I understand the old school folks pulling straight ticket Dem.. but if folks were just voting straight ticket DEM, the governor would not be a Republican.
They are consciously splitting the ticket at the state level, and not by a small margin.. Its not like Oh the D got in in a squeaker and the R won in a landslide, or even the opposite, the R got in in a squeaker while the D won in a landslide... Its a conscious and pronounced ticket split...
Governor will get 60% of the vote, and Pocahantas will get 55% or so... so this this is a very clear and conscious ticket split by the electorate, and I am just trying to understand the underlying dynamics for this.
-—Governor will get 60% of the vote, and Pocahantas will get 55% or so... so this this is a very clear and conscious ticket split by the electorate, and I am just trying to understand the underlying dynamics for this.——
Some Mass liberals fear the GOP in national office, and want Dems like Warren to counteract them. Nobody’s afraid of Baker and the “GOP” label attached to him. They know what he probably will or won’t do.
It’s easier for a Mass. Dem to like a state-level reasonable RINO than an actual conservative in a national office like Senator.
Lifetime resident of MA here.
MA voters are deluded (they think socialism is workable) but they are not necessarily stupid. Sure, they are over-educated by our many colleges and brainwashed by our fine government schools, but it's a high income, high technology state. The people here aren't dumb.
So, they elect a state legislature that is just full of Democrats -- because we want a generous state government that will push us closer to the Utopia of socialism.
But we know that skyrocketing taxes and skyrocketing spending might actually collapse the state, so although we just love socialism, we also want some sort of check on the system.
So we have a history of electing a Republican governor. Of course, not a real Republican (they're just dangerous!) but we're looking for a chief executive that will occasionally disagree with our Leftwing state legislature and make sure they don't run completely off the rails.
MA has drifted very far from it's roots, but we do still understand the concept of Checks and Balances in government.