How much do you think it would cost to repair the damage from Joan Vennochi’s devastating column in the Globe today about “the Democratic Christy,” (my clever nickname) Senate candidate Steven Pagliuca whose best claim to credibility, like Mihos, is the size of his personal bank account. A million? Five? One can buy the same number of column inches in the Globe for a few thousand dollars, or reach the same number of voters with TV ads for a few hundred thousand … but there are a lot of zingers here. My guess is $1-1.5 million for that column alone.
As treasurer of Romney’s Senate campaign, his wife, Judy, wrote the checks for Romney’s attack ads, figuratively at least. … Without his $400 million fortune, Pagliuca’s campaign would be a joke. … Pagliuca now says he backed Romney’s Senate bid only because of their close professional relationship …. It’s not so easy to explain why he supported Republican Bill Weld when he tried to knock John Kerry out of the Senate, or gave money to Republican George W. Bush when he ran against Democrat Al Gore.
Since you have had your head buried in the sand… let me be the first to tell you that Christy Mihos is WINNING in the early polls for governor of Massachusetts. I’ll post last month’s Rasmussen poll, but I don’t wish to be redundant.
And about Charlie Baker’s floundering effort to mount an effective campaign (at least the arm flapping video is down), than it does about Mr. Mihos.
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p>We’ll see how far he gets in the general, if he makes it that far.
Are for higher taxes, pro-abortion, and endorse death panels. I must disagree with you nabout the Baker campaign floundring though. Doesn’t it have to have begun to flounder? Showing up at a picnic is not much of a launching pad. And the way he was very uncomfortable meeting people made him look pathetic.
As a member of the MAGOP, I am:
For lower taxes
Believe childbirth is between the 2 principles
The only one I want deciding my death is my proxy.
Heh. Touché, Bill. đŸ˜€
The only people I know who endorse death panels are those who support the current system of private insurance, since the only real (or proposed) death panels are run by private insurance companies trying to avoid paying for care. Many people have in fact died because of such denials.
I prefer “Bay State Bloomberg” to “Democratic Christy”. Just like Mike, what we have here is a rich guy who picked a political banner under which to run, despite ample evidence that his beliefs and history align better with the opponent.
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p>Granted, Bloomberg chose the GOP to avoid the primary, while Pag chose the Dems in order to win in the long run, but overall I think the comparison is fair.
“Pag chose the Dems in order to win in the long run,”
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p>That was my initial thought also. But with further reflection….
Pag’s could have easily won a Republican Primary over a State Senator, I assume.
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p>If so, he would then run against on of the same candidates he is currently campaigning against, but with a political party behind him.
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p>With his particular background, wouldn’t he have a better shot with Republicans and conservative leaning Unenrolleds than with Progressives? He could have marketed himself as a moderate Republican – Romney style. Romney lost to Kennedy after all not just any Democrat.
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p>Still might not win, but honestly won’t it be more difficult for Pags to win Democrat support?
In a December primary, a little luck can squeak out the win. Why? Very few voters, which means you don’t need to convince very many to come up with a win. Maybe that means finding moderates, maybe that means dialing in on a specific constituency, maybe that means converting the die-hards somehow.
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p>It’s not likely, but it’s within the realm of possibility.
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p>The alternative is the general election — where both (a) more voters means statistics aren’t on your side, and (b) where you’ve got to run with the GOP brand, which may be worth less than zero in MA. Sure, you get their “machine” but you also get the vile stench of the national GOP brand to overcome.
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p>Mitt Romney pissed in that well for “moderate” bidness GOP candidates.
It would be tougher for Pags to win Democratic support, but he’d need it eventually…in the primary or the general.
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p>You have many people who will vote for whomever the Democratic candidate is in the general. Winning the GOP primary means losing many voters in the general.
Not sure how you can credibly say that Steve’s “best claim to credibility is the size of his personal bank account”…this is a guy who has extensive experience buiding successful businesses, and a deep understanding of our financial system at a time that we could use that expertise in the US Senate.
