[Cross-posted from the ProgressMass blog. Like ProgressMass on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.]
News broke today that Republican Richard Tisei, the GOP’s failed nominee for Lieutenant Governor in 2010 and the GOP’s failed nominee for the 6th district Congressional seat in 2012, has filed paperwork to move forward on another run for the 6th district Congress seat in 2014.
Tisei put out a statement bemoaning “hyper-partisanship” and noting the need for, among other things, “more responsible Republicans.” Unfortunately for Tisei’s effort to pay lip service to “more responsible Republicans,” he recently had a very prominent opportunity to put partisanship aside and call out his own Republican Party, but he chose not to.
The recent shutdown of our federal government ended after more than two weeks once Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate negotiated a deal to which House Republicans ultimately acquiesced and allowed a floor vote (though a majority of House Republicans still voted against the deal, which would have also sent the United States into a default on the debt).
Throughout the shutdown, Republican Speaker John Boehner could have ended the shutdown at any time by allowing a floor vote on a “clean CR” to continue funding the federal government. The clean CR (or continuing resolution) would have passed the House with bipartisan support and ended the shutdown, having already passed the Senate.
In what appears to be his only public statement on the topic of the shutdown, Republican Richard Tisei attempted to argue that the blame for the shutdown rested equally with both Parties:
“People might blame one side more than the other,” Tisei said. “But they’re just appalled by the pettiness, the arrogance, the stubbornness on both sides.”
The same approach of lazily blaming “both sides” for the shutdown was also taken by Republican Charlie Baker. However, it simply isn’t accurate. Blame for the shutdown, and its more-than-two-week duration, rests singularly with Republican Speaker John Boehner, driven by the right-wing Tea Party faction of his House Republican caucus. While Tisei did offer some praise for Republican Congressman Peter King, who was vocal about wanting to end the shutdown, Tisei still failed to explicitly call out Speaker Boehner or the Tea Party faction driving the shutdown or call for a House floor vote on a clean CR.
Republican Richard Tisei had the opportunity to call out Speaker Boehner during the shutdown and publicly urge him to bring a clean CR to the House floor to end the shutdown (in bipartisan fashion). Tisei chose not to.
Should Tisei move forward with a 2014 Congressional campaign past the exploratory phase, he will no doubt have to work to distance himself from the national Republican Party to appear acceptably moderate to Massachusetts voters. That task will be much more difficult for Tisei given his unwillingness to explicitly call out Speaker Boehner over the shutdown when it was due. Further, as a result, it will be a much easier task for Tisei’s political opponents to cast Tisei as a willing vote for the Boehner and national Republican agenda.
Third time’s bound to be a charm for a two-time loser,’has-been’, rabid, corporate Teabaggin’, Koch boot-licking, right-wing apologist, reactionary Republican posing as a ‘moderate independent’, phony.
“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservative.” JOHN STUART MILL
Fred Rich LaRiccia
Tierney won a close victory with a libertarian serving as spoiler and Warren and Obama’s coattails. He won’t have the libertarian, Obama or Warren on the ballot and he will have Baker drawing in better GOP/unenriched turnout and decreased minority and youth turnout. On top
of this he is getting outraised by his primary challenger who could put up a real dogfight either bruising Tierney or replacing him entirely. And the GOP will invest a lot more in a must win district. Tisei is smart to run-but if he runs a dumb campaign or if we dump Tierney (ideally before a primary) it still gives us a decent shot.
Should say unenrolled didn’t meant to
Imply the GOP was unenriched
Financially enriched, yes for many of them.
Intellectually enriched, no for many of them.
Tierney outperformed Warren in his district. In fact, as great as Liz did across the state, she fared poorly in the 6th.
Unfortunately, I don’t still have the interactive map that showed how Liz compared to Tierney in the 6th anymore, but you can go look at the town-by-town results at the Globe (Senate, Congress) and confirm that pretty quickly.
A few examples:
Peabody: Warren lost by over 2,000 votes. Tierney won it by 2,000 votes.
Marblehead: Warren lost by 500 votes. Tierney just barely won it.
Swampscott: Warren won it by 200 votes. Tierney won it by 1,000.
