This article was headlined in the Globe today.
Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray’s fund-raising has plummeted since his highly publicized auto accident and entanglement in the Chelsea housing scandal.
My question to BMG is… “does anyone here really take Lt Gov Murray seriously as a legitimate candidate for Governor?” Even prior to the accident and the Chelsea issue, I think he’s been quite unimpressive and has shown very little leadership. I’m really not trying be be remarking as a partisan, I think he’s just not Governor material and many other more qualified Democratic candidates exist.
Thoughts?
Please share widely!
He’s been all over the state and it seems served the administration well as liaison to local communities. If, as rumor has it, Steve Grossman were to run he would probably be my first choice and it will be interesting to see who else gets in. If Murray is the nominee I’ll support him without hesitation.
The Phoenix ran an article a couple weeks ago mentioning Grossman, Coakley, and Capuano. It also mentioned the possibility of a special Senate election if Kerry gets appointed Secretary of State in the next Obama term. Of course any constitutional officer who runs for Governor vacates the post he or she currently holds, so plenty of opportunities for ambitious politicians in the next couple of years.
johnd, your post tells me you know very little about Tim Murray. In spite of the fact that Lt. Gov. Murray doesn’t know how to handle a car on an icy road, he is more than qualified to be Governor. It has been a long time since Massachusetts had a Lt. Governor who worked as hard or accomplished more than Murray. You won’t read it in the Globe (that strangely takes every opportunity to discredit him), but just ask any mayor across the state who is there for them when it comes to grant funding or gateway and seaport cities initiatives and they will say Murray. Ask the heads of the veterans organizations who fights hardest to ensure services to vets and their families and they will say Murray. Ask Deval who negotiated the transportation initiatives the Adm. brags about and who heads up the domestic violence and housing initiatives…again, Murray. And Murray is now leading the charge to make the case against closing MA military sites and the jobs that will go with them. Murray has been the work horse not the show horse of this Administration with little fanfare or acknowledgment. Americans have a habit of degrading Lt. Governors, Vice Presidents and 2nd in commands (to Err Is Truman) and in doing so we miss the true value of good public servants.
johnd: the article you reference is a great example of the Globe’s on-going effort to “report” and rehash no news/slow news on their front page and to disparage the Lt. Gov. We should all be grateful to Sec. of State Galvin for allowing us to easily access the OCPF records on-line so that we can fact check the Globe’s attempts to “massage” the news. The Estes-Murphy political info-trader team think it’s front page news that in a non-election year, a statewide candidate would not be ramping up fundraising. BREAKING NEWS: This is a US Senate and Congress election year. No other potential statewide candidates are ramping fundraising. (As there are apparently no Globe editors fact checking, allow me with the assistance of Sec. Galvin’s OCPF site to report: The following is the current financial information for each Constitutional Officer.
Fundraising Year To Date:
Patrick – $74,179
Murray – $134,491
Grossman – $165,533
Galvin – $69,650
Bump – $38,281
Cash On Hand:
Patrick – $96,665.80 (as of 6/15)
Murray – $220,278 & $31,766 in savings (as of 6/15)
Grossman- $320,244 (as of 6/30)
Galvin – $391,616 & $1,851,810 in savings (as of 6/30)
Bump – $38,281 (as of 6/15)
Coakley- $172,300 (as of 6/15)
The Estes-Murphy article also sited poll results that showed horserace results for Gov. against Charlie Baker. The June match ups for BOTH Grossman and Murray fell in the polls margin of error and were little different than the same companies (PPP) March results.
It took me about 10 minutes to fact check this story with on-line resources…problem is, I subscribe to the Globe and don’t think I should be the one to do it. Estes, Murphy, their self-serving sources and the powers that be at the Globe may not want Murray to be the next Governor (which given the tenor of their “reporting” is obvious) but selectively juggling facts is an affront to me and other readers.
and he should be a standup guy and come out and say McLaughlin did nothing wrong. I would like a picture of them together to add to my ones of him and Willie Lantigua.
