Posted on 11/28/2011 11:12:20 AM PST by freespirited
Rep. Barney Frank announced Monday that he will not seek election to a 17th term. While the seat will definitely lean toward the Democrats, the election to replace Frank will likely be somewhat competitive.
Massachusetts lost a seat in the 2010 decennial redistricting. In addition to eliminating that seat, state Democrats wanted to shore up the party’s performance in the former 10th district, in southeastern Massachusetts. As such, Frank's district was changed fairly dramatically, and about half of it would have been new territory for him. In particular, the district lost some white working-class towns in the southern portion of the state to the 9th district (based on the old 10th), while adding some suburban territory.
This doesn't make much difference at the presidential voting level. Massachusetts suburbanites tend to dislike the social conservatism of the national Republican Party and cast their votes accordingly for Democrats. But at the state level, these suburbanites held the key to the Republican gubernatorial wins from 1990 through 2002, and for Scott Brown’s Senate win in early 2010.
And so, Frank’s would-be Democratic successor will find him- or herself running in a district that barely went for Democrat Deval Patrick (who won statewide by six points) in 2010 and that gave Republican Brown a 10-point win. The district has also added the hometown of Richard Ross, Scott Brown’s successor in the state Senate, while retaining the home of Sean Bielat, who last year gave Frank his only truly difficult race in decades.
The Democrats should win this race, but if Republicans field a solid challenger, they’ll have a shot at picking off the seat.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Go to your nearest toilet.
Don’t flush.
Look down.
There’s Barney’s replacement.
(It’s Massachusetts, that’s what they elect.)
Barney would approve of the last sentence....
The age old question...WHO WANTS TO FILL BARNEY FRANK’S SEAT?
Who will fill his seat?
Frank to flee office before real FNMA GNMA hearings begin. Chris Dodd left early as well!
His seat is up for grabs.
Sean Bielat, his opponent in 2010. Bahney got only 54% of the vote, which apparently blew his mind.
THUFFERIN THUCKATATH! NOT THE BANKING QUEEN!
Cue up “Banking Queen” on the turntable...
How can we force him to pay for his crimes, the majority of congress is corrupt with only a few exceptions. Fire all of them.
Even if the entire cost of disinfection and purification (preferably by fire) of his office in DC must be borne by the taxpayers, I will consider it money well spent.
I wouldn’t have put it exactly that way but yes, this is MA and you should expect more of the same esp from his district. The elected correctly reflect the electorate.
Its not the working class towns that come out in support of him so much as the wealthy towns in the northern section of his district: Brookline, wellesley, Newton,Dover and so on. Lots of wealthy pissed off liberals in those towns. They vote for that clown over a Republican any day of the week.
That district didn't lose any of those towns that I know of so any Republican is still going to have a hard time of it. In anything its working class people who continue to wake up to the fact that Democrats are not their friends. If I recall correctly the ultra-wealthy towns in Massachusetts voted overwhelmingly for Obama in the primary. The working class towns voted for Hillary.
It’s difficult to be optimistic about taking Barney’s seat. How can the voters in that district gave him 16 terms?
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