In the down-ballot state races, the big surprise is looking like Maura Healey. Recent polls had suggested that she was opening up a lead … but wow, did anyone really think she’d be up 25 points with 61% reporting?? I thought that the last Globe poll showing her up 15 was an outlier. I might have been right – but in the wrong direction. Bravi, Team Healey!! UPDATE: Tolman has conceded to Healey. Congratulations Maura!!
And in other news, Steve Kerrigan is looking like an easy winner in the Lt. Gov. race over Leland Cheung (who once again has proven the uselessness of major newspaper endorsements – he got the Globe, as you’ll recall) and Mike Lake. Deb Goldberg looks to be the winner in the race for Treasurer over Barry Finegold and Tom Conroy, and Marian Ryan is winning easily over Michael Sullivan in the Middlesex DA race. UPDATE: Sullivan has conceded to Ryan. Congratulations to Ryan, who will be the next Middlesex DA.
Once the first 15 or so towns filled in on WBUR’s map, you could tell Healey was sweeping. Cities, suburbs, and rural; towns where each of Berwick, Coakley, and Grossman won for Governor, she had a strong lead in nearly every one. I called it (to my friends) at around 8:40pm, and in a BMG comment at 9pm. By then it was beyond obvious.
Had better ads, a fresher face, and a better message. The casino move, while more a political optics decision rather than a real policy one, was brilliant. Tolman clearly took awhile to get the rust off the wheels.
Now that Ms. Healey is our nominee for Attorney General, I expect her to be a strong advocate for passing the casino repeal referendum.
Perhaps she can light a fire under our presumptive gubernatorial nominee in this regard.
Globe calls it.
It might have given him second rather than third.
That’s exactly where he was already polling.
Not sure I can say the same for Leland Cheung.
…the Globe endorsement of Grossman helped him narrow the gap with Coakley compared to what the polls were showing.