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p>Plus, he served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for a number of years, and has been very involved in the Celtics community outreach efforts (not to mention helping to turn the Celtic’s franchise around).
Is Mr. Pagliuca asserting that one of the reasons he should be elected Senator is because the Celtics won the 2008 World Championship? If that victory really was down to him, I agree that alone is reason enough to elect the man. What, exactly, was his role in the Game Four comeback against the Lakers. Or do you mean that because he was a part owner of the team, he gets part credit for the championship. Is that fair?
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p>As to an open mind, of course I have one and I think everyone else should, too. I think it is beyond dispute that Mr. Pagliuca’s best qualification, as I wrote, is the size of his bank account, but he certainly has other qualifications. Moreover, the point of my post was that Vennochi’s criticisms can be overcome with sufficient spending, which I assume he is prepared to do.
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p>Onward!
The Millionaire and the The Truth 2010
I know how Bain goes about “building successful businesses”, I’m in the industry. I’m trying to get rid of those attitudes in government, not strengthen them. It seems to me that we’re all still sweeping up the mess caused by government officials with a “deep understanding of our financial system.”
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p>As far as I’m concerned, Mr. Pagliuca’s involvement with Celtics hurts rather than helps him. I can think of dozens of ways that Mr. Pagliuca might have made a genuinely needed and valuable contribution to our city and state that rank above the Celtics. I don’t care whether he did it for fun or money, his role in the Celtics reflects a personal sense of priorities that totally conflicts with my expectations of a suitable candidate.
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p>Why does Mr. Pagliuca smell more and more of Mitt Romney? Both claim business building expertise based on the practices of Bain, both proudly point towards athletics as a success story (the Olympics for Mr. Romney, the Celtics for Mr. Pagliuca), and both have essentially zero political experience.
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p>Sorry, Doug, but I’ve tried buying other products from this company and I’m not buying this time around. Frankly, I’d prefer to see you making the Deval Patrick brand actually work as advertised rather than launching this new one.
Who cares how many businesses he has “built”? Did he really build any of them, or did he just help funnel money into them and perhaps give them a little management advice? And hasn’t he killed many businesses as well? Does he really have a “deep understanding” of our financial system or just the venture capital market? And is there really a lack of expertise on financial matters in the Senate?
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p>It is nice that he has been involved in charity work, but we all know that primarily means fund raising, not any deep understanding of how to solve our social ills.
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p>I will keep an open mind, but you have to stop just giving us hand waving platitudes about his qualifications. Stop feeding us press releases and statements written by consultants. There must be thousands of rich people in this state that could claim the same qualifications and pay for the same campaign. I have yet to see anything that leads me to believe that he is anything more than a bored rich guy who wants the power and prestige that comes with being Senator.
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p>Prove me wrong, but not with lame pleas for us to keep an open mind. Run a campaign to make us excited about him and not just a pro-forma one to pay your bills.
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p>The answer is, he bought you. You, Doug Rubin, who played a key role in getting Patrick elected and in his administration are the only thing that brings credibility to Pagluica. Everything about this guy screams fiscally conservative, somewhat socially liberal Republican in a Democrat’s clothing, except that he hired you and you bring the credibility of Deval Patrick’s liberalism with you. He’s got no track record of public service or progressive politics. Given his job as a leveraged buyout specialist, he’s got a terrible record on worker rights and he supported Mitt Romney over Ted Kennedy in the ’96 senate race!
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p>I hear he’s pro-choice and supports the public option. Well, that brings him in line with other bulwarks of liberalism like Bob Casey and Arlen Specter. We don’t need more Blanche Lincoln’s and Ben Nelson’s in the senate and we certainly don’t need more Robert Rubin’s influencing the Democratic party. There are three far more progressive candidates out there, you backed the wrong horse.