CLT UPDATE
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Baker names Sen. Tisei as running mate
Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei,
a fixture in the Legislature since 1985 and a vocal thorn in the side of
state Democratic leaders, will run for lieutenant governor as the
running mate of GOP gubernatorial hopeful Charles Baker, the campaign
announced Monday.
An outspoken critic of the Patrick administration, Tisei adds insider
heft to Baker's campaign, bringing with him 18 years of experience in
the state Senate and six more before that in the House. Tisei is one of
only five Republicans in the Senate and his run for lieutenant governor
would open up the seat he has long held, while giving the campaign a
voice in the capitol heading into the election year....
Tisei, 47, was elected to the House at 22 and is the longest serving
Republican legislator in Massachusetts. His district covers Lynnfield,
Malden, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham and Wakefield. Registered Republicans
are outnumbered 9 to 1 in his district but he's managed to win
reelection to ten straight terms in the Senate.
State House News Service
Monday, November 23, 2009
Baker's pick of Tisei as running mate
ripples through Beacon Hill
The son of a builder, Tisei caught the political bug when he
visited the State House in high school was first elected to the House in 1984 at
the age of 22. He has served in the Senate since 1990. He cites as his major
accomplishments helping to craft an overhaul of the state’s welfare laws in 1993
and his sponsorship of a whistleblower protection law. He also has a 93 percent
approval rating from the antitax group Citizens for Limited Taxation and
high marks from Associated Industries of Massachusetts and other business
groups....
Baker, a former Weld administration official and former Harvard Pilgrim Health
Care president, is one of three challengers seeking to unseat Governor Deval
Patrick, a Democrat, in 2010. Christy Mihos, a former convenience store magnate,
is also running for the Republican nomination, while state Treasurer Timothy P.
Cahill recently left the Democratic Party to mount an independent candidacy.
Tisei must still win support from Republican primary voters next year to win a
spot on the general election ticket, and other Republicans could seek the spot.
Baker’s hope is that with his naming of Tisei, other Republicans will pass on
the race.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Baker names Senate’s Tisei as running mate
Ripping a page from former Gov. William Weld’s playbook,
Baker tapped Tisei, 47, saying the Wakefield Republican has the Beacon Hill
know-how to balance his own outsider credentials. Weld picked then-state Sen.
Paul Cellucci to be his running mate en route to winning the Corner Office in
1990.
“He’s got 20 years of a fabulous record as a guy who fights for the taxpayers,”
Baker said yesterday morning in Wakefield. “I’m very excited to have him on the
team.”
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Rivals call Charles Baker’s pick an ‘insider’
By selecting Senator Richard R. Tisei to be his running mate,
gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker is trying to take Massachusetts
Republicans back to the future - 1990, to be specific, when the puny political
party bounced back as the voice of fiscal conservatism and social moderation and
began a 16-year hold on the governorship....
“Charlie and Richard will complement each other as candidates like Bill and Paul
did,’’ said Charles Manning, a Republican strategist who worked for the
campaigns of Weld and Romney.
Weld, a former prosecutor, teamed up with Cellucci, a state senator and veteran
Beacon Hill insider, on a Republican ticket two decades ago that captured the
corner office after four terms of Democratic rule.
Parallels to 1990 extend to the political environment, which, as it is now, was
combustible because of an economy in shambles and tax increases. Though they ran
throughout in tandem, both had to run separately to win primaries against more
conservative opponents before running as a ticket in the November election. The
Republicans also captured the state treasurer’s office that year and knocked off
six Democratic senators, giving Weld sufficient legislative support to sustain
his vetoes for the next two years.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Baker’s choice indicative of Mass. GOP’s uniqueness
By Brian C. Mooney
Barbara Anderson's Membership Message
Dear member;
Citizens for Limited
Taxation cannot endorse candidates. CLT’s 2½ PAC is focused on
legislative candidates and if it endorses for governor, usually waits
until after a contested primary in which both candidates are CLT allies.
It’s no secret that I am
personally supporting Charlie Baker (his bumper sticker is on my car
already!) because we’ve been friends for thirty years, since he worked
for the Mass. High Tech Council during our joint Prop 2½ legislative
battles; I’ve been hoping for Charlie to run for governor someday.
