"Swift has made so many boo-boos while in office that I think her re-election will be very tough. I'm not sure, however, how Reich's arrogant, "I'm smarter than you", style will play in most of the state."
"Does this weenie have a chance? If so, why, is Massachusettes that hard up?""I'm smarter than you", has played rather well for Ted Kennedy and the Democrats of Massachusetts all these years and yes, "acting governor" Swifty has alienated Republicans in the Bay state beyond the pale. As a New Hampshire resident, I keep up with news and opinion from our neighbors to the south - as painful as it sometimes is.
When Massachusetts Port Authority chief Peter Blute was caught spending $800 in public funds to charter a "booze cruise", it was Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift who announced Blute’s (forced) resignation, saying, "Both the governor and I take very seriously the public trust placed in us and we will not tolerate any breaking of that trust by anyone associated with our administration ... Utilizing state resources for personal use is not acceptable." Blute has gone on to become a talking head on WRKO radio and since her words have come back to haunt her, he beats her over the head daily, but he's not alone.
As lieutenant governor, a state ethics panel found Swift guilty of creating "the appearance of impropriety" for allowing (or requiring) aides to baby-sit for her daughter and run personal errands. She asked staffers to take their vacation days in order to help her move. She commandeered a State Police helicopter to fly home to Western Massachusetts for Thanksgiving, rather than suffer with her constituents along the grid locked Massachusetts Turnpike on the busiest travel day of the year. She is also criticized for accepting a disproportionately large salary from a local law school for a single course she taught in her spare time while pulling down $75,000 as lieutenant governor.
She handled all the bad publicity about her ethical lapses badly, offering "the demands of the position of lieutenant governor" and "the difficulties of being a working mother" as excuses to justify her behavior. She displayed a sense of entitlement before eventually acknowledging her mistakes, only after considerable public ridicule elicited her apologies.
Swift's personal life has always been more of an issue than her political ideology. She has no clear political identity and seems to follow rather than lead. She has articulated no stances on gun control, abortion or drugs.
In April, 2001, Jane Swift became Acting Governor of Massachusetts when Governor Paul Cellucci resigned to accept President Bush's appointment as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to Canada. Her never-ending toll raising and her firing of anyone in her way has been criticized by all sides, including conservative talk show hosts in Boston. Her gay stepson made an issue of her opposition to gay marriages and she has most recently chosen a gay running mate for the position of lieutenant governor who also champions gay marriage in Mass while she "agrees to disagree".
She is the nation's youngest governor and, when she had twins in May of last year, she became the first to give birth while in office. She took considerable "Working Maternity Leave", but did not relinquish power for even a moment, instead, she ran the state from her hospital bed, the delivery room and her home via telephone, another decision that brought considerable criticism and led to the moniker "the pregnant pariah" and her unofficial title 'Her Majesty".
There are few Republicans in Massachusetts that will not vote Independent in the upcoming elections, imho.