Thu show ping. Article in Globe today says Treasurer Tim
Cahill may run for governor, prob as a Dem (he’d have to
go after Patrick from the right, though, and MA is a liberal
state they say) though he could also run as an independent—
which could take anti-Patrick votes away from a “strong”
Republican nominee. Which could well mean four more years
of Together We Con, as it would split the vote...Article
also says Patrick has high approval ratings. Even after
all this budget/tax/toll nonsense? Moooooooooooonbats.
>>Cahill will complete a serious assessment by Labor Day to decide what political route he will follow, first looking at his chances of wresting the nomination from Patrick as a conservative Democrat in a primary typically dominated by liberal voters. The other choice, said some of those advisers, is for Cahill to position himself as a fiscal conservative and run as an independent in the general election, skipping any primary campaign.
((snip))
Still, Cahill faces significant obstacles if he decides to run as an independent or Democrat. The state electorate has shown a general skepticism of third-party candidates; just once in the last century has a third party or independent candidate come in higher than third place in a gubernatorial race. And if a strong Republican candidate surfaces, Cahill could split any anti-Patrick vote.
>>In a Democratic primary, Cahill would probably run at Patrick from the right, a difficult prospect electorally. In addition, Patrick controls the state party apparatus and would be able to use it to try to prevent Cahill from getting the 15 percent of the convention delegate voters necessary to appear on the September 2010 primary ballot. Just the battle for the ballot qualification could exhaust much of Cahill’s war chest.
I had read an article on a Bloomberg Terminal back in November/December 2008 that discussed shifting demographics in the different regions of the USA.
For the southern New England states, it boiled down to a trigger point of higher taxes, and less job opportunities.
If those two events occurred to middle class, non-goverment dependent, workers (taxpayer's), they were more apt to just leave their state.
I wish I had a copy of it