However, both he and Christy Mihos are CLT members and we always
appreciated Christy’s activism on the Big Dig – so, barring some
unusual event, the PAC will stay neutral until after the primary.
This week Charlie Baker
chose his preferred running mate, state Senator Richard Tisei. When
asked about this, my statement was that “Charlie Baker represents the
best maybe last chance we have to get ourselves a government that
doesn't embarrass us, that actually gets some good things done at a
price we can afford. We note that Richard Tisei has done a good job as
Senate Minority leader with a 100% rating with CLT for 2009.”
The choice of Charlie is
mine alone. The statement about Rich Tisei is a fact presented by CLT,
which has just completed its 2009 rating. The full rating will be
published when we are sure there will be no “emergency session” votes
this year.
|
 |
|
Barbara Anderson |
State House News Service
Monday, November 23, 2009
Baker's pick of Tisei as running mate
ripples through Beacon Hill
By Kyle Cheney and Michael Norton
Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei, a fixture in the Legislature since
1985 and a vocal thorn in the side of state Democratic leaders, will run
for lieutenant governor as the running mate of GOP gubernatorial hopeful
Charles Baker, the campaign announced Monday.
An outspoken critic of the Patrick administration, Tisei adds insider
heft to Baker's campaign, bringing with him 18 years of experience in
the state Senate and six more before that in the House. Tisei is one of
only five Republicans in the Senate and his run for lieutenant governor
would open up the seat he has long held, while giving the campaign a
voice in the capitol heading into the election year.
“If [Baker] thinks I can help him govern the state, it’s hard to say no
to him,” Tisei told the News Service. “I’ve been sounding the alarm on
Beacon Hill. This is going to be an opportunity to actually fix it.”
In a phone interview, Tisei said he can help Baker navigate the
byzantine process on Beacon Hill, said he wouldn’t alter his approach as
a legislator, and said the recent disclosure that he is gay won’t play
much of a role in the campaign. Tisei also walked back his recent strong
criticism of former Gov. Mitt Romney.
The selection sent ripples through the State House Monday morning, when
the Baker campaign posted it on Facebook and Twitter. Tisei’s GOP
colleagues were quick to heap praise on the longtime legislator.
“He's a very tenacious campaigner, a good campaigner,” said House
Minority Leader Brad Jones. “He's never lost an election. If you look at
Richard's district, it runs the gamut of cities to suburbs, from
affluent to less affluent. It’s a great sort of microcosm of the state.”
Jones questioned the outsider approach that Gov. Deval Patrick, who
intends to run for reelection with Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, brought to
public office, listing the lawmakers - Reps. Doug Peterson, Mike Festa,
Jim Leary, Bob Coughlin and Dan Bosley, as well as Sen. Marian Walsh -
that Patrick either placed, or sought to place, in his administration.
Jones predicted Tisei critics might try to hammer him as an insider.
“This will be an arguing line but I think it's a little ridiculous. I
think you have to look at what they've done in office. Deval Patrick's
as much an insider now as anybody else,” he said.
The Baker-Tisei ticket has a decidedly North Shore feel, with Baker from
Swampscott and Tisei from Wakefield.
Treasurer Tim Cahill, running unenrolled, and Republican Christy Mihos,
competing against Baker for the Republican nomination, have not
announced running mates. The lieutenant governor is elected
independently in Massachusetts but candidates have historically formed
alliances with preferred picks during primaries.
Mihos slammed the pick, telling the News Service in a phone interview
that a Baker-Tisei ticket is “very liberal” and aiming to paint Tisei as
complicit in the failures of the Big Dig. Mihos said the Senate, which
holds a 35-5 ratio of Democrats to Republicans – could ill-afford to
lose its most seasoned Republican.
“How do you take one out of five out when you’re trying to build our
ranks in the Legislature?” Mihos wondered, musing the Sen. Robert
Hedlund (R-Weymouth) would make a strong GOP leader in Tisei’s absence.
