Bill Weld: A GOP (RINO) gov after Dukakis. His running mate was Paul Cellucci.
When Cellucci left to become amb. to Canada his lt gov Jane Swift took over.
She was a disaster. Her positives were around 12 per cent. Some folks suggested getting Romney in. Things were so bad for Swift she decided not to run. Mitt beats Shannon O’Brien IIRC to become governor. One term (and yes he did spend time at end running for prez). Declined salary (or at least donated it to charity).
Had it not been for the brief run of GOP governors MA would have had the following governors, all Dems:
John Silber
Luther Scott Harshbarger
Shannon O’Brien
maybe others, can’t recall.
When Romney left, Muffy Healey ran and lost to Deval Patrick. Huzzah, the first black governor! Huzzah, a Dem back in office! Patrick won re-election against Charlie Baker (whose running mate Rich Tisei is running vs.
John Pockets Tierney in the 6th)
That’s how Romney came about.
But hey, let’s forget about voting for him for prez. I’m
looking forward to four more years of the Messiah,
aren’t you? (/ sarcasm)
And how did Weld come to run? My guess is the party recruited him to defeat Steve Pierce (an actual conservative) in the primary. IIRC, Weld was fresh from his stint as US Attorney who (according to popular belief anyway) was supposed to be investigating the corrupt Kevin White (D mayor of Boston) administration but cut him a deal so he wouldn't have to go to jail; he paid a fine or something over that b'day party for his wife on public property but agreed not to run for office again. Anyway, I voted for Silber, who was far more conservative (though not ideological) than Weld -- as attested to by the fact that the local media obviously preferred Weld in spite of the "R"!
BTW, when Weld ran against Kerry for the senate, National Review actually endorsed one Susan Gallagher, an unknown from Quincy who was running on the Conservative ticket (now active in organizing the local Tea Party), because it believed Weld -- liberal and unprincipled, but personable -- if he won, would do more damage to the GOP than a loss. Of course, this was a while back and NR was still conservative then.
Some folks suggested getting Romney in. Things were so bad for Swift she decided not to run.
"Some folks"? Who are you -- Katie Couric? LOL! Seriously, It's always been my impression that the party told Swift in no uncertain terms to get lost and recruited Mitt -- though Mitt may have been sniffing around for something after his loss to Kennedy. Now that I think of it, he probably was. Probably made a hefty donation too . . . In any case, they came to a mutually satisfactory agreement -- Mitt's just their cup of tea! (Not in the Tea Party sense of course!)
So when has the MA GOP ever put up a conservative candidate?
BTW, the gov salary in MA is pocket change to Mitt -- didn't he refer to the $300,000 he got from a book advance or something as "a negligible amount"?
“Had it not been for the brief run of GOP governors MA would have had the following governors, all Dems:
John Silber
Luther Scott Harshbarger
Shannon O’Brien
maybe others, can’t recall................”
You might recall Raccoon that the most conservative governor we have had in recent times was Ed King (D) - Ronald Reagan’s “favorite Democrat” - he later switched parties.