MA Special Election Update – Obama, Biden, Gore, Wasserman-Shultz, Barney Frank – all in MA for Ed Markey – How Much Trouble is Markey In?

Biden, President Obama and Barney Frank to stump for Ed Markey - not shown: Gore and Wasserman, also on the Campaign Stump for Old Eddy - image from snydertalk.com

First there have been more than a few polls coming out for the MA Special Election, some have Markey up by 7, some by 15 (shades of Martha Coakley), and some in a statistical dead heat, which, if the seat were about to be handed to Markey by even five points, there would be no need for the following in the lower than average public interest election.

When an election has interest this low, one would think that between the unions, the nursing home trolling, the dead and missing voting, and other shenanigans known to take place in Democrat politics in the Bay State – the Democrat candidate, even if they appear to be the walking dead, and not even live in the State, can win by a landslide.

Since that’s the case and since memory still serves, there has not been any active call for outside help since Brown-Coakley, and Coakley lost. One thing to say about Coakley she was an interesting candidate, Markey less so. This is regardless of the mistakes she made, and there ere a few.

Who’s coming to help out Markey?

The President will be in Roxbury on Wednesday in support of Eddy.

Both Joe Biden (the Vice President for those who aren’t sure) and Al Gore (who invented almost as much stuff in his mind as Markey), will both be coming to Markey’s assistance

Barney Frank will be coming out of retirement for Ed.

Finally, Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, the head of the DNC came out to Western Mass (they sent her to our boondocks) to rally the troops for Markey.

That’s a lot more Dempower than anyone has seen in MA in recent memory – so that tells us one thing and one thing only – the base isn’t into it, and the race is closer than one thinks.

Gabriel Gomez, according to a press release, intends to fight this onslaught of star power, not to mention massive ad buys which are negative in nature – “with grassroots organizing “and a fresh face. He may already have it in the bag, considering the fact that so many of these Washington DC rulers have made the trek to MA to try and pursued the populace to get out and vote for Markey.

This suddenly makes this interesting.

The last time Obama came out to campaign for a candidate (Coakley), that candidate lost by 5 points – which begs the question, if Obama is so popular in Massachusetts, why did Coakley, no matter her faults, go down the drain. Markey is not the perfect candidate by any means – the only hope the Democrats have at this point, is to hope that the Unenrolled (50 plus percent) don’t get too interested and get out and vote – for Gomez.

Gabriel Gomez and His Tax Deductions – When Ed Markey is Over the Ledge; Gomez’s modest tax deduction is Front Page in the Globe.

Image of the Historic Home of Gabriel Gomez - image Boston Globe Article: Gomez claims "controversial Tax Deuduction - A Citizens Guideto Owning an Historic Home

Gabriel Gomez, the GOP candidate for the MA Special Election has come under fire for taking a tax break – tax breaks are taken by millions of taxpayers each year, but, if one is running for elected office, surely that’s a problem. The question is why? There are thousands of historic homes in this nation, and when one buys an historic home, one is bound by law to insure that home is kept at a certain standard. These standards are not “cheap” and one must go through inspections to insure that the home is up to snuff – otherwise, there are fines involved. One way of insuring that the homes are kept up to par, is a federal tax break for those who invest in, what is reality, American History. Gabriel Gomez took such a tax break – which the Markey team is now calling: Bogus. The Boston Globesuggests that the tax deduction is “bogus” and that, although extremely successful as a businessman, Gomez is just “average”. In addition, Gomez had the nerve to blame Ed Markey for his tax deduction, when questioned about the deduction by a local news agency, Gomez had the “chutzpah” to suggest Markey’s vote for the Historic Preservation Act, somehow made it his fault. (Globe) – Apparently, the reporter has no sense of humor, or irony, or any clue as to what goes into owning a historic home. Surely there must be something wrong with Gomez? If not, we’ll just do our darndest to make him sound like something he’s not.

What one might call Gomez is an inexperienced politician, as he is not a politician per se, but by virtue of running for office, he is under the microscope, and more so as he is a Hispanic running under the GOP banner. It is not that he is no more or no less qualified to take the office than say, a Harvard professor, who dabbled in real estate, and took advantage of tax breaks (Elizabeth Warren). Yet, when the going gets tough, the mudslinging must begin.

That’s politics – the size of the tax break, $250,000 and change, is not as large as some might suggest, given the fact that most politicians find loopholes and pay lower tax rates than most working people. On the surface, what’s bogus is the hype surrounding the tax break in the first place.

What the opposition needs to do is keep it’s rather exaggerated candidate from making additional wild claims – Ed Markey , has made claims as far flung as having invented smart phones and Facebook,

Massachusetts Senate candidate Rep. Ed Markey‘s claims to have helped promote technological innovation drew jeers during his primary campaign against Democrat Stephen Lynch, when Markey claimed during a March 27 debate that he “took on the monopolies” and therefore deserved credit for such famed Internet properties as eBay, Facebook and Twitter. That claim drew comparison to former Vice President Al Gore‘s claim to have invented the Internet, but now Markey has made those claims the centerpiece of the first TV ad in his campaign against Republican Gabriel Gomez, and an examination of Markey’s role in telecommunications legislation shows the 66-year-old congressman could have difficulty defending his claims in a surprisingly competitive election.

