Mass. Senate 08: Wait… there are Republicans in Massachusetts?
It seems that the GOP in Massachusetts (yes… apparently there is still a Republican party in the state) have been hatching a plan to take a run at John Kerry’s Senate seat. Their choice for this daunting task is Jim Ogonowski. It is probably not a good sign, however, if you don’t get enough signatures to even make it on the ballot.
When the deadline for certification passed yesterday, Jim Ogonowski, the Republican leadership’s choice to challenge US Senator John F. Kerry, was 82 signatures short of qualifying for the GOP primary ballot, according to the state’s central voter registry.
Local election clerks were legally required to finish their certifications yesterday. The majority of those clerks have shipped their results to the secretary of state’s office via computer, but some may still be submitting the certifications by hand.
Each campaign has until Tuesday, June 3, to deliver final signature papers to the secretary of state’s office.
The Republicans, though, are saying that they will have more than enough signatures to make up the shortfall when the rest of them are delivered in the next few days. This doesn’t really seem to be the big story here. Lots of candidates miss deadlines and still manage to dot the i’s and cross the t’s eventually. (Quick quiz: How many of you know that George W. Bush failed to make the filing deadline in Flordia for the 2004 election but was still on the ballot?)
This is still Massachusetts, after all. The political map does indeed seem to be shifting in various pockets across the country, but the Bay State remains one of the bluest in the nation. Senators Kennedy and Kerry will doubtless be leaving their Senate seats at some point, but I believe we can still confidently say that the date will be determined only by themselves or their maker. Lingering resentment among Republican supporters over the 2004 election will doubtless make such a race of great interest to the chattering class, but seeing Ogonowski forcefully evict John Kerry from the upper chamber would be an event likely presaged by several pale riders in the sky and the rebuilding of the Tower of Babel.
3 Responses to “Mass. Senate 08: Wait… there are Republicans in Massachusetts?”
As the U.S. becomes a one party state, doesn't the rest of the country get to look forward to elections being like those in Mass. where incumbents only leave when they die or retire. Then again, it looks like the Kennedy clan will be hand choosing the eventual replacement for Senator Kennedy with the voters left to rubber stamp the decision.
I have to laugh ever time I hear an Air America personality talk about brining back democracy to America. If you look at places like Mass., it seems that democracy is about the left thing most of American get to participate in.
What a mental image – superdestroyer listening to Air America. I have to laugh, too. ha ha ha : )
SteveK,
It is one of my programmed buttons in my car. During afternoon drive time, I listen to it when the local sportsradio goes all Redskins and I cannot get Baltimore.
Does the U.S. really have democracy when most incumbents run for re-election without a credible opponents. Do people like Robert Byrd or Ted Kennedy really need to spend two second fund raising? The problem with all of the proposals that the progressives make for election reform seem to ignore the reality that very few incumbents have any worry about reelection and that most seats now are just handed down to pre-selected successors.