Sen. Scott Brown (R-Wrentham) is waging a campaign for U.S. Senate, and
if he won his long-shot bid or waged a successful campaign for another
statewide office, Republicans would be down to, at most, three incumbent
senators. Tisei declined to weigh in on who should replace him as
minority leader, noting that “it’s up to the caucus.”
Tisei said he is confident that Republican Senate candidates will
succeed in the 2010 elections, and he said he feels he can be more
influential from the lieutenant governor’s post than in his seat in the
Legislature.
“We have over a dozen candidates running for state senate,” he said.
“They’re a good group of candidates. I think we’re going to do pretty
well.”
When asked by the News Service in June whether he’d consider running for
an open treasurer position, Tisei laughed and said, “No, I’m here to
lead the legislative revolution and bring the party back into majority
in the Senate. That’s my goal.”
Mihos said he had no plans to pick a running mate, adding that he picked
one in 2006, when he ran for governor as an independent, because state
law requires him to run on a ticket. He pointed to a flap in a New York
Congressional race in which GOP leaders ditched the party’s nominee
because of concerns she was too liberal, only to see the Democratic
candidate best their favored, conservative choice.
“Anytime Beacon Hill insiders make these decisions or party officials
make these decisions, we have meltdowns,” he said.
Tisei fired back at Mihos, blaming him for damaging Repbulican Kerry
Healey’s chances to win the Corner Office in her 2006 bid.
“I’ve been a Republican since I was 18 years old. I’ve been a member of
my town committee since I was 18. I’ve worked with hundreds of
candidates for years,” he said. “I think my Republican credentials are
pretty solid. I’ll match them up against his any day.”
Tisei pointed out that he, Baker and Mihos all support gay marriage and
are pro-choice.
Tisei, who has already tangled publicly with his new campaign rival, Lt.
Gov. Tim Murray, will bring inside-the-building know-how to the ticket
and an ability to work with Democratic legislative leaders, according to
Rep. Brad Hill, a veteran Republican from Ipswich.
In an interview, Hill compared Baker's selection to Republican Gov.
William Weld's choice of Sen. Paul Cellucci as his running mate for the
1990 election, when they paired up to defeat John Silber and Marjorie
Clapprood.
“What he brings is institutional knowledge of the building,” said Hill,
who speculated that the Patrick administration has not been able to work
as closely with the Legislature as it had envisioned.
Hill called Weld's selection of Cellucci, who went on to serve as acting
governor before winning the office outright, a “brilliant move” because
Cellucci knew the ins and outs of Beacon Hill. “Bill Weld was able to
accomplish a lot with the Democrat-controlled Legislature,” said Hill,
adding that institutional knowledge “goes a long way up here.”
Patrick last week clashed with House Speaker Robert DeLeo, demanding
that lawmakers buck their rules and hold late-November sessions to pass
crime and education proposals. Although they typically meet on Mondays,
the governor, speaker and Senate president did not hold their regular
agenda-setting meeting Monday, as the building was occupied mostly by
talk of politics rather than policy.
Tisei is gay, his sexual orientation disclosed for the first time to
many last week in a Boston Globe article that mentioned him as one of
four possible Baker running mates – the other three were Reps. Jones and
Karyn Polito and Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz.
“I was asked a question and I gave an honest answer,” Tisei said of the
disclosure. “I’ve never hid my personal life. I haven’t made a big deal
about it ... I’ve been elected 13 times based on my job performance and
my positions on the issues. I think that’s what people will look at.”
In 2002, before she opted out of her reelection bid in the face of a
surging Mitt Romney candidacy, Acting Gov. Jane Swift selected as her
running mate Patrick Guerreiro (R-Melrose), her deputy chief of staff
and a former House member. At a Boston Park Plaza press conference
introducing her running mate, Swift mentioned that Guerriero was gay.
Later, when asked whether voters in Melrose knew his sexual orientation,
Guerriero said, “Well, those that don't know now know.”
Hill said Rep. Jones also would have offered the ticket a knowledge of
state politics and policy, and that other potential picks brought
different qualities. Polito (R-Shrewsbury) would have given the ticket a
base in the Worcester area, Hill said, while Cruz offered a
“law-and-order” background and roots to the south of Boston.
House Democrat Paul Donato of Medford said Tisei adds to Baker's
campaign.