Markey’s newly released campaign ad shows him in an office full of computers, saying that broadband, cell phones and the Internet didn’t exist 20 years ago. True enough, but an examination of the congressional record raises doubts about Markey’s claims — repeated in his campaign literature — that he played a key role in making these innovations possible.

(Frontpage)

Markey Campaign Video Below –



For those going to the poll’s with half a brain, one the one hand is a successful businessman (average by Boston Globe Standards), who also served the country as a Navy Seal, bought an historic home and is looking to serve his nation in the Senate – part of his position is Term Limits.

Which is a problem for his opponent, who’s been in Congress for decades, and wants to move to the Senate, so that proposition can’t sit well for those entrenched politico’s. He also has “invented” everything that Al Gore has and has not taken credit for – in other words, he’s also slightly ridiculous.

Crazy old man, or someone who is grounded in reality? Tough Choice for Massachusetts Voters this June.

Trouble in Beantown! MA 2013 Senate Race - Markey up by Only 4 Points over Gomez – Michelle Obama to Boston for Markey Fundraiser on May 29th

Markey (left) and Gomez (right) - image AP via Politico

Ed Markey, the long-serving Democrat Congressman from the Massachusetts 5th District, is up against some narrow odds against newcomer, GOP candidate, Gabriel Gomez. A national poll from PPP (which is a Democrat leaning pollster), has Markey and Gomez only 4 percentage points apart – with a margin of error of 2.5%.

Gomez is starting out as a pretty popular candidate, with 41% of voters rating him favorably to 27% with an unfavorable opinion. Beyond having good numbers with Republicans he's at 42/24 with independents, and actually seen narrowly positively even by Democrats at 33/32. Voters meanwhile are more divided on Markey, with 44% holding a positive view of him to 41% with a negative one. He's at 31/50 with independents.

For a Republican to be competitive in Massachusetts they need to win independents by a hefty margin and get a fair amount of crossover support from Democrats, and right now Gomez is doing both of those things. He's up 47/31 with independents and winning over 21% of Democratic voters. Both those numbers suggest that some folks who supported Stephen Lynch in the primary are being a little reticent about supporting Markey in the general.

(PPP)

The pollster goes on to note that the good news for Markey is that Obama is very popular in Massachusetts. However, that did not work out so well for Martha Coakley who ran against Scott Brown in the 2010 special election.

Coakley was considered to have made mistakes, gaffes such as being unable to name a sports team; however, one might also point to the fact that in yet another high profile race, Markey is nowhere near the 15 point lead that Coakley had out of the gate. Coakley was known statewide, while Brown was little known. In this instance, Gomez had been working the state in person for months, as well in advertising buys introducing himself during the primary, to households throughout Massachusetts. Markey on the other hand, is not that well known, and his advertising amounted to little more than Al Gore like claims and the usual pro-choice messaging. Social issues are not a pivotal issue in this particular race, as Gomez is the candidate the Democrats wish they had.

Gomez is young, Hispanic, smart, successful and a former Navy Seal – compared to Markey, who looks like a great-grandfather of NARAL.

How much trouble is Markey in? Given the popularity of Obama in Massachusetts, the Boston Globe is reporting thatMichelle Obama will be headlining a fundraiser for Markey on the 29th of May – the ticket is priced at $37,600. The Globe goes on to note that the White House is prepared to do anything to help Markey – a reliable progressive voice in the Congress. The problem with Markey is he won by a margin of 58 to 43 percent.(Boston Globe) which sounds like a solid Democrat lead, however, those Lynch Democrats, and the Republican’s, and Independent's that voted for Lynch as a Blue Dog Democrat, will, in all likelihood, end up in the Gomez column.(See PPP Poll for Verification.)

Again, as a reminder, Obama personally came to Massachusetts to campaign for Martha Coakley in 2010, and that did not work out as well as expected. (Politico) That may necessary again, considering the circumstances – Gomez is not Scott Brown, he is extremely aggressive, out of the gate, with in-state and out-of-state ground troops that came in during the primaries. Brown did have ground troops, but that came weeks before the special election. There isn’t justification to compare Brown to Gomez (yet, so many articles in the news are dubbing Gomez, the next Scott Brown), they are in no wise similar, the only link is that they both are – Republican’s in Massachusetts, and Gomez is, of all things, an Hispanic Republican.

While Markey represents everything that is wrong is Washington – the status quo.

