Republican Scott Brown won a Massachusetts Senate race by 291 votes over Democrat Angus McQuilken last night, but McQuilken refused to concede - immediately threatening a recount....
But a recount, and the protracted court battles, would likely delay the new senator's seating by weeks or months.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Brown wins Senate race, but McQuilken won't quit
State Rep. Scott Brown claimed a razor-thin victory last night in the race to fill Cheryl Jacques' state Senate seat, but Millis Democrat Angus McQuilken refused to concede defeat.
Brown's campaign said the Wrentham Republican captured slightly more than 50 percent of the votes, defeating McQuilken by a mere 291 votes.
"All I know is 100 percent of the votes are in and the voters have spoken. I won and I'm proud of the results," Brown said.
Gov. Mitt Romney declared victory for Brown shortly before 11 p.m. at the candidate's post-election gathering in Wrentham.
Minutes earlier, however, McQuilken told his supporters he will not immediately concede the race to Brown.
Instead, McQuilken said he is "weighing his options," including a request for a recount, and will decide within the next two days....
Brown's victory would give Romney a strong boost in his campaign to expand the Republican Party's ranks on Beacon Hill.
Brown's election would restore the Republicans' control over a seat they held for decades before Jacques upset former state Sen. David Locke of Wellesley in 1992.
"The big picture is that we beat the machine," said Dominick Ianno, executive director of the Massachusetts Republican Party. "They threw everything at us but the kitchen sink, but Scott's reform message won, and the voters of Massachusetts won."
His win was widely viewed as a key building block in Romney's bid to revitalize the GOP in Massachusetts -- and erode the Democrats' dominance at the Statehouse.
The MetroWest Daily News
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Narrow win for Brown:
McQuilken refuses to concede defeat, weighs options
The Republican candidate in a special election for an open state Senate seat declared victory Tuesday night, while his Democratic opponent refused to concede and says he's weighing a recount....
With all precincts reporting, Republican candidate Scott Brown and Democrat Angus McQuilken each were each shown with about 50 percent of the tally, separated by about 330 votes.
Associated Press
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Polls close in special election to fill state senate seat
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Jon Keller's "Election 2004," which usually airs on Sunday morning at 8:30 on WLVI WB-56, was pre-broadcast on Friday night at 10:30 as well. It featured an important debate for the Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex Senate district seat between Republican state Rep. Scott Brown and Democrat Angus McQuilken, the former chief-of-staff for former-state Sen. Cheryl Jacques. We were watching because of course we were very interested in the campaign that was going to kick-off Governor Romney’s (and our) project to get more reform and taxpayer allies elected to the Legislature this fall.
CLT’s 2˝ PAC endorsed Scott Brown – who had a 100% rating with CLT for
2001-02 – for the seat last year, when we first learned that Cheryl Jacques was leaving. Chip Faulkner, CLT’s PAC
director, recently mailed a letter to his Boston members asking them to volunteer some time at the Republican State Committee’s Boston phone bank for
Scott Brown. We put out a news release on Tuesday ("Support for Brown
Grows") and I focused our Wednesday Update ("Dem's desperately dirty Senate campaign deserves a
response") on the underhanded Democrats' tactics to win at any cost.
Chip Faulkner had a list of the 272 CLT membership households and phone numbers in
towns of that Senate district: he'd spent part of last Friday at the Brown campaign headquarters and made a good start on reaching them all, with plans to continue calling the next day. Barbara was working on another news release praising
Scott Brown’s support for the taxpayers, and planning to slip a get-out-the-vote
reminder into the pre-election coverage on NECN Monday night for which she was scheduled. I was planning another reminder in my Monday and Tuesday
Updates.
All of us were unwaveringly behind Rep. Scott Brown
– the polar opposite of his Democrat opponent.
But just seven minutes into the half-hour Keller debate Scott Brown knocked the enthusiasm out of us, announcing that he supported the attack on Proposition 2˝ we'd spent all week fighting!
KELLER: Just last week the House approved legislation that would let communities exempt senior citizens from overrides of the Proposition 2˝ limit on property tax growth. Some argue that would pave the way for such overrides by essentially buying off a major source of political resistance to them. That bill was approved in an informal session on a voice vote that could have been stopped by the objections of even one House Member. My question is, do you support or oppose that bill, and if you do oppose it, why didn't you do anything to stop it last week?
