A GOP Governor in Massachusetts?

RHP ^ | 4/18/10

[rightbrained]

But let's take a look at the situation here. Current Democratic Governor Deval Patrick, a close ally of President Obama, has helped run the state into the ground after Governor Romney straightened out a lot of the state government. Patrick won 55%-35% in a three-way race in 2006. Now he suffers from anemic approval ratings and in any other state would appear vulnerable.

But this is Massachusetts.

[rightbrained]

Another Upset?

[svcw]

A Republican governor in Massachusetts, well that would be a first.

[Steelfish]

Tweedledum and Tweedledee: Both support gay marriage and abortion rights.

[Zeddicus]

Would not be that surprising. MA has had GOP governors in the past fairly often. Granted, they’re usually RINOs (Mitt Romney?), but still not as damaging as the honest-to-goodness Communists that are our usual Dem alternative here.

[AU72]

Democrat Treasurer Cahill is running and he may Perot Patrick back in.

[max americana]

and when Patrick loses, I’m almost sure he’ll blame it on “racism”.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Cahill is the most Conservative candidate running. Baker is just another Slick Willard failed liberal RINO.

[dr_who]

Another opportunity for a RINO. Whoop!

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

How much will Willard the rat's RomneyCare add to the problem?

[Diogenesis]

The article has so many errors as to be a proRomney joke.

"As U.S. real output grew 13 percent between 2002 and 2006, Massachusetts trailed at 9 percent.
* Manufacturing employment fell 7 percent nationwide those years, but sank 14 percent under Romney, placing Massachusetts 48th among the states.
* Between fall 2003 and autumn 2006, U.S. job growth averaged 5.4 percent, nearly three times Massachusetts' anemic 1.9 percent pace.
* While 8 million Americans over age 16 found work between 2002 and 2006, the number of employed Massachusetts residents actually declined by 8,500 during those years.
"Massachusetts was the only state to have failed to post any gain in its pool of employed residents," professors Sum and McLaughlin concluded.
In an April 2003 meeting with the Massachusetts congressional delegation in Washington, Romney failed to endorse President Bush's $726 billion tax-cut proposal."
[Cato Institute annual Fiscal Policy Report Card - America's Governors, 2004.]

---

“The Massachusetts Republican Party died last Tuesday.
The cause of death: failed leadership.
The party is survived by a few leftover legislators
and a handful of county officials and grassroots activists
who have been ignored for years.
Services will be public and a mass exodus of taxpayers will follow.
In lieu of flowers, send messages to Republican voters
warning them about a certain presidential candidate named Romney.”
- Boston Herald, 11/12/2006

---

"In 2006, while Romney was chairman of the National Republican
Governors Association - a group dedicated to electing more
Republican governors - his own hand-picked Republican successor
as governor lost badly to the Democrat, despite the fact that Republicans
have held the governorship in Massachusetts since 1990. Romney largely
ignored the Massachusetts elections and spent most of the time
during the campaign out of state building his presidential campaign.
He came back and publicly campaigned for the Republican candidate
the day before the general election!
“Locally, this is a rebuke to Mitt Romney and checking out within six months
after being elected and having accomplished almost nothing,”
[Jim] Rappaport [former chairman of the state Republican Party]."
- Boston Globe, 11/8/2006

---

"Governor Mitt Romney, who touts his conservative credentials to out-of-state Republicans,
has passed over GOP lawyers for three-quarters of the 36 judicial vacancies he has faced,
instead tapping registered Democrats or independents -- including two gay lawyers who
have supported expanded same-sex rights, a Globe review of the nominations has found.
Of the 36 people Romney named to be judges or clerk magistrates, 23 are either registered Democrats
or unenrolled voters who have made multiple contributions to Democratic politicians
or who voted in Democratic primaries, state and local records show.
In all, he has nominated nine registered Republicans, 13 unenrolled voters,
and 14 registered Democrats."
- Boston Globe 7/25/2005

---

Romney Rewards one of the State's Leading Anti-Marriage Attorneys by Making him a Judge
Romney told the U.S. Senate on June 22, 2004, that the "real threat to the States is not the
constitutional amendment process, in which the states participate,
but activist judges who disregard the law and redefine marriage . . ."
Romney sounds tough but yet he had no qualms advancing the legal career of one
of the leading anti-marriage attorneys. He nominated Stephen Abany to a District Court.
Abany has been a key player in the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association which,
in its own words, is "dedicated to ensuring that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision
on marriage equality is upheld, and that any anti-gay amendment or legislation is defeated."
- U.S. Senate testimony by Gov. Mitt Romney, 6/22/2004 P>

---

"Romney announces he won't fill judicial vacancies before term ends
Despite his rhetoric about judicial activism, Romney announced that
he won't fill all the remaining vacancies during his term - but instead
leave them for his liberal Democrat successor!
Governor Mitt Romney pledged yesterday not to make a flurry of lame-duck
judicial appointments in the final days of his administration . . . David Yas,
editor of Lawyers Weekly, said Romney is "bucking tradition" by resisting the urge to
fill all remaining judgeships. "It is a tradition for governors to use that power to appoint judges
aggressively in the waning moments of their administration," Yas said.
He added that Romney has been criticized for failing to make judicial appointments.
"The legal community has consistently criticized him for not filling open seats quickly enough
and being a little too painstaking in the process and being dismissive of the input of the
Judicial Nominating Commission," Yas said.
- Boston Globe 11/2/2006

[donhunt]

I am by no means a Deval Patrick fan but look at the state legislature that he has to work with. They’re basically all DRats, drunks, crooks, and perverts that make a career out of state politics and most have never worked an honest day in their lives.

[9YearLurker]

Is the biggest issue here how much of the anti-Deval vote Cahill is able to peel off?

[GQuagmire]

Weld,Celluci,Swift,Romney before Patrick. Not exactly rock ribbed conservatives, but certainly not Dems

[acapesket]

Deval is Axeldork;s first AA failure.
Bambi is clearly the most colossal.
Cahill has pension plan problems.
Charlie Baker’s running mate voted to kill the citizen led initiative to revoke the judicially fiatted gay marriage before he came out of the closet.
I will do what I always do and write in “Mickey Mouse”

[07Jack]

Alot of folks here on Free Republic said it couldn't happen here in NJ and many labeled GOP candidate Chris Christie as a RINO that was not worthy of a true conservative’s vote.....but so far he has proven the naysayers wrong.

Good luck to the folks in Massachusettes, listen carefully to your candidates and vote your conscience.

[svcw]

Well, like I said (ok sarcastically) they never have had a Republican governor.

[GQuagmire]

Not much choice this time around at all.

[NonValueAdded]

Put Sarge In Charge

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Between Dukasis and Patrick, every governor of Massachusetts was a Republican. Weld, Salucci, Swift, Romney. RINOS, sure, but at least nominally Republican. Until the 1930's Massachusetts was considered a Republican bastion. Calvin Coolidge was governor of Massachusetts.

[hinckley buzzard]

I am by no means a Deval Patrick fan but look at the state legislature that he has to work with. They’re basically all DRats, drunks, crooks, and perverts that make a career out of state politics and most have never worked an honest day in their lives.

So what is your point? It sounds like he fits in perfectly.