The only attributes that would make Gomez even more dangerous to the Democrats – if he were a woman and African American, making him a representative of the three “guaranteed Democrat voting blocs”, but one, being Hispanic is dangerous enough. What next? With Texas Senator, Ted Cruz, making a dent in the Democrat “owned” demographic,

Democrat heavyweight William Blaine "Bill" Richardson III has openly questioned the legitimacy of Texas Senator Ted Cruz's Latino heritage based solely on the Texas senator's politics

(On ABC This Week – Richardson stated :)

"I don’t think he should be defined as a Hispanic. He’s a politician from Texas, a conservative state...."

(examiner.com)

Perhaps Richardson ill need to make a trip to Massachusetts with Michelle Obama to remind the base that Gomez isn’t really Hispanic, he’s a Conservative….

Of course, as the progressives try and paint Gomez as “Tea Party”, which is laughable, they may indeed attempt to lump Gomez, with Cruz, Rubio, Martinez – all Hispanic Republican’s – who, despite some Tea Party support for the later three, those Hispanics that are conservative are no different than anyone else who finds that defending their political points of view, comes with labels, some of which have overtones of racism. Democrats (national) for all their party of inclusion hype, are starting to sound a lot like the narrative one hears about the counter-party – racist, angry old white men.

MA Special Senate Election – Match-up: Markey vs. Gomez - Youth and Diversity versus the Old Established White – Wait a Second! Gomez is a What?

Compare and Contrast: Ed Markey (Top) and Gabriel Gomez (Bottom) –– image wickedlocal.com

Something odd happened in the Massachusetts Special Election yesterday, there appears to have been a role reversal in the way one views the status quo of political parties. Normally speaking, the Republican on the ticket is viewed by low information voters (and die-hard progressives, etc.) as the “angry old white man” while the Democrat on the ticket is viewed as the hip, young, diverse “rock star”.

If, against the odds, Mike Sullivan had bested Gabriel Gomez in the Republican Primary, that would have resulted in a match of angry old white man against semi-angry old white man, Ed Markey. If Stephen Lynch had bested Markey, the matchup would have been kindly old-time Democrat against angry old white man. Although Sullivan could hardly be cast in the role of angry, but he is older, and he is definitely white. This nonsense is illustrative – given the fact that the mantra for decades has been that the Democrats are the party of diversity, while the Republican’s are made up of nothing but angry, old, rich, white men. This is taught on campuses, it is seen in the news, it is discussed, ad nauseum on MSNBC, yet there appears to be a flaw in this theory. There has been for eons, as one Senator Rand Paul attempted to point out recently while visiting Howard University, but, was lambasted for bringing up the past of the Republican Party, not the present. There are facts and then, there is propaganda. The facts are that regardless of race, gender or ethnicity, individuals choose a political party by their own ideology, for the most part.

Gomez, is young, attractive, a newcomer to politics (sort-of), a first generation Hispanic American, served the nation in the Navy, went on to become a very successful businessman – in other words, living the American Dream. He is the Republican, so those who are unaware can pick up their jaws off that floor.

Ed Markey, on the other hand, is the old guy, normally hair is somewhat askew, and he appears to be grimacing rather than smiling. One might say he is rich, given the fact that he lives in DC, while maintaining his parent’s home in Massachusetts, though rarely setting food in the state. (Boston Globe) In advertising for the primary against Stephen Lynch, he pushed his NARAL rating, and his love for Planned Parenthood. NARAL rates political leaders on their support for unfettered abortion up to and including terminating a "fetus" that is born alive and breathing. (See the Gosnell Horror Abortion Trial in Philadelphia) (Bucks County Courier) – Markey is for Obamacare, higher taxes and no cuts to the Federal Government. Markey is the Democrat Party of today.

What a conundrum!

Once the ads start, it’s going to be a tough one – as Gomez is well-funded, and Markey has the weight of the Progressive wing of the Democrat Party behind him. The Polls suggest that Markey is the favorite, which, at present may be the case – against all the rules of logic, in the upside down world in which we live in Massachusetts.

One might suggest that Markey is going to have to get a lot of help from his friends come the election in June – this one might take a bit more “ballot stuffing” creativity than previous elections to ensure that Markey goes over the top with a 5 to 10 point finish. If Gomez can get out the vote, and ensure he plasters the state, and guilts those racially sensitive (i.e. racists) Democrats and Democrat leaning Independents (more important) into voting for him – Markey may have a rougher time of it. If this race grabs national attention, and it already has (Gomez has ground troops coming in from other states for the primary –young, college students), then there may be an upset. That’s a long-shot – again – maybe.

This is, in all seriousness, a chance for a first in the Bay State, which elected the first African American to the Senate (a Republican), and now has a chance to elect the state’s first Hispanic to the Senate (where he would join the growing Hispanic Republican Caucus in that august body.) This just became the race to watch.

Election date: June 25th, 2013 - In that election, one may vote for the candidate of their choice - for example, if one is a Democrat, one can go into the booth and vote for the Republican, and vice versa.

Visit: Gomez for Senate

Visit: Ed Markey dot com

Compare and Contrast!