“Richard has always been a terrific vote-getter in Malden and Melrose,”
Donato told the News Service. “I think he's going to add a significant
amount to the Republican ticket with Baker, certainly making it a very
formidable team for the Democrats to try to overcome.”
In Wakefield Monday, Tisei called Baker “the very best hope for the
future of the Commonwealth.”
The owner of Northrup Realtors in Wakefield and president-elect of the
Eastern Middlesex Association of Realtors, Tisei emphasized a desire to
boost the economy, change the “business as usual attitude on Beacon
Hill,” and make Massachusetts more competitive and affordable.
Tisei, 47, was elected to the House at 22 and is the longest serving
Republican legislator in Massachusetts. His district covers Lynnfield,
Malden, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham and Wakefield. Registered Republicans
are outnumbered 9 to 1 in his district but he's managed to win
reelection to ten straight terms in the Senate.
The choice of Tisei means the GOP ticket will include a vocal critic of
Mitt Romney, the last Republican occupant of the Corner Office. Tisei
irked some Republican colleagues by backing Rudy Giuliani in the
Republican presidential primary in late 2007, then switching to Sen.
John McCain after Giuliani dropped out.
Tisei told reporters at the time that he found it “a bit stunning and
disingenuous” that Romney was portraying himself as a tax-cutter.
“Clearly, his record as governor was just the opposite,” Tisei said,
pointing to $400 million in corporate tax hikes. “I can tell you as a
Republican legislator that cutting taxes just wasn't a top priority for
Mitt Romney the same way it was for Bill Weld and Paul Cellucci during
their administrations.”
Tisei said that Louisiana, post-Hurricane Katrina, showed a better
record of job growth than Massachusetts under the Romney administration.
Rep. Jones, at the time, slammed Tisei, as well as other GOP senators
who abandoned Romney. “Apparently, they're interested in running from
their records,” he said.
In the phone interview, Tisei walked back his criticism of Romney.
“I was frustrated at the time. I think that when you look back over
Governor Romney’s tenure with hindsight from a fiscal management
perspective, the state was a lot better off than it is today,” he said.
“His stewardship of the state is certainly holding up very well ... I
can’t necessarily disagree with a lot of the Romney economic policies.”
Tisei and Lt. Gov. Murray, the man he’s vying to replace, came to
rhetorical blows in July when the Patrick administration fended off
charges that a budget cut to the Commonwealth Zoological Corporation
could force zoo workers to euthanize their animals. Administration
officials blasted zoo executives for spreading the claim, arguing the
zoos would survive and that the funds were more important for human
services.
“Apparently he sees llamas and exotic birds as priorities over those
types of things,” Murray told the News Service at the time. “When you've
been in this building since 1984 like him, you can say one thing and do
another.”
Tisei, whose district includes the Stone Zoo, fired back.
“This whole episode is just another embarrassing blunder by an
incompetent and out of touch administration,” he said. “The Legislature
was able to put together a budget that included funding for the zoos
even after a 10 percent budget cut.”
Although he offers blistering criticism of the Patrick administration,
Tisei has often voiced support for Senate President Therese Murray, who
herself has been publicly at odds with the governor. Tisei has praised
Murray’s leadership while differing with her on policy decisions, and
the two have shown an easy, sometimes-chummy relationship.
Senate President Murray was unavailable for comment, according to an
aide.
When Baker announced his candidacy, Murray raised eyebrows by quickly
issuing a statement describing her “respect” for him, a sentiment she
hadn’t similarly voiced for Patrick or Cahill.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Baker names Senate’s Tisei as running mate
Split from national GOP over same-sex marriage
By Michael Levenson
WAKEFIELD - Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker, sending an
early signal about the fiscally conservative, socially moderate
administration he hopes to build, selected as his running mate yesterday
Senate minority leader Richard R. Tisei, a veteran lawmaker who is also
openly gay.
Baker’s choice highlighted his eagerness to reach out to Democrats and
independents who dominate the Massachusetts electorate and to
distinguish himself from national Republicans who have alienated some
voters with their party’s policies on gay rights.
Tisei, who leads five Republicans in the 40-member Senate, said he
simply disagrees with national Republicans who oppose same-sex marriage.
