You're kidding. Being a Republican legislator in Massachusetts doesn't make one respected with the voters (being a Democrat legislator doesn't either, but Democrats outnumber Republicans by a large margin). I'd agree that Tisei could have beat Tierney who had corruption issues, but in a Democratic state a Democrat war veteran is a good bet to beat a Republican state legislator. If you're saying Tisei's homosexual counted against him, it probably did, but it wouldn't have killed his candidacy against a more lackluster opponent.
Nope. The critical difference is that this time around, Tisei was recruited as a candidate specifically because he is gay. That is why they made such a big fuss over him.
I don't remember Tisei's being recruited or anybody making a big fuss over him, but the fact that he almost won last time would have made him appear to be an attractive candidate to a lot of people. "Recruiting" Republican congressional candidates in Massachusetts is a joke in itself. Nine seats and only three of them were contested by the GOP.
It’s possible that the reason that Baker won this time is because Tisei wasn’t running for Lt. Governor.