Posted on 03/10/2016 4:38:45 AM PST by raccoonradio
The greatest threat to Gov. Charlie Baker’s re-election right now isn’t a Democrat — it’s his own party and soon-to-be-nominee Donald Trump.
Baker’s power grab on the GOP state committee and denouncement of Trump have alienated him from many party activists, and more importantly, the 311,000 Massachusetts voters who cast ballots for Trump.
That’s a big problem for a GOP governor who got just 115,000 votes in his own primary in 2014 and beat Democrat Martha Coakley by a slim 40,000-vote margin.
The bad blood could even leave Baker vulnerable to a Republican primary challenge in 2018, especially if Trump happens to win the White House and decides to back his own GOP candidate in Massachusetts.
Maybe that’s why Baker, along with Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, GOP national committeeman Ron Kaufman and party chairwoman Kirsten Hughes have been making calls and sending emails to state committee members and others who were targeted for elimination by the governor’s camp in the March 1 election.
The message from Baker is something like, “Hey, I hope there’s no bad feelings.”
Right. No bad feelings at all. This is a state party that’s more dysfunctional than the Kardashians.
Conservatives never really liked Baker and had to hold their noses to vote for the “RINO” in 2014. Not likely they’ll do that again in 2018.
Normally that wouldn’t be a big problem for an incumbent governor with approval ratings topping 70 percent and no formidable opponent on the horizon.
But this is Massachusetts. A Republican can’t get elected when GOP voters stay home or independents defect to the Democrat. That’s why Baker’s move to spend around $1 million to install his loyalists on the state committee is so fraught with peril.
“Nobody needed to pick this fight,” one prominent Republican and Baker ally said.
But Baker’s not done. Now his camp is trying to oust a well-liked conservative, Chanel Prunier, from her national committee post. That’s just asking for trouble. Republican governors who get involved in national politics are “playing with fire,” as one GOP veteran said.
“The Republican Party is very fractured right now, both locally and nationally,” a diplomatic Prunier said in an email.
And it’s not like Baker got very much for his power play. He gained maybe two or three net seats on a state committee he already controlled. Not the big victory Baker’s camp tried to spin.
There’s talk now Baker allies may try to change the rules so the state party controls the delegates it sends to the GOP convention. This could be part of an effort by national Republicans to block Trump from getting the nomination in case of a brokered convention.
The only comfort for Baker is that there aren’t a lot of Republicans running around Massachusetts capable of leading a 2018 revolt. Maybe former state Sen. and current Weymouth Mayor Bob Hedlund, who isn’t too happy with Baker right now.
>>A Republican can’t get elected when GOP voters stay home or independents defect to the Democrat.
Unenrolled far outnumber registered Republicans in MA
Vince McMahon should become head of the Connecticut GOP and throw Baker threw a table.
through
The background for Romney's nomination for Governor in MA.
There was an established and extremely well-liked conservative Republican, Jim Toomey, who was generally thought to be the overwhelming favorite for nominee. Romney didn't even have unquestioned resident status, as he had moved to Salt Lake to save the Olympics. Then, a talk campaign began that Romney should be the next nominee as a sure win for governor. Romney re-established MA residency, and he won the nomination, with a promise that Toomey would be the Lt Gov running mate. That would put him in line to be the next Governor.
Then SHOCKER. Romney said he was choosing that unknown but now proven loser Ms Healey as his running mate. His excuse was that a Mormon and a Jew would not be a winning combo in MA. That was quite a shocker, because Toomey wasn't overt about his religion; it's not something that ever came up.
Conservatives felt TOTALLY betrayed. At a Plymouth County dinner, a few of us grilled the Healey representative at our table. That woman could not even give us ONE conservative issue that Healey supported!
So Romney overwhelmed the small but conservative Republican Party in MA. It cost them the governorship in a few years, as Healey was so useless she lost to Duval Patrick. From that corner of MA anyway, it looked like a purge of conservatives from power.
So you folks (including Cruzers) who don't think Romney's support of Cruz over Trump is a real bad thing, consider what was just written here.
MA started out trusting Romney with the governorship. A few years down the road they ended up with Duval Patrick. Romney did NOTHING to grow a conservative Republican Party, he in fact destroyed it. It was all about Mitt.
PS: You can't spend much time in MA without learning of someone who lost a good job and future because of what Bain Capital did when it took over, stripped, and bankrupted companies. Cruzers who are okay with following the Romney/Jeb lead? Personally, I think it's insane.
Nobody should use my recollections as historical truth without verification. I'm not sure how it got "remembered" in historical accounts of events, so who knows? There might be stuff in print that refutes it.
Jim Rappaport, not Jim Toomey.
Schmuckie Chuckie Baker needs to be flushed out like the lying leftist Willardbot turd that he is. I hope Trump goes the extra mile to obliterate him.
Baker should try the veal, it’s delicious.
Thank you. Why do I keep getting the last name wrong? Duh. Gosh. That whole thing still leaves me livid.
Kick the bum out!
The photo of the Governor Baker arm in arm with President Trump published to aid the governor’s reelection will solve the problems being conjured up
That was the proof in the pudding, when Willard sabotaged Rappaport in order to install his loser-cypher Kerry Healey as his Lieutenant, that he wanted to kill what was left of the MA GOP and leave no successor but a Democrat. Mission accomplished.
Y’know, I almost felt bad for Healey in 2006. I don’t think she realized that for all of Willard’s “help” in 2002 in making sure she beat Rappaport, that he wasn’t going to lift a finger to help her against Coupe DeVal.
In hindsight, it’s too bad that dingbat Shannon O’Brien didn’t beat Willard in 2002. It’s not like she would’ve been worse or damaged the MA GOP as much as he did.
I just read this. WTF is Baker doing? Ok, he’s distancing himself from The Donald, but this hiring of out of state RATS? Bizarre.
“shakes head”
Our memories coincide. A silver lining for MA might be that these new Republican voters might have a lot of the same values the “old” MA Republican Party espoused. Perhaps MA can come back, from the ground up, by getting sensible conservatives elected on the local level.
Yes. But the greatest impediment to Conservative growth in the state remains the elected leadership in the GOP. They want nothing more than to be a small, elitist ultraleft clique of the superrich, utterly indistinguishable from the Democrats in policy.
MA remains hyper-Democrat in its elected makeup, but not because of the Democrats, but because the leftists within the Republican Party are content to have it exactly like that, so long as that same clique never loses its power. Same goes for the national party.
Frankly, the national party should implement a policy relating explicitly to the state parties. Produce results or you’re fired. No more of the same people holding on for decades in party sinecures. State chairs, committeepersons, et al. You have 2-4 years to increase (if in the minority) or maintain (if in the majority) your elected officials. Failure to do so will result in your expulsion from your positions and installation of the challenger from the prior contest. Make them get off their asses and work.
If the state party elites refuse, decertify them as a legitimate organization, and that they cannot use “Republican” in any official capacity. If they don’t like that, they can join the Democrats and be honest about their true ideology for a change.
Just like a frog, You jump wrong and you drown so be careful when you do.
thanks DJ
a welcome fight ... good for the grassroots to know who the target is.
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