He pointed out that, even as party leaders in other states have targeted
Republican candidates for their support of gay rights, he has defended
gay marriage in opinion pieces in his local paper and in a floor speech
denouncing a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage
that was backed by Mitt Romney, the state’s Republican governor at the
time.
“I’m a Republican through and through, and we’re a family,’’ Tisei said.
“And sometimes you agree to disagree on certain issues in your family.’’
Baker, whose brother is gay, also supports gay marriage. But neither he
nor Tisei mentioned Tisei’s sexual orientation at an event introducing
the new team yesterday. Instead, Baker emphasized that he and Tisei
agree on the need to create jobs and stabilize the state budget.
Selecting a gay running mate “is sort of an issue . . . but it’s nowhere
near as important as the other stuff,’’ Baker told reporters after the
event at the Americal Civic Center in Wakefield. “The goal here if we
win, when we win, in November is going to be to get stuff done, and part
of getting stuff done is understanding how the building works and
working reform through the process. And Richard’s been doing that for
his entire career.’’
In his district, Tisei has won praise from supporters for his work ethic
and humble, plainspoken style. Richard Lyons, who was Melrose mayor from
1992 to 1997, recalled asking Tisei to secure grants for a senior center
and a swimming pool. “When you needed help, he was always there,’’ Lyons
said. “He would roll up his sleeves and help out in any way.’’
The son of a builder, Tisei caught the political bug when he visited the
State House in high school was first elected to the House in 1984 at the
age of 22. He has served in the Senate since 1990. He cites as his major
accomplishments helping to craft an overhaul of the state’s welfare laws
in 1993 and his sponsorship of a whistleblower protection law. He also
has a 93 percent approval rating from the antitax group Citizens for
Limited Taxation and high marks from Associated Industries of
Massachusetts and other business groups.
If elected, Tisei would be the highest-ranking openly gay Republican in
the country, according to the Victory Fund, a Washington-based group
that seeks to elect gays and lesbians to office. Only 450 of the
nation’s 511,000 elected officials are openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, or
transgender, and more than 90 percent of them are Democrats, said Denis
Dison, a fund spokesman. In addition to Tisei, there is only one other
openly gay Republican among the nation’s 7,000 state legislators.
“There are a lot of things that point to what a history-making election
this would be, if he is elected,’’ Dison said.
At the same time, Dison said, “The interesting part of this announcement
today is kind of what a nonstory it was in Massachusetts.There is local
precedent for the choice. Acting Governor Jane Swift made national news
in 2002 when she chose a gay Republican, former Melrose mayor Patrick
Guerriero, to be her lieutenant governor candidate.
Guerriero said yesterday that running as a gay Republican that year “was
much more interesting and controversial,’’ and that Tisei’s sexuality
“is more a footnote now’’ because gay marriage is no longer a major
political issue in Massachusetts.
“Folks are most concerned about family and economic security than they
are about sexual orientation,’’ Guerriero said.
Daniel A. Grabauskas, a gay Republican who ran for state treasurer in
2002, said he saw Tisei’s candidacy as an indication of the state
Republican Party’s tolerance compared to that of the national party.
“Republicans on the national level coined the phrase ‘big tent,’ but the
national Republican party has never lived up to that, while the
Massachusetts Republican Party has absolutely lived up to that,’’ said
Grabauskas, who helped run Tisei’s first Senate campaign in 1990 and
attended the announcement yesterday.
Tisei, who spoke publicly for the first time about his sexual
orientation in an interview with the Globe last week, said yesterday
that his orientation was well known to his family, legislative
colleagues, and supporters and not a major issue. He and his partner,
Bernie Starr, co-own Northrup Realtors in Lynnfield and have entertained
legislative colleagues at their house in Wakefield, Tisei said.
“I’ve been very open about it,’’ Tisei, 47, said in an interview after
he was formally announced by Baker before 40 sign-waving supporters.
“It’s just I want people to know me for me and what I’ve done as a
legislator. And I’ve tried to do a good job, and I think that’s why I’ve
been elected so many times.’’