Lynn: Warren won it by 9.5k votes. Tierney won it by 13.5k votes.
Gloucester: Warren lost by 700 votes. Tierney won it by 3,000.
Salem: Warren won by 4k votes. Tierney won by 7k votes.
Yes, Tierney’s victory was a very close one, but this isn’t a liberal district. This is a very, very competitive district that is a giant sea of red on the electoral map, only counterbalanced by a few very dense and relatively liberal or tossup areas.
I’m just not sure anyone could win this district at this point who hasn’t built relationships across it for decades, and who doesn’t have a very close and deep relationship with various communities that could provide the victory margin. Very few in the 6th have done that other than Tierney, which is why he’s able to do so well here — and yes, winning here at all constitutes “so well” in my book.
I know that doesn’t fit into the “Oh, my, Tierney is so weak, we’ve got to find someone new!” narrative, but in this 6th’ers humble opinion: The day Tierney isn’t on the ballot for the general election in this area will likely be the day we elect the first Republican in Massachusetts since 1996 (one of whom just so happened to come from this district.)
The only others who may have a shot at holding this seat at the moment is Mayor Kim Driscoll, Senator Tom McGee or maybe someone like Rep Steve Walsh. Even then, though, I’m not sure how well they’d do further out in the district against a strong challenger.
I don’t mean to sound fatalistic about the 6th — because we can win it, especially if Republicans fail to recruit top tier candidates — but it’s important we recognize just how increasingly difficult it is to win at this point.
The point I was trying to make is this won’t be a cakewalk and tying Tisei-a moderate and well known local legislator-to the national party won’t be enough. Seth Moulton as a veteran and businessman could be viable, I worry though that we may end up with a more conservative Democrat (at least fiscally) and that his prep school and Marblehead background wouldn’t be an asset. Driscoll is well known and popular as well and could win over unenrolled women as Clark has. But this primary challenge will waste money and resources, we should either force Tierney out and settle on a new nominee or do some serious polling to determine his viability,
Of course it won’t be a cakewalk — as I’ve pointed out, no race in the 6th ever could be if the GOP fields a serious challenger. Yet, you’re completely wrong about the importance of trying any challenger here to the national GOP. Of course it’s “enough!” It’s been “enough” in all three of the close wins over credible Republican candidates Tierney’s faced, going back to when he was first elected. Nothing could be so important in a race like this.
Boehner and House Republicans are the #1 attack Democrats have against the GOP in any competitive seat in this country: no matter how nice and “moderate” the candidates Republicans conjure up in these districts, they’ll be controlled by the Tea Party the moment they’re sworn in. That is a fact — and that’s why it sells so well in elections.
I could quibble over some misconceptions you have. Tisei is not that well known (his State Senate seat only had a tiny sliver of the district and even then, no state legislator is all that well known, even in their own district). Further, as he made clear last election, Tisei is no where near as moderate as you may think (the dude supported the Blunt Amendment!).
However, I don’t think those are the important matters. Boehner, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and the government shut downs all matter far, far more — and absolutely will make a big difference in 2014 in this race. Maybe even the difference.
Democrats still have to get out their vote — not ever an easy thing in some areas that are often low turnout — but while the district itself is fairly conservative, they’re not willing to vote for the party of Government Shut Downs and Obstructionism. Making this clear is absolutely, positively the critical issue in getting any Democrat to win in the 6th. A vote for Tisei — or any Republican they drag up — is a vote for John Beohnor. Period.
Seth Moulton — who wouldn’t even pick a party not so long ago — isn’t and never will be viable. If you think he’s going to get the vote out in Lynn, you have another thing coming. He has no connections across the district, never mind deep ones. There is no chance he can drive a big turnout. He won’t even be able to coalesce the Democratic activist base in this district.
Seth Moulton will get creamed if he was ever nominated, but there is zero chance of that ever happening. Rest assured.
So, we should knock out the guy who’s a proven winner because another guy with no connections in the district and no chance to win is going to primary him? Moulton is going to get squashed like a bug. He is not a serious candidate anymore than Marissa deFranco is.
