Mass. Senate Debate – John Kerry Plugs his Challenger Jeff Beatty – "We Need Change in Washington!"

NECN hosted the only televised debate between John Kerry (D-MA) and challenger Jeff Beatty (R), last night. During the hour-long debate, Kerry continued to campaign for Barak Obama rather than debate the issues with his opponent. Beatty reminded Kerry several times that the focus of the debate was the Massachusetts Senate, while Kerry continued to bring each and every point back to the Obama campaign. Kerry, who won all three of the presidential debates in 2004, (according to major U.S. media outlets), went on to lose the presidential bid to incumbent George W. Bush. Once again, the Boston Globe, who endorsed Kerry, gave Beatty a shalaqueing in their subsequent article, pointing to Kerry’s poll numbers in the state, as the incumbants only asset.

What the article failed to mention was that Kerry made several misstatements during the debate. From Fannie Mae and the Bail-out to his closing statements, watching Kerry was a real treat. Kerry, using tired party rhetoric continued to draw a comparison between McCain and Bush and then called Beatty’s campaing tactics “Rovian”. Beatty is a moderate conservative, which was glaringly apparent in last nights debate, far from partisan, he praised Ted Kennedy, while pointing out Kerry’s generally lack of connect to the State he alledgely represents. Kerry then went on the stump for Barack Obama.

There were several highlights during the debate, and one in particular regarded the loss of population in the state. The debate moderator pointed out that Massachusetts was the only state in the Union to have lost population and Kerry wondered if there were several more. The fact of the matter is that Massachusetts has lost population to the extent that Congressional states will be lost. Massachusetts has been consistentaly losing population over the decades due to high taxes and loss of manufacturing jobs and immigration to other states .(Incidentially, since Kerry's been in the Senate.) This segment of the debate was focused on Question 1 on the Massachusetts ballot that would repeal the state income tax. Beatty supports repeal of the state income tax, while Kerry does not. In his argument for repeal, Beatty underscored the need to bring more businesses and population to the state by eliminating the state tax. Due to high taxes and fees, businesses are heading over the border to Rhode Island and other more states whose environment is less taxing. Kerry also used the scare tactic of “higher real estate taxes” should the income tax be repealed. Apparently, Kerry is not aware that Massachusetts has a cap on real estate taxes through a provision passed in 1980 - Proposition 2-1/2. Although there are override provisiions in that bill; for example when housing prices rose, some municipalities were allowed to re-asses home values, thereby increasing the tax. When Proposition 2-1/2 was on the ballot, dire predictions of job losses and school closings were bandied about, yet none of this happened, the state lived within its means, at times, under the tenure of fiscally conservative Governors. Now that Massachusetts, with all taxes in place, is looking at 12.6 billion dollars in budget cuts due to a runway Democrat controlled State Government - Kerry argues that the repeal of the income tax would be devastating. He has got to be kidding.

When asked about the states high tax rate, Kerry opined that Massachusetts was no longer Taxachusetts, but that the state was “somewhere in the middle”. Massachuetts is not the higest, true, but the 6th highest in the nation; while neighboring Rhode Island ranks 13th and New Hampshire ranks 35th. New Hampshire is in the Middle.

Kerry continued to questions Beatty’s ability to “get the facts” straight; however, in light of the Junior Senators lack of knowledge regarding his home state, that plea appears a bit ironic.

The Debate, available in video segment below or at New England Cable News Website is entertaining to say the least.

The closing statements were telling, Beatty thanked everyone for attending, and asked Bay Staters watching to visit his website and vote for him on November 4th – adding, God Bless the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and God Bless the United States of America. Kerry’s closing included an unusual plug for his opposition: “We need change in Washington” and ended with “God Bless us all”. Perhaps Kerry might have stopped stumping for Obama long enough to give a closing statement that reflected a Senatorial Debate.

Jeff Beatty.com
Kerry Vision . net










Closing statements