Baker, a former Weld administration official and former Harvard Pilgrim
Health Care president, is one of three challengers seeking to unseat
Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, in 2010. Christy Mihos, a former
convenience store magnate, is also running for the Republican
nomination, while state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill recently left the
Democratic Party to mount an independent candidacy.
Tisei must still win support from Republican primary voters next year to
win a spot on the general election ticket, and other Republicans could
seek the spot. Baker’s hope is that with his naming of Tisei, other
Republicans will pass on the race. The move also allows the Baker
campaign to raise more money, because the two can now each raise the
maximum allowed under law for their joint campaign.
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Rivals call Charles Baker’s pick an ‘insider’
By Hillary Chabot
Gubernatorial rivals yesterday pounced on Republican candidate Charles
Baker’s choice of Sen. Richard Tisei as his running mate, painting the
GOP minority leader as an entrenched insider who has strayed from the
party’s anti-tax gospel.
Republican Christy Mihos said Baker’s pick means more of the same for
tax-weary Bay State voters. “You can’t paint yourself as an outsider if
you’ve worked on Beacon Hill for more than two decades,” Mihos told the
Herald.
Said Democrat Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray: “Sen. Tisei is a 25-year State
House insider who typifies the Republican establishment elite that
created record levels of debt and deferred maintenance. I was a
quarterback on my high school football team when Sen. Tisei started
serving in the Legislature.”
Ripping a page from former Gov. William Weld’s playbook, Baker tapped
Tisei, 47, saying the Wakefield Republican has the Beacon Hill know-how
to balance his own outsider credentials. Weld picked then-state Sen.
Paul Cellucci to be his running mate en route to winning the Corner
Office in 1990.
“He’s got 20 years of a fabulous record as a guy who fights for the
taxpayers,” Baker said yesterday morning in Wakefield. “I’m very excited
to have him on the team.”
Tisei brings strong fund-raising pull, and the announcement of the
ticket means the candidates can start raking in donations during the
holiday season. Both Baker and Tisei tout fiscally conservative and
socially liberal backgrounds, said Republican consultant Charlie
Manning.
Yesterday, Mihos slammed Tisei’s 2000 vote against the income tax
rollback. But Tisei said the vote was unusual and pointed to
consistently high ratings from the anti-tax group Citizens for
Limited Taxation.
Tisei said his biggest regret was a 1989 vote against a gay civil rights
bill. Tisei, who is gay, said he has grown since that vote. He has
supported gay marriage.
Arline Isaacson, co-chairwoman of the Massachusetts gay and lesbian
political caucus, called Baker’s selection “brilliant” but said the
Swampscott Republican is unlikely to win over the gay and lesbian
community who are strongly aligned with Gov. Deval Patrick.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
NEWS ANALYSIS
Baker’s choice indicative of Mass. GOP’s uniqueness
Pick seen as nod to moderate wing
By Brian C. Mooney
By selecting Senator Richard R. Tisei to be his running mate,
gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker is trying to take Massachusetts
Republicans back to the future - 1990, to be specific, when the puny
political party bounced back as the voice of fiscal conservatism and
social moderation and began a 16-year hold on the governorship.
Candidates for lieutenant governor are, at best, a secondary factor in
voters’ decisions, but the fact that Baker has tapped Tisei, a veteran
state legislator who is openly gay, is another strong signal that
tolerance in Massachusetts sets the state apart from the national
political culture, the GOP here is unique in the United States, and
same-sex marriage is no longer a flashpoint of political contention in
this state.
Barring a successful intraparty challenge, Baker and Tisei will continue
the ascendancy of the party’s socially moderate wing over the
conservatives who rose to prominence in the 1980s after years of
dominance by social progressives such as Francis W. Sargent, Elliot L.
Richardson, Edward W. Brooke, and Leverett Saltonstall.
“It’s a reflection of Massachusetts values and culture,’’ said Kerry
Healey, who lost the governorship to Democrat Deval Patrick in 2006
while serving as lieutenant governor under Republican Mitt Romney. “This
ticket will harken back to the successful formula we had back in 1990
with [William] Weld and [Paul] Cellucci. In many ways, 2010 feels like
1990.’’
