“Why is this self-avowed citadel of diversity such a hostile political environment for women and black candidates, notwithstanding the unexpected 2006 election of our first African-American governor?”
— Jon Keller, The Bluest State, pg. 14
Yes, unexpected, bizarre, out-of-the-blue flukes, all. But there's just so many of them these days.
… Go read Jackie instead.
Please share widely!
tblade says
…that elected African American governors.
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Massachusetts is blue and all, but, IIRC, 2004 broke only 60% / 40% in favor of homeboy democrat John Kerry.
charley-on-the-mta says
It's a short leap from “unexpected” to “fluky” — which is how Keller bizarrely and backhandedly tries to minimize Patrick's victory. Isn't that kind of insulting to both Patrick and voters? What would have been an “expected” result? And why? (Certainly no one can say that Coakley's victory nor Tsongas' primary selection were “unexpected.”)
regularjoe says
kicked serious butt in a three person race. Nothing fluky about it when the cat was in the bag for over a month before the election. Keller is a poser. I am surprised someone has never given him a pop. He has driven me crazy for years.
joeltpatterson says
Barney Frank.
A very powerful Representative (now chair of the House Finance Cmte) from Massachusetts is gay, and has been out for years and years. He’s a good example of diversity in Massachusetts politics.
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I’d like to see an out-of-the-closet candidate win a race in, oh, I don’t know, say, Idaho.
raj says
…wasn’t Ed Brooke black? And wasn’t he elected senztor from MA a few decades ago?
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I’m sure that at least some people here know the percentage of the legislature who are women. I don’t, but both my state representive and my state senator are women.
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Keller’s comment is idiotic. People aren’t going to win elections if they don’t run for election.
theopensociety says
There has been a significant improvement in the diversity of elected officials over the past few years, finally. But Massachusetts politics until recently has lacked diversity. The last time I checked, only about 20% of the legislators were women in Massachusetts. That is troubling. Implying that improving those numbers is just a matter of people running really ignores how people go about making the decision to run and also ignores the fact that in Massachusetts if the incumbent is a Democrat, it is considered not good form for another Democrat to run against him. You will be considered a traitor, even if you have better ideas.
charley-on-the-mta says
That's true, but the question is whether Massachusetts is exceptional in that regard. From the website womeningovernment.org, “Currently, women make up 1,666, or 22.6% of the 7,382 state legislators serving in the United States.” Obviously, we should be better than that, but MA woud not seem to be any more hostile to women and minorities than other places.
I think primary challenges against incumbents are always a low-percentage proposition, regardless of gender. I support any means to make such things easier and more common, like Clean Elections.
david says
cambridgian says
Above average and trending upwards.
According to 2007 data, MA had 24.5% women in the legislature.
Another interesting statistic from that site:
Partisan Composition of Women State Legislators, 2007 Democratic Party 1,184 Republican Party 534 Third Party 6 Nonpartisan (Nebraska) 9
raj says
…a long time between Brooke and Patrick. The interesting fact though is that Brook was not only a black, but also a Republican.
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You avoided my last point: someone cannot win if he or she is not a candidate. How many blacks or women have contested for offices?
eaboclipper says
Ed Brooke was Gasp a Republican. He doesn't count.
raj says
…and that should give you an indication as to how far the Republican party has fallen.
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The national Republican party’s last black superstar was JCWatt (representative from OK, I believe), who was an absolute nincompoop.
mcrd says
So many years ago—It was Ed Brooke and he is a Republican.
Margaret Heckler—another pioneer and yes—-a Republican.
raj says
…if people won’t run for a seat, they won’t win. I don’t know how difficult it is to get that through your thick skull, but it’s the fact.
trickle-up says
Lots of people will pay money to read idiotic things about Massachusetts.
marcus-graly says
Hiram Revels of Mississippi (1870)
Blance Bruce of Mississippi (1875)
Edward Brooke of Massachusetts (1967)
Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois (1993)
Barak Obama of Illinois (2005)
sabutai says
With the disenfranchisement — rightly or wrongly — with an enormous section of the Mississippi population in Reconstruction, are those elections truly comparable to modern elections?
I think it says something about Massachusetts that we elected an African-American senator at a time other states still had anti-miscegenation laws on the books.
nathanielb says
I think it's great that a local news station has a reporter specifically devoted to politics, which one would hope would lead to coverage that goes beyond the “scandal of the week.” However, after the publication of this book, can we consider Jon Keller to be a credible, objective journalist? Does't he really go out of his way to demean one particular political party?
Yes, I'm a Democrat. But I'm certainly not opposed to saying negative things about the party's establishment. What I am opposed to is this notion that we are the “bluest state.” Up until Deval Patrick, our party leaders were people like Tom Finneran and Robert Travligini, hardly the “bluest” of Democrats.
Besides being unbiased, I think Keller is guilty of writing a book with a bland, overdone thesis.
politicaljunkie says
MA still has a long, long way to go when it comes to getting women in office, but this past Tuesday 67% of Democratic voters voted to send a woman to Congress. They may not have agreed on which one, but 67% is nothing to sneeze at. Like I said, still a long way to go, but this is a good step.
ryepower12 says
With all the great women being elected these days, especially to national positions, I think the gender gap (at least in the Democratic Party) is going to be largely nonexistant come 10-15 years from now. If anything, IMO today's gender gap has more to do with incumbancy than anything else.
progressiveman says
…but do not forget that we nominated a woman for Governor in 2002…who was State Treasurer Shannon O’Brien. And we have had many women as leaders in the state Pat McGovern and Evelyn Murphy come to mind immediately.
sabutai says
And Jane Swift.
And Byron Rushing.
And Kerry Healey.
So, notwithstanding all the women and minorities prominent in Massachusetts politics, there are no women and minorities prominent in Massachusetts.
In his forthcoming book on foreign policy, Keller explains that Iraq is a peaceful place, notwithstanding the bombings and shootings.
raj says
the first openly gay/lesbian to be elected to a state legislature anywhere She served two terms in the state House starting in 1975.
bay-state-buckeye says
While we are on a path to better representation of the entirety of the Commonwealth, Congressman Frank is really the only diversity to speak of in our Congressional delegation. In fact, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Indiana, which have comparable delegation sizes, ALL have more gender/ethnic diversity in theirs than we do.
Is it great that an African-American was able to win the Governorship here, of course it is. But, we should take a look at the totality of our elected officials before we disparage Mr. Keller's comments out of hand. There is tremendous work to do at all levels of government. Not to shoehorn people into seats so that we can check off a box, but to make the process of running, and the possibility of winning, as open and attainable as we can for qualified candidates (like Gloribell Mota in the 1st Suffolk House race or Niki Tsongas in the 5th).
If we were as far along as we sometimes act as we are, there would be no need for programs like http://www.initiativefordiversity.net. Just saying.
sco says
Is incumbency, not race or gender. The average tenure of the delegation, not including Meehan, is over 15 years. These seats just don’t turn over to anyone, not just to women and minorities.
bay-state-buckeye says
While I do agree that incumbency is one of the most significant contributing factors to our lack of change and diversity in elected officials, regardless of race or gender, when you look at the historical trends you see that, when seats do change, it is typically for one white male to hand it over to another. This is not always a bad thing, but it is definitely something that undercuts the political strength, and often ambition, of those from underrepresented groups.