Charlie Baker dumped a pile of dark money into an effort to put his loyalists into seats on the Republican State Committee. Charlie’s candidate in the Fourth Middlesex, Scott Brinch, lost to Sean Harrington by a significant margin.
How did Charlie’s choices do in the rest of the state?
Please share widely!
hesterprynne says
State House News, citing an unnamed source, is saying that 47 of the 74 GOP state committee candidates endorsed by the Gov. have won. Still awaiting results in 10 of those 74 races. Not all Baker’s endorsements were in contested seats, so his batting average is not quite as high as it looks from those numbers. But probably high enough to make Howie Carr unhappy.
Pablo says
According to the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune:
sco says
The incumbent Steve Alyward won his election against on of Charlie Baker’s candidates for the Second Suffolk & Middlesex district. Steve was one of the folks who kicked off the anti-gas tax ballot measure in 2014.
I had a lot of conversations with Watertown & Belmont Republicans yesterday. They are pissed off that Charlie went after one of theirs — particularly since he admitted that the gas tax ballot measure helped his own election. About a half-dozen of them promised to never vote for Baker again. I told them I’d hold them to that!
They seemed to think that Baker’s slate didn’t win big yesterday, but they may not have had access to all the information. Anyway, seems like a good way for Charlie to demoralize the GOP base. Far be it from me to complain about an unforced error on his part.
merrimackguy says
He is, however, very very very far right. There are some other people in his crew that I think are even further. Alyward owns Red Mass Group, fyi.
So they don’t vote for Baker again. Would you rather have the votes of 100,000 people who are pro-choice and pro LGBT rights, or the help of 200 crazy anti-abortion, anti-gay activists? They can do amazing things (like collect all those gas tax signatures) but in the end it’s not worth it and Baker had to do it.
centralmassdad says
Put another way, it is a sign of life in the New England Republican. A little intramural fighting isn’t always a bad thing. If it happened in the local Democratic Party, it might result in something that actually lives up to its name.
merrimackguy says
It’s a mixed bag. In some cases Baker’s team put a newbie up against a long time member. In others, the non-Baker slate candidates mounted real campaigns against incumbents. In the prior comment about the 2nd E&M, Chou had some support in place (Rep Jim Lyons sent mailings that they were a team) and you can see that she rocked the hometown vote. LaPlante was from the place with the lowest number of voters.
So net/net looks like a Baker win. He just needed a decent majority of the 80 and I think he has it. He had about 20 on his side running unopposed according to his list.