“Charlie and Richard will complement each other as candidates like Bill
and Paul did,’’ said Charles Manning, a Republican strategist who worked
for the campaigns of Weld and Romney.
Weld, a former prosecutor, teamed up with Cellucci, a state senator and
veteran Beacon Hill insider, on a Republican ticket two decades ago that
captured the corner office after four terms of Democratic rule.
Parallels to 1990 extend to the political environment, which, as it is
now, was combustible because of an economy in shambles and tax
increases. Though they ran throughout in tandem, both had to run
separately to win primaries against more conservative opponents before
running as a ticket in the November election. The Republicans also
captured the state treasurer’s office that year and knocked off six
Democratic senators, giving Weld sufficient legislative support to
sustain his vetoes for the next two years.
Baker, who resigned after 10 years as chief executive of Harvard Pilgrim
Health Care to run for governor, was a large presence in the Cabinets of
Weld and Cellucci, as secretary of health and human services under Weld
and later as secretary of administration and finance under both. Baker
is a fiscal conservative who supports gay marriage and abortion rights.
After spending 25 of his 47 years in the Legislature, Tisei, who was
Weld’s campaign chairman, is now the Republican Senate leader.
Maverick Christy Mihos, another social moderate, is also in the
Republican race for governor, and, with second-term state Treasurer
Timothy P. Cahill leaving the Democratic Party to enter the governor’s
race as an independent, the GOP is far from a lock to win a year from
now as it attempts to oust Patrick.
For seven consecutive decades, Republican registration has fallen,
hitting an all-time low of 11.8 percent last year, and Republicans are
outnumbered by more than 3-to-1 by Democrats. The party holds zero
statewide offices or congressional seats and barely a 10th of the 200
seats in the Legislature.
The Baker-Tisei alliance even recalls the Weld-Cellucci team with its
ethnic makeup.
“It says we’re not just your father’s Republican Party,’’ said Peter I.
Blute, a former Republican congressman and now radio talk show host at
WCRN-AM in Worcester, of another team of candidates of Yankee and
Italian descent.
The rollout of the Tisei announcement was carefully managed. The
lawmaker’s sexual orientation has been an open secret on Beacon Hill for
many years, but he did not publicly declare he is gay until late last
week when Baker’s campaign made it known he was one of four finalists to
be running mate.
It is not unprecedented. In 2002, acting governor Jane M. Swift chose
Patrick Guerriero, her openly gay deputy chief of staff and a former
state legislator, to be her running mate as she prepared to seek the
governorship in her own right. Swift’s political fortunes deteriorated
rapidly, however, and she abandoned her candidacy when Romney jumped
into the race. When Romney sought Healey to be his running mate,
Guerriero bowed out.
That same year, Daniel A. Grabauskas, who had been registrar of motor
vehicles, won the Republican nomination for state treasurer as an openly
gay candidate, but he lost to Cahill in the final election.
Romney won as a moderate that year but by midterm began tacking hard to
the right as he laid the groundwork for a presidential campaign in 2008.
By the time he left office in January 2007, Romney sounded more like the
governor of South Carolina than Massachusetts, after reversing his
support for abortion rights, favoring harsh sanctions against illegal
immigrants, and becoming a national figure in opposing same-sex
marriage. Tisei endorsed one of his rivals, former New York City mayor
Rudolph W. Giuliani.
The Romney metamorphosis undoubtedly contributed to the GOP’s wipeout in
the Bay State in 2006.
Baker’s choice of Tisei should provide comfort to voters worried that
Baker might pursue a similar path, said Maurice Cunningham, a political
science professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
“You don’t want to get tarred with being a national Republican here like
the last Republican governor who went so far off track as his national
ambitions consumed him,’’ Cunningham said. “This says [Baker] will be a
Massachusetts Republican today, tomorrow, and until the end of his
term.’’
The GOP’s distinct minority status in such a liberal state means it must
accommodate diverse social views under a larger tent of fiscal
conservatism, said Daniel B. Winslow, a former district court judge and
a chief legal counsel under Romney.
“We don’t have the ability or the luxury to be exclusionary,’’ he said,
“because all of Massachusetts is about four bandwidths to the left of
the rest of the country.’’
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