There is no “settling” on a new nominee, either, as the primary process is defined by who’s running. Kim Driscoll is not running. She is not interested in running — her interests lie in other positions.
We have a guy who’s been in this seat for almost 20 years and who’s won three incredibly close elections in the process. Your wave-the-white-flag strategy seems a little self defeating and will go ignored by Tierney, as it has every time someone’s ever said he couldn’t win (and there have been many). He’s never failed to prove them wrong yet.
I’m sorry, jconway, but you’re just wrong on this seat and it’s clear that you have very little understanding of the 6th district. What you’re arguing here is the opposite of how things have worked and flies in the face of evidence I just showed you in my previous post, demonstrating that the guy who we’re running does better in the district than even the most popular Democrats statewide. Clearly, Tierney knows how to win the 6th when others haven’t.
You may see things a little clearer if you lived where I do, knowing the local players that make winning in the 6th possible. They will not work for a Seth Moulton, not now and not in a million years. Winning without the core activist base in the 6th is impossible.
I’m going to go with the guy who’s won and who’s served the district well for a long time now and I think we’ll get the same results.
Obviously I would never vote for Tisei, but this diary seems like an odd hit. Are we to believe that John Boehner would have been affected by a call from a former Massachusetts State Senator who challenged an incumbent and lost?
This isn’t about Speaker Boehner; it’s about Mr. Tisei. It’s not a matter of how “affected” Speaker Boehner would have been by Mr. Tisei calling him out; it’s a matter of Mr. Tisei’s (un)willingness to explicitly call him out at all.
Mr. Tisei is expected to base his U.S. House candidacy on claims of independence and bipartisanship. But, if he’s unwilling to call out Speaker Boehner when 1) Speaker Boehner is at fault, and, 2) Mr. Tisei isn’t even in Boehner’s House GOP caucus yet, how “independent” can voters expect Mr. Tisei to be if he actually is a member of Boehner’s caucus?
Mr. Tisei’s unwillingness to call out Speaker Boehner suggests that Mr. Tisei is more likely than not to simply toe the House GOP line if elected to Congress, undermining Mr. Tisei’s claims of independence and bipartisanship.
Would you acknowledge a bit of difference between, say, Barack Obama the 2002 State Senator opposing the Iraq War, and, say, Barack Obama the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee supporting continued action in Iraq?
In order for Tisei to have any burden to speak, there has to be some reasonable expectation that it would make a difference. I don’t know where to draw that line, but I’m pretty sure Tisei on the other side of it. I’m happy to concede that he didn’t call anybody out, but it it really makes no difference. No one would have listened.
But I may be missing the point.
that he was almost certainly planning his 2014 run for Congress in early October, seeing as how he’s already gone public and the shutdown ended under two weeks ago. He could have displayed leadership and given a concrete example of how he would diverge from his party when they’re being insane.
Even if he didn’t call Boehner, politicians grandstand to get their position in the local paper all the time. He did nothing. When pressed, he opted for false equivalence. I’m betting even Gomez would have said the GOP was wrong. That Tisei missed such a clear opportunity to demonstate his “independent” and “bipartisan” bona fides, it’s strong evidence they’re not so bona fide after all.
promise to bite the hand that feeds me once it gets me elected.
to help ultra-conservative Republicans undo the New Deal
In today’s world, “moderate Republican” is an oxymoron.
Are great proof against the idea that electing more moderate Republicans will make a difference. Both voted against the shutdown and bitched about it the entire time-but when King and Dent claimed they had “20 votes” to fund a clean CR-they were the only two that ended up voting for it.
I thought the final bill passed the House with about 200 Democratic votes and over 80 Republicans.
My timeline wasn’t clear, they were trying to pass a clean CR to avert the shutdown before it happened, King claimed to have 20 votes and only he and Dent voted for it in the end.
The vote to end the shutdown was obviously a stronger majority and I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.
My broader point is, if Tisei says he can be a player by being a moderate Republican and move the party in the House to the middle he is clearly fooling himself, the voters, or both.
or have understood it for all the years they’ve kept putting Tierney in office, including the three races where he faced incredibly strong challenges?