candidate. Because Joe Kennedy is running, the issue of mistaken name recognition will pull votes towards the Libertarian candidate. Here is an example of what occurred in Texas, from a history of the Texas Supreme Court.
Texas has enjoyed a deserved pride in its judiciary, there have also been moments of embarrassment, one example being the Supreme Court election of 1976. Twenty-four years earlier, the governor’s race was between Alan Shivers and Ralph Yarborough. Shivers won but Yarborough was later to become a U.S. Senator [1957-1971] and then in 1964 a Houston lawyer, Don Yarborough, not related to the Senator, challenged John Connally for the governorship. Defeated by Connally, Yarborough ran unsuccessfully for governor again in 1966 against Preston Smith. Senator Ralph Yarborough remained in the U.S. Senate until 1971, so by the time the election of 1976 arrived, Texans statewide were quite familiar with the Yarborough name.
As it turns out, however, Texans may not have been as well-acquainted with the name as they thought because another Houston lawyer, Don Yarbrough, ran for the Supreme Court against Charles W. Barrow, a well-respected jurist from San Antonio, formerly a District Judge and later a Justice on the San Antonio Court of Appeals. The statewide bar poll favored Barrow by 10,186 to 1741 but, by what most political analysts feel was mistaken name recognition, Yarbrough defeated Barrow and was
sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on January 2,1977. Six months later in June, 1977, Justice Yarbrough appeared and testified before a Travis County Grand Jury regarding his participation in the forgery of an automobile registration. From that testimony, Yarbrough
was subsequently indicted, tried and convicted of aggravated perjury and assessed a five year prison sentence.
One factor that will assist the Democratic Party candidate is that the ill-informed – describe them how you will- who would be more likely to mistakenly vote for Libertarian candidate Joe Kennedy, are also less likely to vote in mid-term elections. Let’s keep quiet about Joe, to lessen the likelihood that the Demos will institute a “Don’t vote for Joe” campaign.
I am glad to hear that the label of “Taxachusetts” is no longer merited. Come to think of it, in discussing Mass. politics with my sister and her husband, I have heard much more about the “merits” of its US Senators than I have heard about tax burden. Come to think of it, I don’t know if they have actually brought up the issue of tax burden.
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:GOriyFHZ4YoJ:www.midlandcountybar.org/wts/2005/11texassupremecourthistory.pdf+Ralph+Yarborough+%22mistaken+name%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/12/18/this_kennedy_wants_to_cut_government/
I am hopeful but not optimistic that Brown will win, having until recently spent the better part of twenty years in or around Boston. But one can always hope! That said, I am getting a strong feeling of vuja de. Let me tell you a little story.
Way back when I was a single yuppie living in Beacon Hill, there was a dynamic and telegenic young candidate who ran for Senator against Ted Kennedy. After a brief flurry of media excitement–abetted by the requisite Kennedy scandal du jour–the candidate came within striking distance of scaring Kennedy, only to fall short. A valiant but failed effort. That candidate was, of course, Mitt Romney.
The scandal back then was Kennedy’s complicity in the rape his nephew committed in Palm Beach. At the time, the good Senator’s rosacea made his face look like the back of a sea-scarred Florida manatee. Yet when the news broke, the Globe’s response was to run a front page photo of Teddy pushing his mother in her wheelchair on their way to Easter Mass. Lesson one: The media is really biased (duh).
I was a low level helper for the Romney Campaign. I remember holding a sign next to some girls who were Kennedy supporters. Weren’t they bothered by Palm Beach? Nope. Didn’t Chappaquiddick matter? So what. Lesson two: Forget changing peoples’ minds about politics; you can’t even talk first principles.
Another one of my jobs was to act as a “poll watcher” downtown on election day. So there I was, diligently watching people vote all day at Government Center (town hall). Here’s what happens when you combine a clueless volunteer with an enthusiastic but inexperienced campaign:
After I spent about an hour of taking up space, the ballot official, a classic Boston Irish type, kindly sidled up to me and asked “So where’s your list?”
Me: “What list?”
Pol: “You know, the list of registered voters in your precinct. You should cross off the ones who have voted and call those who haven’t.”
Me: “Uh, er…”
Nobody had told me and I didn’t know nothing.
At about that time I saw two limos pull up at the station. Out came two young guys in suits, talking into shoebox-size cell phones (very impressive in a Maxwell Smart kind of way — it was the early ‘90s, after all). They were getting out the vote. Next thing I know, my next door neighbor was being helped out of the limo and into the polling booth. What the $%#?? Right then, I knew that we were done for. You see, my neighbor was a frail 85 year old widow named Josephine, who lived down the hall from me, a shut-in who navigated through piles of twenty year old newspapers in her single room apartment. Never left the place except to get cigarettes and coffee at the corner deli. Yet there she was, casting her vote for Kennedy.
Lesson three: Never underestimate the organized power of a machine.
I hope it’s different today. Times are worse and people are getting mobilized. Maybe the power of the internet has modified lessons one and three. And tired party apparatchiks do occasionally get tossed out of office – I’m thinking of Chicago’s Mayor Bilandic after the first Daley died, although in that case it took a freak snowstorm and a split, three way primary race (only to elect another Democrat!). I’ll gladly donate to Brown, kiss my money goodbye, and make a matching contribution to St. Jude.
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