Free Republic

Friend,   Yesterday we were able to win with 89% of the vote and I'm so proud of you and the support you have given this campaign.  The Brown Brigade has grown to over 1,875 activists with 176 local Brigades organized to help us Get Out The Vote on January 19.   I started the day yesterday like any other day by taking out the garbage and doing some chores around the house.          However, I ended the day with you and other energized supporters that want to stop the 'bailout culture' and clean up Washington from...

Sen. Brown Wins Mass. Senate Republican Primary ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: December 8, 2009 BOSTON (AP) -- State Sen. Scott Brown has won the Republican nomination in the race to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Brown defeated businessman and attorney Jack E. Robinson in a primary marked by low turnout. The 50-year-old Brown is a veteran legislator and lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard who has also gained local notoriety as a former Cosmopolitan centerfold model and the father of an ''American Idol'' contestant. He faces an uphill challenge in a state where the majority of voters are independents...

In Tuesday's primary election, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley swept the 4-person Democratic primary with 47% and State Senator Scott Brown swept the Republican primary with 89%. It attracted very low turnout -- less than 20% state-wide. The general election is in six weeks, on January 19. Herald Columnist Howie Carr gave probably the most interesting analysis of the campaign. There could not be more of a difference between these two candidates. Martha Coakley has a long record of extreme, aggressive left-wing anti-family crusading, and general lap-dog water-carrying for the Democratic establishment. Scott Brown is a fiscal and (reasonably) social...

With the clock ticking down towards the close of the polls at 8 p.m., some communities reported low voter turnout in the special primary elections for US Senate. People breezed past community centers, gymnasiums, town halls, and other polling places without a second thought, the majority paying no mind to the race to fill the office left vacant by the late Edward M. Kennedy. Four Democrats and two Republicans ....

Tuesday, Dec 8, is the primary election for the US Senate seat, formerly held by Ted Kennedy. There are contested elections for both the Democrat and Republican candidates. The general election will be on January 19. The seat is currently held by Kennedy's former aide, Paul Kirk, who was appointed by the governor after well-publicized (and pretty sleazy) vote by the Legislature to have an interim appointee because of their fear that a vote on the Obama health care package might come up before a special election could be held. We were going to wait until the general election in...

Six Candidates Seek Ted Kennedy’s SeatBy JIM HICKEY Islanders go the polls in the state primary on Tuesday to cast votes that will help choose Democratic and Republican candidates to run for the Massachusetts seat in the U.S. Senate left vacant in August when longtime Sen. Edward M. Kennedy — who held the seat for 46 years — died after a 14-month battle with brain cancer. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in every town. The four Democratic candidates are Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, Stephen Pagliuca, a managing partner of the Boston Celtics, U.S. Rep. Mike...

As of Nov. 29, clergy of the diocese may solemnize marriages for all eligible couples, Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE has announced.  The decision comes after a long discernment process leading up to and continuing after the action of General Convention this past July allowing that “bishops, particularly in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage is legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church.” The full text of Bishop Shaw’s statement follows. Advent I, November 29, 2009 Christian marriage is a sacramental rite that has evolved in the church, along with confirmation,...

Scandal-magnet Republican Jack E. Robinson is making a last-minute bid for the U.S. Senate, filing 10,900 signatures with the Duxbury town clerk just before the Tuesday deadline, according to a source close to the campaign. Robinson, who coughed up $100,000 to collect the signatures, will challenge Wrentham state Sen. Scott Brown in the Dec. 8 GOP primary. The winner will move on to the special election in January. “He’s been trying to stay under the radar,” said the campaign source who asked to remain anonymous because Robinson hasn’t officially announced he is running. The state’s Republican party shunned Robinson after...

Teddymandering is the practice of changing a law to benefit your political party, then reversing the change when your political party will benefit from the original rules to which you objected. Named for former Massachusetts Senator Edward M. "Teddy" Kennedy. Senator Kennedy influenced the Massachusetts state legislature to change the Senatorial succession law during the 2004 election. His reasons were strictly because Senator John Kerry, if elected President, would be replaced by an appointee of (then) Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican. At the time, Kennedy was against any interim appointment until a special election could be held. In 2009, as...

