Related: The Lite and Dark Side of the Massachusetts Governor's Race
Can you see why I really don't give a $hit anymore about politics?
"Running mate issue gets thornier for Charlie Baker" by Frank Phillips and Stephanie Ebbert | Globe Staff, December 02, 2013
Karyn E. Polito, the former Republican legislator who lost a 2010 run for state treasurer, is poised to announce her candidacy for lieutenant governor this week, a move that puts GOP gubernatorial favorite Charlie Baker in a difficult spot as he ponders a potential running mate.
Why?
Polito, a 47-year old Shrewsbury resident, is expected to declare as early as Tuesday that she will seek the nomination for the second spot on the 2014 gubernatorial ticket, according to several state Republicans with knowledge of her plans.
Baker is expected to lead the ticket, and Polito’s candidacy would pose a politically ticklish question for him: whether to try to control the makeup of his ticket, as he successfully did in his 2010 run for governor, or to leave the decision to voters.
Having Polito as a running mate could be both an asset and a potential liability.
She drew the highest vote of any Republican statewide candidate in 2010, and is known as an energetic campaigner and fund-raiser who could bring to the ticket wide-ranging electoral experience that few others in the state Republican Party can offer. She also hails from the central part of the state that has been the epicenter of conservative activism in Massachusetts in recent years.
And Baker has to be more moderate, right?
But she could also burden the ticket with political baggage. During Polito’s 2010 campaign for state treasurer, the Globe reported that her influence appeared to help procure coveted low-number Red Sox commemorative license plates for her friends, family, and supporters ahead of other applicants. Polito had sponsored the 2002 bill that allowed the Red Sox to issue the plates through the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
The low-number plates were so sought-after that when the Registry sold six plates at a charity auction, Ben Affleck paid $50,000 for the number 1.
Polito’s 2010 campaign also faced questions over her legislative efforts to get state funding for a new road near land that she and her family owned in Shrewsbury. The taxpayer-funded project very likely enhanced the value of the 60-acre parcel, real estate experts told the Globe.
Polito — who as a state representative cultivated an image as a critic of “the culture of self-interest and inside deals on Beacon Hill’’ — has denied any conflict in either the road deal or the Red Sox plates.
If that is all they have on her, then that pussy is clean.
Baker, a longtime government and business leader, has a reputation as a clean-cut and creative public- and private-sector reformer and is hoping his reputation will attract strong bipartisan support.
We were told he didn't get it last time despite running with a gay moderate.
Polito’s recent flirtation with Tea Party activists could also put a wrinkle in Baker’s attempts to promote a more moderate image than what he projected in his failed bid for governor in 2010. Baker has been trying not to alienate conservatives but it remains unclear what strategy he and his advisers will take in the face of Polito’s push to get on the ticket.
Keep that retrospective piece of crap revision in mind as we proceed, thank you.
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One Republican Party insider said that the Baker campaign has been cooperating with Polito behind the scenes but that Baker does not intend to publicly embrace her as a ticket-mate until he assesses her viability, having been stung by his last political marriage.
Just wait a day.
When he ran for governor in 2010, Baker turned off some conservatives by teaming up with Richard R. Tisei, an openly gay former state senator with a moderate voting record. He also alienated many voters — particularly women, who voted against Baker by 24 percentage points — with the outraged tone of his campaign, which seized upon Republican anger about scandals on Beacon Hill and frustration with the sputtering economy.
Yeah, they swept the country everywhere except Massachusetts, and I'm told he was too conservative last time (whatever that meaningless term means now) when he went with a moderate gay, and now he's needing to project a more modera....
WTF is this yo-yo s*** spin doing passing as news?
This time around, Baker was expected to run solo and to adopt a more hopeful message, and make a strong appeal to women.
Well, he's running with a woman -- just the wrong kind of woman, huh?
Aides said Baker wants to avoid a serious primary fight from the right wing of the party, and he cannot afford to alienate strongly conservative GOP activists and fund-raisers, many of whom would be drawn to Polito. Already, Baker faces a challenge for the gubernatorial nomination from political newcomer Mark Fisher, a business owner and social conservative who, like Polito, lives in Shrewsbury.
Polito did not return phone calls seeking comment. She has apparently been considering a candidacy for months. In July, someone launched a Facebook page called “Draft Karyn Polito for Lt. Governor 2014.” The page details Polito’s biography, from her immigrant great-grandfather to her annual Charity Golf Tournament, and shows photos of Polito with her children and other politicians.
Polito lost her 2010 race for treasurer to Steve Grossman, who is now a candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. As recently as last year, she threatened to sue Grossman for defamation unless he removed online advertisements that alluded inaccurately to the Red Sox plate controversy.
Yeah, this one-party liberal fa$ci$t state couldn't even vote a Republican for auditor.
I would put up links reagrding these past things, but for some reason my internal and external Blogger searches either do not work or are now limited. You will just have to trust my recollections over the propaganda pre$$, people.
As a legislator for 10 years, Polito was not viewed as especially conservative, even earning a perfect rating from an abortion rights group for her legislative votes.
Hello?
