We need the FISCAL DISCIPLINE MORE than anything else in this state.
The divisive, agenda-pushing, pro-Democrat Boston Globe sure thinks it is an important issue, though!
"Baker narrows list of running mates; Tisei seen in lead for lieutenant governor" by Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | November 20, 2009
Senate minority leader Richard R. Tisei of Wakefield, who is thought to be the leading candidate, is an only-in-Massachusetts character: a Republican leader who publicly disclosed yesterday that he is gay.
You know, SO WHAT? I DON'T CARE!!! I really don't care!!!
The best bet, according to campaign advisers familiar with the process, is that Baker will chose Tisei, whose time in the Legislature would provide balance for Baker, whose only experience in elective office was a stint as a Swampscott selectman. Tisei, 47, and Baker have known each other for years, and Tisei is Baker’s campaign chairman. Tisei was first elected to the House at age 22 and moved to the Senate in 1991. His sexual orientation has been an open secret on Beacon Hill, and he disclosed it publicly yesterday in an interview with the Globe, anticipating the scrutiny that would accompany a statewide candidacy. “It is not exactly a news flash,’’ he said . “I don’t think people really care these days.’’
NOPE!!!
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So WHY does the GLOB make it SUCH an ISSUE?!
"Baker names Senate’s Tisei as running mate; Split from national GOP over same-sex marriage" by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | November 24, 2009
WAKEFIELD - Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker, sending an early signal about the fiscally conservative, socially moderate administration he hopes to build, selected as his running mate yesterday Senate minority leader Richard R. Tisei, a veteran lawmaker who is also openly gay.
Baker’s choice highlighted his eagerness to reach out to Democrats and independents who dominate the Massachusetts electorate and to distinguish himself from national Republicans who have alienated some voters with their party’s policies on gay rights. Tisei, who leads five Republicans in the 40-member Senate, said he simply disagrees with national Republicans who oppose same-sex marriage.
Related: The Perils of One-Party Politics: The Problem
Who cares if he's gay?
He pointed out that, even as party leaders in other states have targeted Republican candidates for their support of gay rights, he has defended gay marriage in opinion pieces in his local paper and in a floor speech denouncing a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage that was backed by Mitt Romney, the state’s Republican governor at the time.
“I’m a Republican through and through, and we’re a family,’’ Tisei said. “And sometimes you agree to disagree on certain issues in your family.’’
Baker, whose brother is gay, also supports gay marriage. But neither he nor Tisei mentioned Tisei’s sexual orientation at an event introducing the new team yesterday. Instead, Baker emphasized that he and Tisei agree on the need to create jobs and stabilize the state budget.
Yeah, if you read the Globe all the time like I do you would think everyone is gay.
Maybe it is just living in Mass.
Selecting a gay running mate “is sort of an issue . . . but it’s nowhere near as important as the other stuff,’’ Baker told reporters after the event at the Americal Civic Center in Wakefield. “The goal here if we win, when we win, in November is going to be to get stuff done, and part of getting stuff done is understanding how the building works and working reform through the process. And Richard’s been doing that for his entire career.’’
In his district, Tisei has won praise from supporters for his work ethic and humble, plainspoken style.... and has a 93 percent approval rating from the antitax group Citizens for Limited Taxation and high marks from Associated Industries of Massachusetts and other business groups.
Then he's MY KIND of GAY, 'er, GUY!!!
If elected, Tisei would be the highest-ranking openly gay Republican in the country, according to the Victory Fund, a Washington-based group that seeks to elect gays and lesbians to office....
Just not going to let go of the issue, are they?
Daniel A. Grabauskas, a gay Republican who ran for state treasurer in 2002, said he saw Tisei’s candidacy as an indication of the state Republican Party’s tolerance compared to that of the national party.
WHO CARES?
Related: Morning T Ride on the Patrick Prevaricator
So the Patrick administration is homophobic, huh?
Only toward gay Republicans?
“Republicans on the national level coined the phrase ‘big tent,’ but the national Republican party has never lived up to that, while the Massachusetts Republican Party has absolutely lived up to that,’’ said Grabauskas, who helped run Tisei’s first Senate campaign in 1990 and attended the announcement yesterday.
Tisei, who spoke publicly for the first time about his sexual orientation in an interview with the Globe last week, said yesterday that his orientation was well known to his family, legislative colleagues, and supporters and not a major issue. He and his partner, Bernie Starr, co-own Northrup Realtors in Lynnfield and have entertained legislative colleagues at their house in Wakefield, Tisei said. “I’ve been very open about it,’’ Tisei, 47, said in an interview after he was formally announced by Baker before 40 sign-waving supporters....
At least he is not a whore like Barney Frank.
Baker, a former Weld administration official and former Harvard Pilgrim Health Care president, is one of three challengers seeking to unseat Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, in 2010. Christy Mihos, a former convenience store magnate, is also running for the Republican nomination, while state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill recently left the Democratic Party to mount an independent candidacy.
Tisei must still win support from Republican primary voters next year to win a spot on the general election ticket, and other Republicans could seek the spot. Baker’s hope is that with his naming of Tisei, other Republicans will pass on the race.As far as I'm concerned, it's over. Baker/Tisei for governor.
The move also allows the Baker campaign to raise more money, because the two can now each raise the maximum allowed under law for their joint campaign.
