Heading to the November 2nd MA election, the hiders and hermits may well have to go against character, with one possible exception. We'll see who comes out to play...and fight.
Some previously invisible candidates will suddenly have to mingle with hoi polloi in the agora. Many whose natures are low-key or secretive got a stay for the recent primary. Quite a few seats did not have challenges in either Dem or Republican tickets. At least near the top tough, the final will take considerable smiling, shaking, speaking, shouting and schmoozing.
Immediately we think of AG Martha Coakley. She infamously eschewed retail politics when she ran against Scott Brown for Sen. Ted Kennedy's former seat. Greet fans outside Fenway Park? Not for her. Honk. Thanks for playing.
She looked like she would zip right to uncontested reelection when the GOP convention failed to nominate an AG opponent. Now she's going to have to overcome her hermit soul because write-in James McKenna will also be on the ballot.
You can be damned sure that Republicans want to slap her around some more.
Some pols seem to delight in mixing it up, like the contenders for Auditor. The Dem Suzanne Bump has been both a legislator and cabinet member. She's slick, smart and confident. Her GOP rival, Mary Connaughton (just Mary Z in her world), loves attention. She constantly refers to herself as the state's number one gadfly and won't have any problem orating or just plain bragging.
At the other extreme is the mystery man, 16-year-tenured Secretary Bill Galvin. The GOP has Bill Campbell and independent Jim Henderson is trying hard to get people to notice that he wants to totally overhaul the office and make public records, well, public and accessible.
So far, Galvin has avoided interviews and debates. Look at his literature and website and you'd be hard pressed to find any evidence that he thinks there's a race. He is, as the commonwealth office page confirms, Secretary Galvin. You'd assume that he personally does everything in the multifaceted structure there. He presents himself as Secretary of the Commonwealth, past, present and future.
Can he pull that off for another six or seven weeks? That seems to be his campaign strategy. For an office that many, even most, voters don't really understand or think about, that could work or might backfire in a race likely to see a solid turnout.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Henderson, Galvin, Connaughton, Coakley, Campbell, Bump
1 comment:
It will be especially interesting to see whether Coakley actually *has* learnt anything from her Senatorial bid. On the other hand, it is a pity that AG, Auditor etc. have to be elective offices at all. I prefer focused wonks in jobs like that, not political glad-handers. Alas, the Commonwealth doesn't see it my way.
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