While he’s at it he should back Tierney as well.
Too bad he’s toast. The Grossman forces have the goods on him and will put it our when the time is right.
Not surprised considering the source.
So because I say Murray is great and I am not a good source, does that mean he’s not great?
Like you are a reliable source on Murray. Your posts about him are so drooly (I just made that word up) that you sound like you want to date him, not support him as a candidate.
Here’s my main source of evidence about “the goods” on Murray. Notice how quiet the owners of this board are on the subject of Murray. That’s because they know, but they don’t want to put it out there. So they say nothing, which is smart.
merrimaker: BMGers have your number and know your act.
And I don’t mean that in a positive homosexual way.
The Grossman forces are taking your guy down.
Stories like this illustrate yet again why the Globe is an embarrassment to Massachusetts. The Boston Globe appears to be following the trajectory of Washington’s former “Evening Star” (today’s “Washington Times”).
I grew up reading the “Evening Star”. It hurts to see the Boston Globe following such a depressingly self-destructive path.
I agree with somerville Tom, the Globe is an embarrassment, but that’s the best thing that can be said about it. The Tim Murray character assassination with stories day after day about a car accident was abusive.
On the other side of the ledger, the globe has done something astounding. In the course of one week it ran:
Scott Brown’s Op-ed of 729 words — June 29th
Sunday Page One 2925-word adoration article + SIX photos – July 01, 2012
Scott Brown’s Letter to the Editor July 4th
(You can tell I’m obsessed, but endorsing a candidate is one thing. Doing his campaigning is beyond any journalistic standards I respect)
And here’s a little contrast. After Scott Brown’s out-and-out lie about secret meeting w/ kings and queens, the globe ran a couple stories – that he said; that he repeated it six times and the dems made silly video; and that he misspoke. Did the globe ask him about it why he kept saying this or what else he said is untrue or run op-ed after op-ed about what this lying says about him?
More contrast. You all may remember that Elizabeth Warren is of Cherokee heritage, which has not helped her academically or professionally. What has the glob done with this story? (The list may be incomplete but it’s all bad)
May 1, 2012: 931 words (inc Brown assertions)
May 3, 2012: 615 words (inc Brown assertions)
May 5, 2012 798 words – Negative op-ed
May 5, 2012 990 words – Negative story on page 1
May 10, 2012 708 words – Negative op-ed
May 10, 2012 640 words Negative Metro column
May 11, 2012 945 words – Negative Metro article
May 15, 2012 1145 words (Headline is “Brown and Warren honing messages” but whole piece is about Cherokee issue)
May 17, 2012 769 words op-ed that mentions it
May 18 Op-ed cartoon
May 25 1510 words article
May 30 657 Metro column
May 30 1253 word article
Jun 1, 2012 1166 words Metro column
Jun 4, 2012 1010 words article
Jun 5, 2012 728 words Op-ed
Jun 5, 2012 548 Op-ed
Jun 12, 2012 695 words negative op-ed
I can’t go on. Anyone game for participating in Cancel my subscription protest to call attention to what has become of what was never a great newspaper but is now just plain crappy.
– it will be lost mixed in with Murray’s issues.
This post should be separate thread starter…good research…But, I think the Globe has also been kind to Warren…especially in the run up to this race there were more than a few puff pieces…maybe they are trying to balance the scales, cover their bets. Their assaults on Muray have been far more obvious.
Scott Brown corrected the record!!!!!!!!!! Elizabeth Warren still has not released her applications to determine if she checked off she was Native American, and she still to this day, believes she is Cherokee. A women of her intelligence should know better, she is as much Cherokee as I am.
He lied about it, continuously and repeatedly, until it caught up with him.
He has 10 exclamation points on his argument. Clearly it is right.
… with John Edwards’ integrity when he corrected the record. At least that’s what Fox news said.