The Massachusetts Republican Party has filed an injunction in a Boston court seeking to block former Democratic Party chairman Paul Kirk from becoming the interim replacement for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Lawmakers this week passed legislation giving Gov. Deval Patrick the power to appoint an interim replacement, but laws approved in Massachusetts usually take 90 days to go into effect. Patrick signed an emergency letter that he says allows the law to become effective immediately. Republicans allege in their court filing that Patrick did not have the constitutional authority to do that. But State Secretary William Galvin said today...

Former Democratic Party chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. has taken over for the late Edward Kennedy in the Senate. Vice President Joe Biden swore in Kirk on Friday hours after a Massachusetts judge rejected a Republican request to delay it. The GOP had argued that Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick exceeded his constitutional authority by appointing Kirk before a traditional 90-day legislative waiting period had expired. State lawmakers passed a bill this week giving Patrick the power to choose an interim senator. Kirk gives Senate Democrats a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority with the health care fight at a critical point.

According to this post at USA Today’s Faith & Reason blog, that could be the depressing reality following the interim appointment of Paul Kirk to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, until a special election is held next January. Kirk was appointed yesterday by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and was sworn into the Senate today by Vice President Joe Biden.  But as USA Today notes, while Kirk is Catholic (in fact, he’s the grandnephew of Cardinal William O’Connell, who served as Archbishop of Boston from 1907-1944), Kirk also has a...

A Suffolk Superior Court judge today denied a motion by state Republicans to delay Gov. Deval Patrick’s appointment of an interim senator by 90 days. Judge Thomas Connolly this afternoon cleared the way for Paul G. Kirk Jr. to be sworn in as an interim U.S. senator today at 3:15 p.m. in Washington, D.C. Developing ...

A Suffolk Superior Court judge today denied a motion by state Republicans to delay Gov. Deval Patrick’s appointment of an interim senator by 90 days. Judge Thomas Connolly this afternoon cleared the way for Paul G. Kirk Jr. to be sworn in as an interim U.S. senator today at 3:15 p.m. in Washington, D.C. Developing ...

The Massachusetts House and Senate have given final approval to a bill that would allow Democratic Governor Deval Patrick to appoint an interim US senator to take the seat left vacant by the death of the legendary liberal Edward M. Kennedy. The bill now heads to the desk of the governor, who plans to sign it and could name an appointee as early as Thursday or Friday. The bill was enacted by the House, 95-59, and by the Senate, 24-16, after only brief speeches by lawmakers. Lawmakers did not pass, however, an emergency preamble to the law, meaning that the...

Paul Kirk will be named to fill the vacant Massachusetts Senate seat. Announcement likely tomorrow.

Steve Pagliuca, co-owner of the Boston Celtics, is weighing taking a shot at the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s seat, according to a source close to the Weston resident. Pagliuca, who has also been considering buying the struggling Boston Globe, would join a heavily populated Democratic field that includes Attorney General Martha Coakley. Pagliuca declined comment when reached by a Herald reporter this afternoon, but a source close to the Bain Capital managing director confirmed the 54-year-old is thinking about joining the race. His candidacy is far from a slam dunk, but the well-financed candidate is expected to shake...

Republican state Sen. Scott Brown says he’s running for the late Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts. In remarks prepared for delivery Saturday, Brown says the state needs an independent thinker in Washington, noting its all-Democratic Congressional delegation.

Republican Andrew Card, former chief of staff to President George W. Bush, burned up the phone lines yesterday, gauging support for a possible run for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s former seat but decided to opt out, one of his closest advisers said. Former Republican National Committee chairman Ron Kaufman, an advisor and friend to Card, confirmed tonight that the former Holbook state representative, U.S. transportation secretary and White House chief of staff will not run

US Representative Edward J. Markey of Malden will not run for Edward M. Kennedy's vacant Senate seat. Markey told the Globe he feels he can be more effective in his leadership role in the House. To read more, visit