BROWN: ... I support, I support that and I'm in opposition, obviously, to the governor and CLT on that ... I support it.
Barbara gasped in shock while I struggled to defend Scott, rationalized that we didn't understand what he'd said, that in the heat of debate he'd misspoken, that he didn't mean what it sounded like he'd said, that we'd have to catch the debate in rerun on Sunday morning to be sure. She was sure what she'd heard, and I had a difficult time believing what I was saying. I thought I knew what I'd heard
too – I just couldn't believe my ears.
Scott Brown closed the deal for us before the debate was done, further asserting: "...we talked earlier about the, uh, the senior citizens tax break; now I support that and the governor doesn't." He couldn't have been more clear.
Barbara e-mailed the campaign immediately, canceling her
upcoming supportive news release. I was still hoping there was some mistake so I called the Brown
campaign and spoke with a senior campaign official, and Brown's position against Prop 2˝ was confirmed -- but I was asked not to pull our support over "one issue" on which we disagree.
"One issue?" I exclaimed in shock. "It's the one issue we've been defending every day of the week for the past twenty-four years! It's the most important issue ahead! It will spell the end of Proposition 2˝ if it passes!"
The contentious "conversations" went on into the weekend, but the Brown campaign would not budge. Saturday morning Chip Faulkner withdrew his volunteer support from the Brown campaign and ceased calling our members in the district, or participating in any of the other campaign activities he'd planned for the days leading up to yesterday. The CLT staff then had a decision to make about my weekend update.
We take pride in keeping our activists informed, and knew that some of them, like
Chip Faulkner, had planned weekend campaigning for Scott Brown – and that some would be publicly commenting on his candidacy without having seen the Keller debate and knowing that he was going to vote against us on Proposition 2˝. But if we
went public, confusion might spread among the voters of that district
and if the Tuesday vote was close, we could help elect McQuilkin.
We had Governor Romney’s promise to veto the bill, and hated to risk the campaign that he had invested so much into, as well as the total election project and the other candidates our PAC is supporting.
In the end, we concluded that if Scott Brown was elected to the Senate, he would still be
one vote against Proposition 2˝.
But if Angus McQuilkin was elected instead, it'd be
two votes against Prop 2˝ – along with all the other "radical liberal" baggage he'd drag up to Beacon Hill with him, along with the teachers unions and the public employees unions that supported him.
We decided to ... do nothing. Nothing to further help and nothing to potentially hurt in the closing days of the campaign.
This explains why we didn't publicly announce it until now. On NECN's
"NewsNight" Monday night, Barbara simply said that if Brown lost it shouldn’t reflect on Gov. Romney’s project because the election was unfairly rigged by the Democrats.
The election result was so close that, in retrospect, we actually could have made the difference in either direction. Had Chip Faulkner continued phoning CLT members, it could have provided an
additional vote cushion. Had we announced our disgust with Brown's shocking position, it could have meant fewer votes for Brown and decided the election in favor of McQuilken.
On Sunday morning we taped the debate when it was rebroadcast and I transcribed the relevant questions. Here is
the second exchange later in the debate ...
KELLER: Can you please each give us at least two quick examples of a time when you took a position contrary to your party leadership on Beacon Hill?
After expressing his support for Clean Elections and term limits and his opposition to the Speaker's pay raises and the Speaker-for-Life "amendment," Scott Brown stated:
BROWN: ... we talked earlier about the, uh, the senior citizens tax break; now I support that and the governor doesn't.
The 100% CLT rating for the 2001-02 Legislative Session that Rep. Brown had earned and touted in his campaign has dropped to 96% for the 2003 Session (the new CLT Legislative Rating is in the mail to you). With this shocking vote, it will drop dramatically in the next rating CLT
releases – unless someone can convince him that he can support those seniors in the other sections of the new senior relief bill, while still supporting Prop 2˝,
unexempted taxpayers who'll have to pick up those seniors' additional
burden too, and Governor Romney.
|
|
|
Chip
Ford |
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Brown wins Senate race, but McQuilken won't quit
By Steve Marantz and David R. Guarino
Republican Scott Brown won a Massachusetts Senate race by 291 votes over Democrat Angus McQuilken last night, but McQuilken refused to concede - immediately threatening a recount.
