William ‘Mo’ Cowan to be interim US senator
I mean after him. Sometimes I guess it's okay to be a lock-step loyalist, huh?
Cowan’s path to Senate began in small-town N.C.
Hey, I'm sure it's a great life story, but...
For Patrick’s top aide ‘Mo’ Cowan, echoes of boss’s rise, obstacles
Patrick confident in choosing confidant Cowan
Cowan the crony?
In naming Mo Cowan to Senate, Patrick lessens state’s clout
Globe doesn't like him?
I'm sorry, folks, but I simply won't have time to read those items.
Looking ahead:
"Leaders in party support Markey" by Frank Phillips | Globe Staff, December 29, 2012
Top members of the Democratic establishment on Friday threw their weight behind the Senate candidacy of US Representative Edward Markey in what appeared to be a coordinated effort by party leaders to close ranks behind the congressman and avoid a divisive primary....
The rallying of support behind him sends a clear sign to other potential Democratic candidates, namely Representatives Michael Capuano of Somerville and Stephen Lynch of South Boston, to stay out of the race.
Both representatives were bristling at the bold move Friday night, and offered no indication that they would back off any consideration of entering the race, according to a top Democratic operative who was in contact with both camps.
The unusual attempt to clear the field for Markey reflects the Democratic leaders’ eagerness to avoid a primary battle that would drain resources and potentially create bitterness within the party....
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"Media giants big donors to Rep. Markey; His committee oversaw industry" by Michael Levenson and Noah Bierman | Globe Staff, January 09, 2013
Representative Edward J. Markey, a leading contender to replace Senator John F. Kerry, has never been known as an aggressive fund-raiser. He did not need to be.
From 1987 to 2008, his perch atop a powerful congressional committee that oversaw the multibillion-dollar telecommunications and media industries during a period of explosive growth and intense competition helped him build what is now a $3.1 million war chest.
The communications and electronics industries have been Markey’s largest sources of campaign cash....
The list of Markey’s top 20 donors over those years is studded with multinational media conglomerates, including Time Warner, AT&T, News Corp., Comcast, Sprint, Viacom, Walt Disney, General Electric, and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
The biggest contributor on the list is DLA Piper, the politically connected law and lobbying firm whose clients include Raytheon, the Massachusetts-based defense contractor. Other major donors include finance, insurance, and energy firms.
Markey’s campaign account has helped him hold his House seat for 37 years, scaring off potential challengers. Now, it has made him the early leader among Democrats seeking to replace Kerry.
Despite the corporate donations Markey has collected, consumer advocates say the Malden Democrat has consistently voted against industry interests in his roles as either chairman or top Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications.
The panel has been at the center of fierce fights between telephone, cable television, wireless, and broadcast companies as they battled for dominance in an exploding world of Internet commerce and digital consolidation.
“He would have the lowest for-sale ratio in the country,” said Mark Cooper, longtime research director at the Consumer Federation of America, an association of non-profits that seeks to check corporate media power. “They may give him money, but he certainly never demurs from opposing them on every key issue.”
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Even if Markey is seen as hostile to corporate interests, the industry wants lawmakers like him to consider their viewpoints, said Marian Currinder, a senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University.
“You’re not counting on Markey — if you’re a big industry group — to vote for you, but you want him to hear what you’ll have to say,” said Currinder.
“Even as ranking member, he can make your life difficult,” Currinder said.
Israel Klein, Markey’s former communications director, who served as his national finance director in 2004, said media conglomerates and other corporations that donate to Markey never expect to get “more than a fair hearing.”
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Klein, who is now a lobbyist representing several major energy companies, another area where Markey has been a key player. “They continue to support him because they like him.”
You can go see who else likes him.
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Also see: Scramble underway for John Kerry’s Senate seat
Mass. braces for third Senate race in four years
You can thank Ted Kennedy and the Democrats for that.
Scott Brown still silent on Senate campaign
Weld’s return to Boston brings speculation of a Senate run
Capuano won’t seek Kerry’s seat in Senate
He got the message.
A confirmed entry into the field:
"Rep. Stephen Lynch to declare run for Senate; Entry a challenge to Democratic establishment" by Frank Phillips and Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, January 29, 2013
US Representative Stephen F. Lynch has painted himself as a scrappy outsider unbeholden to the Washington establishment. He has a voting record largely in line with the rest of the state’s Democratic delegation and strong support from unions that can turn out Democratic voters in the primary. But some of his socially conservative positions on abortion could prove problematic in the primary, where voters from the liberal flank of the party have a strong influence.
As a state legislator, he had a 100 percent voting record from Massachusetts Citizens for Life, said the organization’s president, Anne Fox, who recalled once attending a house party in which Lynch pointed proudly to his record on the issue. In Congress, Lynch has sided with the National Right to Life Committee 38 percent of the time.
See: Lynch's Lies About the Ladies
In 2009, during debate on President Obama’s health care overhaul, he joined antiabortion activists and voted for the Stupak amendment, which sought to ban the use of federal funds for abortion or health plans that covered abortion.
In 2010, he sided with Republicans and voted against the health care bill. Lynch said he opposed the legislation because the Senate had added the so-called Cadillac tax on expensive insurance plans and because he was disappointed that the bill did not allow states to adopt government-run insurance plans, a liberal priority. Lynch has said that he would not seek to repeal the law.
On the Republican side, Scott Brown, former senator, continues to stay silent about his intentions as he considers jobs in the private sector. His low profile has produced a great deal of anxiety among Republican leaders who feel he has a strong shot at winning the seat. Polls confirm that, if he enters the race, Brown holds an advantage over Markey.
