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To: ninonitti

Question...I caught Hardball the day after the election. Matthews, for all his faults, knows Mass pols, and politics, very well. He said something which I thought was very interesting, but hasn’t been picked up in the MSM. He said that Menino’s machine in Boston had a strong enough GOTV operation that it could easily have made up the 100k votes the Brown won by. IOW, he suggested that Menino basically sat on his hands and that’s what cost Coakley the election....comments?


4 posted on 01/27/2010 7:14:41 AM PST by ken5050 (Save the Earth..It's the only planet with chocolate!!!)
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To: ken5050

Scott Brown campaigned in the North end of Boston; he seemed to be well received by everyone. I am not sure that would have happened if Menino and the Boston political machine was supporting Cloakley. I am not sure he could have cranked out 100,000 votes-but the election would have been very close. Close enough that Acorn could have stolen it.


5 posted on 01/27/2010 7:25:17 AM PST by Maine Mariner
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To: ken5050

My hindsight is 20/20, but here goes:

Boston had 43% turnout, with Coakley beating Brown by 59,000 votes. If the machine had turned out 70% (doubtful), that’s still not enough votes to overcome Brown’s lead.

Also, Menino himself is riding high after winning re-election 2 months ago. Why gamble his political capital on such a risky bet? He played it cool and didn’t lose anything.

The Massachusetts congressional delegation is still 11/12ths Democrat. They have a ckokehold on this state


6 posted on 01/27/2010 7:31:05 AM PST by Former War Criminal (My senior Senator (who served in Vietnam) said so.)
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To: ken5050

Someone posted before the election that there were backroom deals going on. To make a long story short, the support for Coakley by the usual suspects wasn’t there. I’ll go back and see if I can find it.


8 posted on 01/27/2010 7:44:05 AM PST by GQuagmire ( We are no longer Massholes)
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To: ken5050
Answer: Chris Matthews is talking out of his ass.

Boston had about a 43% turnout or around 154,000 votes total in the Senate race.

Compare this with 236,000 votes for the last presidental race.....which was very high and maybe even some kind of record.

So even if Mumbles had gotten all these folks out they would have only given Marsha another 50-55,000 votes given the 68% that Boston gave her. We can get into hair spliting over whether higher turnout in black precincts might have pushed the percentage higher, but even if all those votes had gone to Coakley it would only have closed the gap by around 80,000.

Menino didn't put much effort in it because Marsha didn't ask him for help until late in the campaign and unlike team there is a big I in Menino.

11 posted on 01/27/2010 8:41:06 AM PST by ninonitti
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