Ed King was probably the best MA Governor since Calvin Coolidge in the late 1910s. You might remember that Dukakis had initially defeated the daffy RINO Governor Frank Sargent back in '74 to serve a single term before King upended him in the primary (much to the chagrin of the radical left in the state, most of whom switched to support the Republican ticket, and can you guess what certain, ahem, "Republican" was the nominee for Attorney-General in the '78 general ?). King did such a fantastic job governing as a Conservative that the hard-left got its revenge in '82 by defeating him in a primary rematch and re-coronating the horrid Dukakis. Dukakis, being the slimebag rodent that he was, took credit for ALL of King's programs (it was King, along with President Reagan's policies, that were responsible for the "Massachusetts Miracle."). King later on DID switch to the Republicans, but bumbling on the part of the party in the late '80s kept him from ever obtaining a rematch.
Alas, back in 1990 I was one of those teenage Republicans who thought that ANY Republican was better than ANY Democrat. It took me 8 years and my own treacherous RINO Governor to finally see the light. It was really incredible to see that there were 2 out of 3 leading candidates for Governor in 1990 that were Conservatives, and the other one was a liberal nut loose-cannon who had been badmouthing the Reagan adminstration, bashing Ed Meese, and taking all sorts of potshots. Guess which one that was ? If the general election contest had ended up between House GOP leader Steve Pierce and DINO John Silber, either one would've made above average leaders (some don't realize that Silber's blunt and honest talk, criticizing a whole class of "parents" who were dumping their kids into day care as a substitute for raising their own, that cost him the election - with the weasel Weld taking the radical left position that how DARE Silber tell parents they couldn't dump their kids and expect them to turn out A-OK).
It was just that after Dukakis, even a Socialist RINO would've looked good... until we saw exactly what he inflicted in short order. You know it was bad when LIBERAL Republicans were complaining that he was doing NADA for the party...
Of course, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know... ;-)
I just wish I could go back to the early 90's and try this whole thing over again. The only thing we Republicans have left in Massachusetts now adays is 3 or 4 Real Republicans in the Legislature and Mitt Romney, somebody that might not even run for Governor in 2006, let alone get relected to it. Plus hes kind of gotten wishy washy lately on his position stances, though I think not as bad as some FReepers characterize him.
Well! You certainly know your Mass politics, and if I can turn off the sarcasm for a moment, maybe you should write a book. Wasn't Bill Weld reelected by something like 83%, the highest margin ever? He is a smart guy, but one of the laziest guys in the world, and when he found out there wasn't much he could accomplish in a one party state, he got bored, and had nothing to show for his second term. Frank Sargent...at least he killed the inner ring. And I'm still trying to remember who ran for AG in 78 :)