"We consider this unresolved, and we're keeping our options open," McQuilken said late last night. "This has come down to 1 percent and less than 300 votes out of nearly 40,000 cast. I feel I owe it to those voters to consider all my options."
McQuilken didn't call Brown to end the race, and Republicans predicted a recount battle would be futile.
"The voters have spoken," said Republican Party Executive Director Dominick Ianno. "Angus is within his rights to seek a recount. I don't think he'll be successful."
Ianno said plans are already under way to have Brown sworn in, possibly as early as next week.
But a recount, and the protracted court battles, would likely delay the new senator's seating by weeks or months.
Brown, a third-term representative from Wrentham, won the special election to fill former Sen. Cheryl A. Jacques' seat by an unofficial 18,762 to 18,471 count.
Because he opposes same-sex marriage, Brown's victory blocks gay activists from gaining a critical vote when lawmakers resume the debate March 11 to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.
Return to
top
The MetroWest Daily News
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Narrow win for Brown:
McQuilken refuses to concede defeat, weighs options
By Michael Kunzelman, Staff Writer
State Rep. Scott Brown claimed a razor-thin victory last night in the race to fill Cheryl Jacques' state Senate seat, but Millis Democrat Angus McQuilken refused to concede defeat.
Brown's campaign said the Wrentham Republican captured slightly more than 50 percent of the votes, defeating McQuilken by a mere 291 votes.
"All I know is 100 percent of the votes are in and the voters have spoken. I won and I'm proud of the results," Brown said.
Gov. Mitt Romney declared victory for Brown shortly before 11 p.m. at the candidate's post-election gathering in Wrentham.
Minutes earlier, however, McQuilken told his supporters he will not immediately concede the race to Brown.
Instead, McQuilken said he is "weighing his options," including a request for a recount, and will decide within the next two days.
"This is unresolved," he said in a telephone interview. "We're going to keep our options open.... Voters have a right to have those options considered."
Philip Johnston, chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, said McQuilken has "every right to ask for a recount."
"Obviously, it's very, very close," he added. "He's not going to decide anything tonight. He's going to sleep on it."
Brown declined to comment on McQuilken's refusal to concede.
"I don't have any comment on what Angus is doing or saying," he said.
Brown's victory would give Romney a strong boost in his campaign to expand the Republican Party's ranks on Beacon Hill.
Brown's election would restore the Republicans' control over a seat they held for decades before Jacques upset former state Sen. David Locke of Wellesley in 1992.
"The big picture is that we beat the machine," said Dominick Ianno, executive director of the Massachusetts Republican Party. "They threw everything at us but the kitchen sink, but Scott's reform message won, and the voters of Massachusetts won."
His win was widely viewed as a key building block in Romney's bid to revitalize the GOP in Massachusetts -- and erode the Democrats' dominance at the Statehouse.
Lou DiNatale, a Democrat and political analyst at UMass-Boston, said the narrow margin of Brown's apparent victory does not offer any clues to how other Republican challengers will fare in November.
"The tea leaves are hard to read," he said. "The Republicans outspent the Democrats 4 to 1 in a historically Republican district. This is Romney's best show. Brown is their best candidate and Angus is arguably one the Democrats' worst."
Brown's victory also would deal a sharp blow to supporters of gay marriage.
Brown already has voted in favor of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, while McQuilken's election could have added a potentially critical pro-gay vote to the state Legislature.
Brown enjoyed a sizable fund-raising edge over McQuilken, thanks in large part to Romney and the Massachusetts Republican Party.
The state GOP party pumped more than $100,000 in in-kind contributions into Brown's campaign, at least twice the amount the Massachusetts Democratic Party donated to McQuilken's campaign.
The money helped Brown get an early jump on airing radio and television advertisements that touted his credentials and attacked McQuilken's.
McQuilken, meanwhile, earned strong financial support from organized labor, as he accepted more than $9,000 from at least 19 labor unions.
The race, although relatively brief, featured plenty of personal attacks and name-calling.