However, she repeatedly aligned with legislators trying to ban gay marriage in Massachusetts following the 2003 state Supreme Court ruling that legalized it.
Uh-huh.
Polito also served as campaign chair for Michael Sullivan, a strong social conservative, in this year’s special US Senate election.
Related: Senate Election Special: Who is Michael Sullivan?
He knows all about Fast and Furious?
Since leaving public office after the 2010 defeat, Polito has also worked to promote her ties with the GOP’s conservative right.
In August, a local Tea Party group promoted her Stoughton appearance at a fund-raiser with conservative standard-bearer and former Florida congressman Allen West. In accepting a special award, she praised the former US House member, a Tea Party hero, and took a swipe at the national Republican establishment....
As an excommunicated Republican I say good girl, although I'm no fan of West.
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Okay, Chuckie isn't going to embrace her as he seeks to project the moderate image he did not last time. Got that?
"Charlie Baker picks Karyn Polito as running mate; Nod to conservatives may also help him with women voters" by Jim O’Sullivan | Globe staff, December 03, 2013
SHREWSBURY — Charlie Baker, the leading Republican candidate for governor, named former state representative Karyn Polito as his running mate Tuesday, presenting voters with a unified ticket fully 11 months before the gubernatorial election.
What gives, Globe?
Polito’s selection serves as an overture to party conservatives, among whom she is popular, and as an effort to raise Baker’s standing among female voters, a constituency he lost heavily when he ran for the corner office in 2010.
That's his answer to women voters who rejected him four years ago for being too conservative?
Her hometown of Shrewsbury also bolsters Baker’s candidacy in Worcester County, a stronghold for Republicans in recent elections.
Polito, in her 2010 bid for state treasurer, racked up more votes than Baker did in the three-way race for governor. As she announced her candidacy at a Shrewsbury diner on Tuesday, she said she wants voters to see her as a “mom, a business owner, and an optimist.”
She's the Massachusetts version of Sarah Palin?
(Blog editor's side note: isn't it amazing that as I have clean-upped the graphic references I used to make, the propaganda pre$$ has adopted them? The role reversal is astonishing. Maybe this hasn't been a waste of eight years)
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Democrats sought to depict Polito Tuesday as a creature of the GOP’s far right, previewing a likely line of attack they will deploy during the campaign.
“The Charlie Baker campaign makeover has come to a screeching halt,” said Stephen Kerrigan, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. “In choosing Karyn Polito as his running mate, Charlie Baker is showing his true colors by aligning himself with an avid backer of the Tea Party movement whose views are well outside our Commonwealth’s mainstream.”
Baker’s camp pushed back, saying Polito, who voted against gay marriage after the Supreme Judicial Court legalized it in 2003, has evolved on the issue, the way many Democrats have, and now favors gay marriage. A Baker aide pointed to Polito’s high marks from the NARAL abortion rights group and her vote to override Governor Mitt Romney’s veto of stem cell research legislation.
She's doing a Romney with the retreat!
“It’s the only play they’ve got,” a Baker campaign adviser said of Democratic efforts to portray Polito as an extremist. “I think they’re desperately scared that Baker so far is running a very good campaign.”
Baker’s pick is not without potential downsides, stemming from Polito’s days on Beacon Hill. In 2002, she filed legislation empowering Shrewsbury to buy land near an industrial park, and helped get the state to fund a road linking the town to a Grafton commuter rail station. Commercial real estate specialists said the development could increase the value of her family’s property.
In 2010, the Globe reported that she had appeared to help friends and family obtain sought-after Red Sox commemorative license plates.
That's all the corruption they got on her? She would have made a good treasurer.
Polito has denied any conflict in either case.
On Tuesday, Baker said he had decided to invite Polito onto his ticket “before Thanksgiving,” after a series of conversations that began after the summer. Baker’s campaign had been divided over whether to select a running mate or to leave the decision to the voters, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
Baker’s is not the first running mate invitation Polito has received. During his 2010 campaign for governor, as an independent, Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill asked her to join his ticket. Polito, citing party loyalty, declined.
Polito had signaled her intention to run for lieutenant governor regardless of whether it was alongside Baker. By running together, the duo avoids duplicative campaign expenses between now and when voters would formalize a ticket next September. One political observer estimated the union could save Republicans up to $2 million in reduced costs.
In 2010, Baker ran with former Senate minority leader Richard Tisei, a gay, prochoice Republican whose selection disappointed some conservatives.
But Baker trying to be more moderate now? What is with the mixed message, Glob?
The selection of Polito should help Baker with those voters.
But that is not where he needs help. He needs help with liberal women, right?
Earlier this year, Polito chaired the Senate campaign of Michael J. Sullivan, the former US attorney whose candidacy became a refuge for social conservatives disillusioned with the other two Republican candidates.
I voted for the Democrat Lynch because he was the one who I most identified with, and thought that a smart working man would be a good change for the Senate. He was far from perfect, but he was the best of all the candidates out there.
“They want a strong winning ticket, and Polito rounds that out,” Republican consultant Will Ritter said Tuesday....
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So which letter do you like your lies coming from, readers?