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So WHY does the Globe PERSIST with the DIVISIVE, AGENDA-PUSHING FOCUS, readers?
"Baker’s choice indicative of Mass. GOP’s uniqueness; Pick seen as nod to moderate wing" by Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff | November 24, 2009
Candidates for lieutenant governor are, at best, a secondary factor in voters’ decisions, but the fact that Baker has tapped Tisei, a veteran state legislator who is openly gay, is another strong signal that tolerance in Massachusetts sets the state apart from the national political culture, the GOP here is unique in the United States, and same-sex marriage is no longer a flashpoint of political contention in this state.
Then WHY SO MUCH PRINT, Glob?!!!!
Barring a successful intraparty challenge, Baker and Tisei will continue the ascendancy of the party’s socially moderate wing over the conservatives who rose to prominence in the 1980s after years of dominance by social progressives such as Francis W. Sargent, Elliot L. Richardson, Edward W. Brooke, and Leverett Saltonstall. “It’s a reflection of Massachusetts values and culture,’’ said Kerry Healey, who lost the governorship to Democrat Deval Patrick in 2006 while serving as lieutenant governor under Republican Mitt Romney. “This ticket will harken back to the successful formula we had back in 1990 with [William] Weld and [Paul] Cellucci. In many ways, 2010 feels like 1990.’’
It SURE DOES!!!!
DUMP the INCUMBENTS -- all of 'em!!!!!
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Weld, a former prosecutor, teamed up with Cellucci, a state senator and veteran Beacon Hill insider, on a Republican ticket two decades ago that captured the corner office after four terms of Democratic rule. Parallels to 1990 extend to the political environment, which, as it is now, was combustible because of an economy in shambles and tax increases....
The Republicans also captured the state treasurer’s office that year and knocked off six Democratic senators, giving Weld sufficient legislative support to sustain his vetoes for the next two years. Baker, who resigned after 10 years as chief executive of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care to run for governor, was a large presence in the Cabinets of Weld and Cellucci, as secretary of health and human services under Weld and later as secretary of administration and finance under both. Baker is a fiscal conservative who supports gay marriage and abortion rights.
I DON'T CARE about those last two; I ACCEPT THEM as a GOOD LIBERTARIAN WOULD!!!! Not happy about it, but the world ain't perfect and anyone waiting for it to be is going to find disappointment!
After spending 25 of his 47 years in the Legislature, Tisei, who was Weld’s campaign chairman, is now the Republican Senate leader....
More than half his life as a politician?
Concerns me, but that is what Baker needs to deal with those creepy critters on Beacon Hill.
The GOP is far from a lock to win a year from now as it attempts to oust Patrick.
Globe is hoping!
For seven consecutive decades, Republican registration has fallen, hitting an all-time low of 11.8 percent last year, and Republicans are outnumbered by more than 3-to-1 by Democrats. The party holds zero statewide offices or congressional seats and barely a 10th of the 200 seats in the Legislature.
That was BEFORE the LAST YEAR and ALL the STENCH coming from OUT THERE!!!
The Baker-Tisei alliance even recalls the Weld-Cellucci team with its ethnic makeup.
“It says we’re not just your father’s Republican Party,’’ said Peter I. Blute, a former Republican congressman and now radio talk show host at WCRN-AM in Worcester, of another team of candidates of Yankee and Italian descent....
As long as they are not, you-know.
Romney won as a moderate.... but by midterm began tacking hard to the right as he laid the groundwork for a presidential campaign in 2008. By the time he left office in January 2007, Romney sounded more like the governor of South Carolina than Massachusetts, after reversing his support for abortion rights, favoring harsh sanctions against illegal immigrants, and becoming a national figure in opposing same-sex marriage.
And WHO CARES?
Tisei endorsed one of his rivals, former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.
Well, that last part bothers me, but I understand why (the gay issue).
He didn't like Ron Paul?
Too tolerant of locals on the issue, huh?
The Romney metamorphosis undoubtedly contributed to the GOP’s wipeout in the Bay State in 2006.
That was THREE LONG, LONG YEARS AGO, Globe! GET your head OUTTA the ASS, I mean, PAST!!!!
Baker’s choice of Tisei should provide comfort to voters worried that Baker might pursue a similar path, said Maurice Cunningham, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
“You don’t want to get tarred with being a national Republican here like the last Republican governor who went so far off track as his national ambitions consumed him,’’ Cunningham said. “This says [Baker] will be a Massachusetts Republican today, tomorrow, and until the end of his term.’’
The GOP’s distinct minority status in such a liberal state means it must accommodate diverse social views under a larger tent of fiscal conservatism, said Daniel B. Winslow, a former district court judge and a chief legal counsel under Romney. “We don’t have the ability or the luxury to be exclusionary,’’ he said, “because all of Massachusetts is about four bandwidths to the left of the rest of the country.’’
Can you UNDERSTAND the PROFANE FRUSTRATION NOW, dear readers?!!!!
The rollout of the Tisei announcement was carefully managed. The lawmaker’s sexual orientation has been an open secret on Beacon Hill for many years, but he did not publicly declare he is gay until late last week when Baker’s campaign made it known he was one of four finalists to be running mate....
Give it a rest, will ya, Glob?
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Related: Patty Cake, Patty Cake, Baker's Man....
