Tag: massachusetts

Deval Patrick will name caretaker to Massachusetts Senate seat ‘if’…

…John Kerry becomes the next Secretary of State. From the Boston Globe:

“I expect to do the same thing I did last time,” [MA Governor Deval] Patrick told reporters. “I’m not ruling out other options. But, as a practical matter, it’s hard for me to imagine how you could serve in the Senate for a four-month period and also run a statewide campaign in a four-month period and do both of them well.”

The Globe goes on to note why the Democrats are in a bit of a mess on this one, and simply can’t appoint somebody for the rest of Kerry’s term; and it’s… largely because of John Kerry, Mitt Romney, & Ted Kennedy.  In 2004, Kerry was running for President, and Romney was the governor of MA at the time.  So, the legislature at the time decided that the governor of MA should NOT be allowed to pick Kerry’s successor, so they changed the law*.  Then, several years later, when it was clear that Ted Kennedy would be dying in office, the legislature changed the law again in order to minimize the caretaker period before a special election could be held**. Continue reading Deval Patrick will name caretaker to Massachusetts Senate seat ‘if’…

John Kerry to be tapped for Secretary of State?

The first reports are coming in: he’ll be replaced as Foreign Relations Chair with, oh boy, Bob Menendez.  Oh, well, at least I’ll have something to write about for the next two years.

Via Hot Air Headlines.

Moe Lane

PS: In completely unrelated news, outgoing US Senator Scott Brown was seen today removing the acoustic tiles from his Senate office, laying various light but bulky personal items from his office onto the framework, then replacing the tiles*.  When asked why, he replied** “Faster this way.  Cheaper than a storage unit, too.”

*This did not actually happen.

**Neither did this.

RS Interview: Sean Bielat (R CAND, MA-04).

This is Barney Frank’s old district, more or less… and it is an interesting choice of candidates.  On the one hand, we have Sean Bielat: businessman and Marine officer.  On the other hand, we have Joe Kennedy III: …um, Kennedy. No.  That’s pretty much it.  He’s a Kennedy.  He also thinks that Osama bin Laden was killed via drone strike, but never mind that right now. Bottom line is, we’ve got the sort of campaign here where it’s pretty much… name recognition.

So, naturally, we checked in with Sean to hear about the state of the race:

Sean’s site is here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

RS Interview: Jon Golnik (R CAND, MA-03).

MA-03 is a NE Massachusetts district currently represented by Niki Tsongas – and if you’re wondering who that is, don’t worry: nobody else particularly remembers her, either.  It’s an interesting district: represented by one of the more reflexively liberal Congresswomen in the House, but it has a history of voting for Republicans.  The current Republican candidate Jon Golnik is hoping to capitalize on that; we spoke to him this morning on the subject, as well as the race and Massachusetts generally.

Jon’s site is here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

RS Interview: Chris Sheldon (R CAND, MA-09).

The rather epic redistricting of Massachusetts in 2011-2012 (short version: the state lost a district, and nobody wanted to be the guy without a chair, and things went downhill from there) resulted in the creation of a conservative – for Massachusetts – district involving the Cape Cod area.  It’s a seat with a half-incumbent: current MA-10 Rep. Bill Keating didn’t exactly live inside the district’s new boundaries… but he does have a summer home there, which apparently counts. He’s being challenged in this particular race by Chris Sheldon, local businessman and volunteer.  We spoke with Chris this afternoon:

Chris’s site is here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Joe Kennedy III (D CAND, MA-04) thinks a drone strike killed Osama bin Laden.

Ah, political dynasties.

Unless the name is ‘Adams,’ they rarely last beyond the third generation, and for good reason.

Background: somebody pointed out to Mr. Kennedy the President’s drone operations in Yemen/Somalia, and asked whether Kennedy supported the idea that the House needs to reestablish some of its oversight into the issue. This is actually a thorny problem; and while Kennedy’s answer (he essentially blamed that awful partisan gridlock, which is Democrat-speak for ‘those mean Republicans won’t give Obama a blank check’) would normally be only mildly stupid, it started off as being INCREDIBLY stupid.

“I am a supporter of the President’s drone initiatives. I am a supporter of certainly the strike that the President launched to, that ended up in the killing of Osama bin Laden.”

Continue reading Joe Kennedy III (D CAND, MA-04) thinks a drone strike killed Osama bin Laden.

New Sean Bielat (R CAND, MA-04) ad.

The major trouble with trying to talk about Joe Kennedy III as a candidate is… oh, heck, let the Sean Bielat campaign explain it:


(Ad done by RedState’s own Ben Howe, btw)

That’s it, in a nutshell: there’s nothing there except the ‘Kennedy’ and the ‘III.’  If this kid was named ‘Patrick Dolan’ or something then he wouldn’t be the Democratic nominee for MA-04 – and this is not even remotely a revelation. Sean Bielat even said it to Kennedy’s face: “I don’t think in any other state, in any other district in the country people would consider you qualified for this office.”

Continue reading New Sean Bielat (R CAND, MA-04) ad.

#rsrh This would be where Elizabeth Warren (D CAND, MA-SEN) [expletive deleted] the bed…

…in tonight’s debate:

DAVID GREGORY: Can you name Republicans in the Senate today that you are able to work with on big issues, substantive issues that the country faces?

ELIZABETH WARREN: Probably Richard Lugar would be one that comes to mind.

GREGORY: Not going to be there.

WARREN: He’s not going to be there.

Then again, at this rate? Neither will Elizabeth Warren.

Moe Lane

PS: Scott Brown for MA-SEN.

Joe Kennedy III (D CAND, MA-04 PRI) declares Tel Aviv capital of Israel.

To put it simply: Joe Kennedy recently announced in a debate that he does not consider Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel.

This is not only a rejection of the commonplace observation that “every country has the right to designate its own capital”; it’s also a rejection of Joe Kennedy’s own public and official opinion on the topic. Continue reading Joe Kennedy III (D CAND, MA-04 PRI) declares Tel Aviv capital of Israel.