Really?
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Related: The Reincarnation of George Romney
And he ain't it.
So what intere$t$ does the Globe say should be looked after by our new interim senator?
"3 departures curtail New England’s political muscle" by David Uberti | Globe Correspondent, January 30, 2013
WASHINGTON — Senator John F. Kerry used his experience and relationships in the Senate to help secure more Navy ships for coastal combat, boosting Massachusetts technology jobs. Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent, fought hard to protect Connecticut’s submarine-building franchise. Olympia J. Snowe, Maine’s moderate Republican, built a reputation ensuring Bath Iron Works continued hammering out destroyers.
Would you expect any other concern coming from the war paper?
Anybody remember how Joe "won" his seat?
But now this powerful trio of veteran New England senators is gone, sapping the region’s political clout. Snowe and Lieberman retired and, on Tuesday, Kerry won confirmation as secretary of state.
Gone is their combined 70 years of experience in the Senate, creating a challenge for the less-experienced New England senators and newcomers who must assume leadership roles in a clubby chamber where the key political currencies are seniority and personal relationships.
“This is the first time in a while the state of Massachusetts finds itself in this position [without senior senators],” said Stephen Ansolabehere, a professor of government at Harvard University....
Meaning we won't be able to easily loot public tax dollars as in the past.
In the Capitol, experience not only catapults senators atop committee leadership, but it proves key when the Senate writes bills that decide winners and losers in economic matters, from research grants to military weapons procurement. Where Kerry, Snowe, and Lieberman could win favors in legislation with a phone call or a private huddle on the Senate floor, the region’s less-experienced senators will have to wear out a lot more shoe leather....
Darrell West, director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, said, “It’s a risky time for New England.”
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Massachusetts contracts garnered nearly $14 billion in federal defense and homeland security projects last year, according to the Defense Technology Initiative, a regional trade group. Connecticut firms nearly mirrored the total, bringing in $12.7 billion. Bath Iron Works in Maine, meanwhile, builds Navy destroyers and is among the state’s largest employers.
And yet Massachusetts has this image as some sort of liberal, antiwar place. Maybe the people feel that way, but it is not reflected in our state government.
Lieberman and Snowe used their moderate profiles and swing votes to leverage contracts for the region, West added. Lieberman emerged in the early 1990s as a champion of local military dollars by opposing Pentagon reductions in fast-attack submarines, made in Connecticut. Snowe, meanwhile, prevailed against a 2004 Navy proposal to shift destroyer production from Maine to Mississippi....
Maine will be aided by Senator Susan M. Collins , a Republican who worked with Snowe to protect the state’s shipyards.
Senator Richard Blumenthal — now Connecticut’s senior senator — said he is eagerly taking up the fight for the state’s air and sea contractors. And Jack Reed of neighboring Rhode Island is a veteran senator who consistently looks out for submarine building in the region.
But we elect Democrats because they are the peace party.
Chris Murphy, Connecticut’s freshman senator, said Lieberman’s defense savvy cannot be replaced overnight. But he added that he had already fought for in-state contractors during a six-year-stint in the House. Given recent turnover in the Senate, he said, that “makes me pretty senior these days,” he said....
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts faces a different — and perhaps tougher — opening act, as she will temporarily work with a senator appointed by Governor Deval Patrick before the June 25 special election for Kerry’s seat. Warren did not respond to requests for comment and declined to discuss the issue when approached outside the Senate chamber.
Given her history as a consumer advocate and recent appointment to the Senate Banking Committee, Warren may focus more on financial regulation than military contracts, Ansolabehere said.
Related: MSM Monitor: Did Warren Really Win?
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Warren's Whining
She's making a lot of people whine with the fact that she won.
With his 47 years of Senate experience, the late Edward M. Kennedy possessed an in-depth understanding of the industry’s importance to the Bay State economy, said Chris Anderson, president of the Defense Technology Initiative, a Massachusetts nonprofit that seeks to grow the region’s defense industry. Warren’s predecessor, Scott Brown, is a National Guard colonel who sat on the Armed Services Committee and advocated for Bay State firms.
Related: Meet Your Antiwar New England Liberals
At least he voted against the Iraq War, right?
Brown joined Kerry and the Massachusetts delegation in opposing cuts to the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford last year. Efforts like those helped him amass a $319,000-to-$11,000 advantage over Warren in election-year contributions from defense firms, campaign finance records show.
But Blumenthal said the importance of experience in garnering defense dollars is overstated. The Democrat, elected in 2010 and now sitting on the Armed Services Committee, said in an era of tightening defense budgets, the importance of seniority is “diminishing to the point of almost irrelevance.”
“A senator cannot persuade the president, the Armed Services Committee, not to mention the military itself, that dollars should be squandered for local interests,” Blumenthal said. “This process is so fact-driven now. We’re dealing with military professionals who will simply not sacrifice dollars willingly.”
He can say that with all the war-profiteering corruption out there?
Blumenthal added that a senator’s personal interest in military issues can compensate for lack of the seniority.
After he just said it wasn.... pretty good trick, Dick, talking out of both sides of your mouth.
“What wins the day is the merits of the equipment,” he said. “I’ve been to Afghanistan three times. I can come back and tell my colleagues, ‘You should see what this helicopter can do.’ Nothing beats seeing this stuff on the ground.”
That after the latest crash, or.... sigh.
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UPDATES: Cowan pick is 100 percent Patrick
The virtues of inexperience
GOP prods a hesitant Scott Brown to run for Senate
The search for a big senator
