There Is an outdated political maxim that claims you possibly can’t beat anyone with no one.
Which is mostly true.
But there should be one other one which assumes you want a no one, just like the Republican Party in Massachusetts, to beat within the first place.
But there isn’t a Republican Party to beat any extra.
The Massachusetts Republican Party, a as soon as commanding group, beat itself and is all however extinct.
It is true that the get together has a brand new state chairman—Amy Carnevale—following the ouster of the controversial conservative Jim Lyons, who’s Donald Trump’s largest supporter round.
But that, to make use of a cliché, is like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. Led by former Gov. Charlie Baker, the Democrat’s favourite Republican, average Republicans deserted ship a very long time in the past.
Carnevale, who additionally supported Trump—in addition to Baker—thinks she will carry them again by transferring the get together again to the middle.
Good luck with that.
There are solely 437,211 registered Republicans within the state in comparison with 1,438,607 Democrats. More importantly there are 2,951,863 unenrolled or unbiased voters who can vote both method.
Republicans operating for governor can solely achieve success in the event that they, like Baker, can attraction to the independents.
Geoff Diehl, the conservative Trump supporting Republican candidate for governor, couldn’t do this and misplaced badly to Democrat Gov. Maura Healey.
The Republican Party in Massachusetts was merely worn out within the final election. All statewide constitutional workplaces from the governor all the way down to the state auditor are actually held by Democrats.
Both U.S. Senators and all 9 members of the U.S. House are Democrats.
At the State House, there are solely three Republicans within the 40-member state Senate and 29 within the 160-member House of Representatives.
And after veteran Bristol County Republican Sheriff Thomas Hodgson went all the way down to defeat by the hands of Democrat Paul Heroux within the final election, there are simply two of 14 Massachusetts sheriffs who’re Republicans.
Of the 11 district attorneys within the state, just one is a Republican.
We are withholding their names as a result of if the Democrats discover out who they’re they may defeat them too.
So it’s comprehensible why outgoing Democrat Party Chief Gus Bickford took a victory lap as he introduced plans of stepping down as get together chairman.
Bickford, who has held the put up since 2016, stated, “I am so proud to be able to step down as chair with more Democrats in the Legislature than when I began, and with an incredible team of Democrats in every statewide office.”
Hardly had Bickford accomplished a sentence than Gov. Maura Healey, now the nominal head of the Democrat Party, introduced her help of longtime get together operative Steve Kerrigan as his substitute.
Kerrigan is president of Worcester’s Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Care. He can also be a political addict, having first labored for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, starting as intern and rising to be Kennedy’s political director.
Following that, Kerrigan was chief of employees to Democrat Attorney General Tom Reilly from 2003 to 2007 and ran Reilly’s unsuccessful marketing campaign for governor in 2008. Reilly got here in third within the Democrat major that was gained by Deval Patrick.
Among different issues, Kerrigan was chief of employees of President Barack Obama’s first Presidential Inauguration Committee
Kerrigan was Democrat gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley’s lieutenant governor operating mate in 2014. They misplaced to Baker and Karyn Polito.
In 2018 Kerrigan ran for the open seat within the Lowell-based third Congressional District however pulled out of the race following a dying within the household.
Kerrigan, who has been across the block just a few occasions, brings plenty of credentials to the job. He additionally wants a win.
The query is, what’s he going to do along with his credentials now that there aren’t any Republicans round to defeat any extra.
Since Bickford and the Democrats have been so profitable in decimating the ranks of Republicans, Kerrigan’s first task will apparently be to entry the battlefield and shoot the wounded.
If he can discover any.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”