Jeff Beatty - Can He Take John Kerry’s long-held Senate Seat?

News articles from the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe gave mention of Republican, Jeff Beatty’s Senate Campaign against entrenched Democrat, John Kerry. The media in Massachusetts is of the opinion that John Kerry is immune to a challenge, no matter where it comes from, due to the perception that the state is primarily Democrat. Reality check: this is not the case. In the Bay State voter enrollment is broken down as follows: 2006 Total Registered Voters: 3,990,805 of which 1,472,705 were Democrat, 498,702 Republican and 1,987,053 Unenrolled. In other words, other 50% of the states electorate decline to be affiliated with either party. (*Note: Both parties, Republican and Democrats lost equal amounts of voters in the previous year). Source. Looking at the “unofficial results” given by the Globe ,(source) total votes cast by Democrats: 403,561, (73% of the enrolled Democrats decided to sit out the election), of those 27% voting in the primary, 31% cast their vote for the challenger, Ed O’Reilly. Mr. O’Reilly ran against John Kerry’s lack of legislative effort for the Bay State, and his political positions which shift according to what might best serve John Kerry. If one considers that a percentage of votes cast for O’Reilly were from Independents, the fact remains that 31% of the respondents in a low-turn-out Democrat primary wanted someone other than John Kerry. Should Jeff Beatty (and John McCain for that matter), garner 12% of the Republican vote, 10% of the disenfranchised Democrat vote and becuase the Unerolleds trend conservative: 30% of the Unenrolled (a McCain strong suit and a natural for Jeff Beatty given the number of Unenrolled who signed the primary petitions for both Beatty and O’Reilly). These are extremely conservitve numbers, and yet given the most conservative outlet, Mr. Beatty and John McCain would garner at the least 52% of the vote. Dispelling another myth - that the State will Never vote for a Republican.

The Blue State Myth: Republican’s cannot get elected in the Bay States, and further the Bay State never votes Republican. Although a rare occurrence, to be sure, most recent Bay State Republican elected officials include Governor Mitt Romney, Governor Jane Swift, Govern William Weld, Edward Brooke (elected to the Senate in 1962 and the first African-American elected to the senate by popular vote). Additionally, the State’s Electoral votes went to Ronald Regan, a non-Beltway Maverick Republican – twice.

It is now up to the Beatty Campaign to get past the media to the people. – And they are ready. The campaign is running television ads across the state, (see first advertisement below) in a solid and honest compare and contrast message. John Kerry failed to “Report For Duty” when it came to the people of Massachusetts. This is a message that will resound with normal, every day, rank and file taxpayers: not party hacks, or those who would stand on the words of the Boston Globe or Herald as Gospel, rather, those people with enough sense who have “had enough” of politics as usual. To learn more about Jeff Beatty visit his website at www.jeffbeatty.com. To learn more about John Kerry, visit his Move-on.org sponsored website: http://www.kerryvision.net/.