Tim Cahill: Attacks ‘backfired’
Independent slams Republican strategy
By Jessica Fargen | Sunday, November 7, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Politics
In his first in-depth interview since his bruising loss for governor, Independent Tim Cahill yesterday denied playing spoiler to Charlie Baker, instead blaming the GOP for its own candidate’s defeat.
“The RGA did what they felt they had to do. It backfired on them,” he said of the Republican Governors Association, which spent a whopping $4.6 million on attack ads in Massachusetts.
“I’m not saying it didn’t hurt me, but it hurt their guy just as much,’’ a relaxed and introspective Cahill told the Herald as he raked leaves in the front yard of his Quincy home.
“I may not have ever been able to get any closer than I was even if they hadn’t been there, but their guy might have gotten closer than he got and maybe he would have won. I wasn’t in it to spoil anything.”
Cahill said the RGA misread the Massachusetts electorate after Republican Scott Brown’s election in January to the U.S. Senate. The heavy involvement of the national Republican Party turned off independent voters and drove them to Deval Patrick, he said. Patrick was re-elected as governor Tuesday, beating Baker by 8 points — the exact share of the vote Cahill received.
Baker last week in an e-mail to supporters blamed his loss, in part, on Cahill’s candidacy.
“I think the fact that Republicans got pretty badly beat everywhere points more to their strategy not working than me being a factor,’’ he said. “I was a factor because they made me a factor.”
A spokesman for the RGA could not be reached. A Baker campaign spokesman did not return a call and e-mail yesterday.
In a wide-ranging, hour-long interview, Cahill, the state’s treasurer, looked back on the wild final month of the campaign, during which his Republican running mate, Paul Loscocco, defected to Baker and Cahill filed a lawsuit that dragged both campaigns into the mud.
Cahill, who was a registered Democrat before he ran for governor, called the Loscocco shocker a “turning point.” On Oct. 1, fewer than two hours after phoning Cahill to let him know he was leaving, Loscocco and Baker appeared at a press conference.
“It was a very strange day. I won’t forget any moment of that day,” he said. “It was shocking.”
Voters and the media, he said, took a dim view.
“It cost the Baker people,” he said. “Whether it cost them the election, I don’t know, but it certainly slowed down any momentum they had.”
A week later, Cahill filed a lawsuit claiming four members of his own campaign staff conspired with Baker to leak secrets. Baker claimed e-mails made public in the lawsuit showed Cahill’s campaign staff was working with the treasury to run positive Lottery ads this fall.
The defection, including that of top Republican strategist John Weaver, was the ultimate “betrayal,” Cahill said. He acknowledged that the lawsuit ultimately helped Patrick, but that was not his intention.
While the RGA attack ads aimed at Cahill hurt his campaign, Cahill said he is to blame for his own loss.
“I’ll take responsibility for everything we did. I’ll take responsibility for bringing John Weaver in. Mistake. For partnering up with Paul Loscocco. Mistake. It hurt me no question about it. Nobody made me do it.”
Cahill, who has worked in government since the 1990s, said he plans to leave the public sector and won’t be running for office soon. He will remain an Independent, he said.
“I have no regrets,” he said. “Now is my opportunity to go out and look and see what’s out there.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1294589
“Now is my opportunity to go out and look and see what’s out there.” There will be much less to see, after Patrick and the state legislature continues to screw up Massachusetts with: many more tax increases, much bigger government, more “red tape”, redistricting that allows big advantages to state Democrats, legislation that allows criminals to vote in future elections=a voter boost for Democrats, amnesty for illegal immigrants=a voter boost for Democrats,...More and more people and businesses will be leaving Massachusetts, for many years to come. THANK YOU TIM CAHILL-NOT! At least, the Massachusetts Congress will be losing one House seat.
A friend of mine just called me and told me that the todd and tom show on WRKO is being replaced as soon as tomorrow or wednesday with steve sweeney and joe malone, this is HUGE! Apparently someone called in and said to tom, “now you know how scott allen miller felt”. I aksed my friend if there was something in print but he said he can’t find anything in print and doesn’t think there is anything, it was announced on the show this morning and tom and todd want people to call all the other local shows and say “save tom and todd”, they are hoping to get back on the air and become legends like brudnoy did.