The tone of the campaign took a decidedly negative turn after the Feb. 3 primary, as Brown and McQuilken traded barbs over everything from abortion and guns to sex-change operations for inmates.
The two candidates offered voters a stark choice on a wide range of issues, including taxes, gun control and gay marriage.
Brown took a no-new-taxes pledge. McQuilken said he would not support a tax hike this year, but did not rule out future increases.
Brown wants to amend the state constitution to outlaw gay marriage, while McQuilken is an outspoken proponent of allowing same-sex couples to wed.
Brown and McQuilken also clashed over gun control and abortion.
McQuilken, who helped Jacques craft the state's landmark Gun Control Act of 1998, frequently called Brown a "right-wing extremist" for voting in favor of lifting a lifetime ban on gun ownership for people convicted of certain crimes.
Brown, meanwhile, labeled McQuilken a "radical liberal" on abortion rights and other social issues.
The fate of gay marriage in Massachusetts weighed heavily on the minds of many voters who cast ballots at Lilja Elementary School in Natick.
Adam Corneille, who voted for McQuilken because he supports gay marriage, said the issue was the only reason he showed up at the polls yesterday.
"I don't know a damn thing about Angus. I just know the other guy is against gay marriage," said Corneille, who is unenrolled.
Dorothy Patton, a Republican, said she voted for Brown in spite of his opposition to gay marriage. Even though she sides with McQuilken on the issue, she could not bring herself to cross party lines.
"I think gay marriage ought to be allowed, and I'm concerned because the Republicans are having some trouble with that," Patton said. "I'm conflicted, because on most other issues I'm very Republican."
For others, gay marriage was not a factor at all. Michael McDonald, an unenrolled Natick resident, said he voted for Brown because he opposes tax increases.
"The social issues aren't going to be decided by one politician," McDonald said.
McQuilken's close ties to Jacques resonated for many voters.
"I was a supporter of Cheryl Jacques, and I know he worked for her for quite a long time," said Patty Wainer, a Democrat.
McQuilken served as Jacques' chief of staff for 11 years. Jacques left the Senate in January and moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as head of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay-rights political organization.
Turnout at the polls appeared to be "much better" in the Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex district than the rest of the state, said Brian McNiff, a spokesman for Secretary of State William Galvin.
Although accurate numbers were not immediately available, McNiff said the statewide turnout appeared to match Galvin's pre-election forecast of 25 percent.
For months, Republican Party leaders have accused Senate Democrats of trying to rig the election's outcome by holding it on the same day as the presidential primary, when a disproportionate number of Democrats were expected to cast ballots.
The district is comprised of Millis, Needham, Norfolk, North Attleboro, Plainville, Sherborn, Wayland, Wrentham, three precincts in Franklin, three precincts in Wellesley, four precincts in Natick and three wards and one precinct in Attleboro.
Return to
top
Associated Press
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Polls close in special election to fill state senate seat
By Steve LeBlanc
The Republican candidate in a special election for an open state Senate seat declared victory Tuesday night, while his Democratic opponent refused to concede and says he's weighing a recount.
The election, viewed as a key test of gay marriage as a campaign issue for lawmakers, was held to replace former Democratic state Sen. Cheryl Jacques, a proponent of same-sex weddings who resigned to head the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights organization.
With all precincts reporting, Republican candidate Scott Brown and Democrat Angus McQuilken each were each shown with about 50 percent of the tally, separated by about 330 votes.
Brown, a member of the state House of Representatives, declared victory late Tuesday night, telling supporters results compiled by his campaign showed he was up by 291 votes.
"We're confident with our totals," he said after addressing backers gathered at his headquarters in Wrentham. "Based on what everyone is telling us, it should hold."
But in Millis, McQuilken -- a former top aide to Jacques -- told supporters just before 10:30 p.m. that "we are weighing our options overnight."
Later, he told The Associated Press: "We have not conceded. We are keeping our options open and considering a recount. ... I feel I owe it to those voters to consider what options are appropriate."
The seat is seen both as a test of gay marriage as a campaign issue and a bellwether of Republican hopes to capture more legislative seats in November, when all 200 seats are up for election.
Return to
top
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17
U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or
payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this
information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For
more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml