Over the last week, Mass GOP operatives were visiting candidates in Western Mass. Now, here's the rep from the State Party who has encouraged people to run for office, and when a few candidates asked what help they could expect from the Mass GOP, they were told "they could call anytime for advice."
Advice? From political neophytes towing the party line with no polling data to help candidates? "Call for advice?" About what?
If the state party cannot do candidate specific mailings or place ads for those that have placed their names on the ballot, then why do they fund raise?
What's more important, filling positions (some have left the Mass GOP to join Victory 2010 the sister PAC) at Boston HQ or passing that money along to those who need it. If the Mass GOP is only going to offer advice to candidates, they should be very specific about what kind of advice they are willing to share.
A short while back, we exposed a concerted email based smear campaign talking about "Dishonest Republicans." Let's add to that list incumbent Republicans with House and Senate seats who say that they cannot support/endorse one candidate because he/she has a primary, but supports/endorses other candidates with primaries? Interesting how that works. Or, House and Senate GOP incumbents who don't/won't help others running even if they are not in their district? Won't those same incumbents need those newly elected Reps and Senators for votes and party leadership positions?
Amazing is the only word to describe what's going on.
An article in the liberal Boston Globe highlighted the anemic bank accounts of those running for Congressional seats. Only Jeff Perry seems to have raised and retained a decent amount but his account is dwarfed by one of his Democrat opponents. Unfortunately, most of the GOP candidates in Massachusetts have to compete with that big sucking sound coming out of Boston - the Baker/Tisei fundraising monster. Baker and Co. is raising and spending money at record levels, here in Massachusetts and beyond in this race.
Most of our Rep and Senate candidates just can't compete with the Baker/Tisei juggernaut. Add to that, races for District Attorney and Sheriff, and you have a recipe for potential disaster, unless the focus of November is turned to Rep and Senate seats.
Let's see what "advice" the Mass GOP gives itself for victory in November.
Alas, over the years I have known GOP candidates who by the end of their losing races ended up hating the Massachusetts Republican Party more than they disliked the Democrat they ran against. In fact, some have told me their Democrat opponent treated them with more respect.
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