I’d be happy to run against Tim Murray, the Patrick administration’s point person on its “Housing First” approach to homelessness, who (among other miscalculations) last year talked the Legislature into funding a rental subsidy program that was intended to save money but that required a major infusion of cash only 4 months into the fiscal year and even with that help, had to shut its doors soon afterward, prompting the Secretary of Administration and Finance to concede that homelessness policy was “something admittedly we’ve had a hard time getting a handle on.”
Since I’m not Charlie Baker, I would not be pleased to have as the Democratic nominee a person whose current solution to the problem of homelessness is simply to deny emergency shelter to most homeless families.
All of the current candidates seem to want it bad. If Murray was a slam dunk they would be considering other options.
My observations:
Bump is doing a good job managing her PR. But is Governor too big a step up?
Grossman seems like he might have the inside track, but can he win with the population at large in a primary?
Is Coakley in the race?
Of course there is the big question post this November:
Do either Patrick or Kerry leave early for a Cabinet post?
I don’t see Bump running for Governor, though I wouldn’t rule out an attempt to move up the line of succession a bit if other constitutional offices are vacated by those incumbents.
Grossman has won a statewide contested primary so I’d say even betting.
Most observers say of course Coakley is looking at the Corner Office. It would fit the pattern of Middlesex DA to AG to running for Gov. a la Harshbarger and Reilly.
Patrick has insisted he will serve out this term, but maybe if a SCOTUS seat opens in the second half of the next presidential term. Kerry is seen as a good choice for State and I do hope he is picked.
He’s not a slam dunk, but I agree with hlpeary that there’s a ton that Murray has done that he doesn’t necessarily get a lot of credit for.
Besides, though a Bostonian by choice, I grew up in central Mass and it would be good for the state to have someone in the corner office who really understands the issues of the Worcester area (and points farther west).
Why do you think EW is lying about her Cherokee heritage? What reason was there ever to doubt her at all? I don’t have copies of every job application I’ve submitted. Do you really expect her to have hers? Besides, anybody who knows says it wasn’t a factor. This is neobirtherism, plain and simple!
I am sorry, Christopher but did EW go on the record asking Harvard to release any and all applications/forms to be released so this simple answer can be resolved? I think not.
So her mom at one time may have told her there was a Santa Claus, does that make it true? There is no proof she is anything Cherokee, zilch, nada. So CORRECT THE RECORD and stop being in denial. Why would you want EW to represent you if she can’t even be honest with herself? If she still believes she is somehow, someway, somewhat Cherokee, then she has a mental complex and does not belong in Washington.
Now, I did see a video on Redmassgroup where she was interviewed by Jim Braude and he pegged her down saying she supported single payer health care in the past and does she still today. She did a Mitt Romney and would not commit, very sad, typical politician.
I can’t absolutely prove my ancestry either, can you? Plus she’s from Oklahoma so the chances of her having Native blood are actually quite good. Like I say, yours to prove, not hers, and Harvard has already weighed in. I still want EW to represent me because of how she would vote, but you showed in the Tierney discussion that this very job description for either chamber of Congress is not relevant to you for reasons that passeth all understanding.
and can you document your claim?
Have no idea how the Warren Indian thing got here, but if we are still talking about it we are losing.
Second point Coakley for Gov? Really? She had her chance and blew one of the easiest races of all time. Sorry, if she was smart she would not become the Adlai Stevenson of MA politics, or the Chris Gabrielli.
Third point. Speaking of Chris I am sure he will throw in.
Fourth point, Murray’s issues haven’t really gotten a lot of press outside of junkie circles, it’s his to lose, though Grossman can fund. Expect that to be an ugly race.
Deval is the best Kerry replacement, hands down, the question is which placeholder does he support? Or is this all bunk since no one, and I mean NO ONE, outside of MA is even considering that Kerr will get it. Outside of our New England bubble the odds on money is on Susan Rice.