Related: May Day: Gomez Makes His Markey
The Repuglicans got a Brownie that is also a Hispanic?
"Gomez gave himself edge in cash" by Stephanie Ebbert | Globe Staff, May 02, 2013
For political insiders, the question is this: How did newcomer Gabriel E. Gomez snatch the US Senate nomination from two Republican rivals with longstanding local ties.
Was it the fresh face? The life story as a Navy SEAL? Had he assembled a vast organization of volunteers?
While Gomez’s profile might be new, political analysts said, his main advantage was as old as politics: Money.
In a low-turnout, short-lived special election in which voters were distracted by more urgent news of the bombing in Boston, Gomez had a financial edge that empowered him to distinguish himself from his cohorts and capitalize on his unique biography.
A private equity investor who lives in Cohasset, Gomez injected $900,000 of his own money into a campaign that spent about $1.5 million — a sum that dwarfed his competitors’ efforts....
Wow, he put in nearly a $1 million?
Democratic political consultant Mary Anne Marsh contrasted his visibility to the invisibility of perceived frontrunner Michael J. Sullivan. The former federal prosecutor and state lawmaker sent mailers and did frequent interviews but did not run television advertisements.
“How anyone thinks they can get elected to anything these days, let alone US Senate, [without television advertising] is ridiculous,” Marsh said. “Gone is the day that you can live off of old name recognition.”
Sullivan campaign manager Paul Moore said his campaign did not have the money to advertise on television and instead ran radio ads for four days. In total, Moore estimated his campaign only spent about $350,000, less than a quarter of Gomez's tab, though a third-party group, the Conservative Campaign Committee, was separately advertising on Sullivan’s behalf.
With a limited budget, Moore said, Sullivan’s team focused on hardcore primary voters: the Republicans who were known to have shown up for primary elections.
But a day after the loss, Moore said he considered that a miscalculation, concluding that the most consistent Republican voters must have been frustrated and stayed home....
No, we were unenrolled and went for Lynch.
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Related: Like Brown, but in a bomber jacket
Uh-oh, Ed.
"Markey, Gomez spar on funding by outside groups" by Michael Levenson and Noah Bierman | Globe Staff, May 02, 2013
Republican Gabriel E. Gomez, fresh off his upset victory, kicked off the special election campaign Wednesday by labeling his Democratic opponent, Edward J. Markey, a “poster boy” for term limits and by refusing to sign a pledge to limit special interest money in the race.
Markey, a 36-year veteran of Congress, quickly hit back at Gomez for saying he personally opposes abortion and would vote against a ban on assault weapons. He warned that Gomez’s rejection of the so-called People’s Pledge to limit outside money would unleash a flood of negative ads in their race.
The vigorous back-and-forth reflected the sudden energy in the Massachusetts Senate race, a day after Gomez, a wealthy investor and former US Navy SEAL with almost no electoral experience, scored a come-from-behind victory against two opponents with much longer roots in the state Republican Party.
As the candidates sprint toward the special election on June 25, the race could become a nationally watched contest with heavy involvement by special interests.
The level of spending from outside groups, however, will be determined largely by polling, some of which has already begun....
Some Republicans believe Gomez will draw national support, because he is a Latino in a party trying to broaden its appeal, because he is a fresh face challenging a veteran Democrat in deep-blue Massachusetts, and because the contest is currently the only Senate race in the country.
I never think of all that stuff. It's what are the positions of people.
“It’s the only thing on the map,” said Alex Castellanos, a Washington-based Republican strategist who donated $1,000 to Gomez in the primary. “It’s new versus old. It’s a state that has been at the center of the political debate, whether it’s Mitt Romney or Scott Brown. And if Republicans can compete in Massachusetts, Democrats will cower in fear everywhere.”
They had plenty of practice during the Bush years.
If they choose to get involved, super PACs will be free to launch ads in the race. Gomez said Wednesday that he would not sign the People’s Pledge to block special interest spending. Brown and Elizabeth Warren pioneered the pledge in their Senate race last year.
Gomez said that he considered the pledge meaningless because Markey has accepted $3.2 million from PACs since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign spending.
“It’s the height of hypocrisy,’’ Gomez said of Markey’s proposal, accusing the representative of taking outside money from groups he regulates.
Markey said he would make a major issue of Gomez’s rejection of the pact, which says that if a group runs an ad on behalf of one of the candidates, that candidate must donate 50 percent of the cost of the ad campaign to a charity of his rival’s choosing.
“I am going to challenge Gabriel Gomez every single day, day after day, to take this pledge,” he said at his only stop of the day, a unity event at the Omni Parker House with his vanquished rival from the Democratic primary, Representative Stephen F. Lynch. “And I am not going to stop until the people of Massachusetts force him to take this pledge.”
That's not going to win you the election.
But Markey, pressed several times by a reporter, also indicated that he would not unilaterally abide by the pledge if Gomez refuses to sign it.
“I believe that in order to do this correctly, you need two people to take the People’s Pledge,” he said.
The League of Conservation Voters is among the groups that could help Markey. During the primary campaign, the league paid for door-to-door canvassers for Markey....
One of them came here about 6 a.m. as I was leaving to get the Globe that wasn't there.
Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney’s former strategist who advised a pro-Gomez super PAC in the primary, did not respond to a call and e-mail.
Americans for Prosperity, a group founded by conservative brothers David and Charles Koch, has generally stayed out of special election races in other parts of the country this year.
“It’s something that’s certainly on our radar, but at this point we haven’t made a commitment one way or another,” said Levi Russell, the group’s director of public affairs.
Yeah, they have bigger fish to fry.
Despite Markey’s unity event with Lynch Wednesday, he may face difficulties healing the wounds with trade unions that backed Lynch, a former labor leader, during the primary.
The president of the national Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO will seek a meeting with Gomez because the union has strong reservations about Markey, said a senior official who requested anonymity because the union has yet to make an endorsement. The union backed Lynch in the primary.
Uh-oh. The FIX is IN!
The official said Markey’s vocal opposition to nuclear power and the oil, gas and utility industries puts him at odds with union members who depend on those industries for employment....
At the event Wednesday, Markey, who supports legalized abortion and an assault weapons ban, made clear that he considers Gomez’s stances on those issues to be major vulnerabilities....
Those issues, while important, are not the main drivers of U.S. elections.
The two issues are empire and economic system underpinned by the private central banking Ponzi scheme.
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Related: Politicking aside, Gomez should join Markey in ‘people’s pledge’
I pledge allegiance, to the military, of the EUSraeli empire, and to corporations, for whom they fight, with death and destruction for all.
NEXT DAU UPDATE: Gomez, forge your own path
