While the Mass. GOP fell short in its ground game, they outdid themselves with spin this election season. Charlie Baker’s discredited internal polls are one striking example. Then there was Loscocco’s magisterial prounouncement that the primary between Cahill and Baker for the mantle of change was over, and he was crowning Baker the single alternative to Patrick. Spin about smear tactics was no substitute for a straightforward explanation of how Jeff Perry stood 15 feet away from a screaming victim of sexual assault perpetrated by his subordinate and did nothing. Haley Barbour blew $1.4 million for a last-minute ad blitz, but the Southern-accented good ole boy who approved the RGA announcements probably did Baker more harm than good. Yesterday we heard how the turnout in the Republican-leaning suburbs was swamping the city vote, and Deval’s efforts to rally Bostonians were a sign of desperation. In his predictions yesterday, Garrett Quinn conceded the loss of the Governor’s race but felt Question 3 would at least come close, and Karyn Polito and Mary Z would win. What happened to Mary Z’s juggernaut? Long on spin, short on substance.
One of the most spectacular belly flops of this election cycle was Baker’s choice of an openly gay running mate, who was supposed to give Baker the cahcet of a Weldian social liberal. Shortly after choosing Rick Tisei, Baker cut him off at the knees by promising to veto the so-called “bathroom bill,” as he referred to the trans civil rights legislation. Baker wound up having no supporters among the LGBT chattering classes, unlike Weld, and showed none of Weld’s strength in places like the South End, Brookline, and Northampton.
Governor Patrick warned progressives not to believe the GOP talking points, since they didn’t particularly believe them themselves. We kept our eyes on the ball and turned out a Democratic sea wall to break the national Republican tidal wave.
We’ll see now if Scott Brown continues giving the finger to his LGBT constituents. Romney-Baker Republicans are not viable in this state when Democrats aren’t asleep at the wheel.
Read it this way: “The chattering classes of the LGBT”
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p>ie, the ones who spread the messages/memes, vs. the ones that do not.
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p>BMGers = the chattering classes of MA Democrats, for example.
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p>’k?
You think if Baker had supported Tisei’s trans rights bill, he’d have won on the strength of LGBT voters?
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p>I wonder how many of the victorious Republicans around the country said they were “to the left of Obama on social issues?”
Baker failed to cast himself as a social liberal, despite his empty protestations that he was “to the left of Obama on social issues.” Regardless of how many LGBT votes he could attract, he would come off more like Weld than Romney among swing suburban voters. His campaign tailored to the Republican base lacked the necessary nuance. But Baker’s mistakes were many, and no one sunk him by itself.
Bill Weld was very willing to explicitly kick the national party in the shins. His successors in the governor’s office and as candidates did not do this, but coasted on Weld’s credibility. Romney absolutely trashed that credibility, and much of the present Mass. GOP seems more Romney than Weld. In my view, choosing Tisei while simultaneously trashing the bathroom bill was an inept effort by Baker to be all things to all people, and everyone saw through it.
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p>Not coincidentally, they have been struggling in statewide elections–where they previously enjoyed a lot of success– since Romney did so.
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p>Ultimately, a Massachusetts Republican is going to have to find a new Jesse Helms, and kick him in the shins in a conspicuous manner. Until they do, they must be far more skilled in their art than Charlie Baker is.
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p>Senator Brown is, I believe, far more skilled in his art than Baker, and has managed the straddle thus far. If he manages to survive into 2012 and can entrench himself a bit in that seat (so he no longer needs the national party so much) he would be in a position to kick a shin and reinvigorate the New England Republican from the clay of independent voters.