Here in Massachusetts, only about 13% of the registered voters are Republicans. And despite huge efforts and lots of money in the last legislative elections, Republican Governor Mitt Romney was unable to increase the number of GOP legislators in the statehouse, and the Dems still have vetoproof supermajorities in both houses.
As it now stands, Romney’s popularity is declining, he can’t move his agenda in the legislature, and he is thinking about bailing and running for president — which adds to his unpopularity. Things are not looking good for Republicans in 2006 in MA.
Kristen at the MA political blog The Fray, reports that two GOP office holders in the town of Greenfield in western, MA have seen the writing on the wall.
Timothy F. Farrell president of the Town Council, and H. Peter Wood, register of deeds have become Dems. “Wood had been on the fence for quite some time, and often supported Democratic candidates as a Republican. Farrell had also long considered the change.”
The Springfield Republican reports that
Wood said
“Republican state administrations the past 10 years had never contacted him for an opinion on any issues affecting Franklin County.”
“Farrell, who comes from a family of Democrats, said he had been thinking about making the party change for some time, and earlier this month promised his grandmother on her deathbed he would do so, three days before her death.”
“‘She said it’s about time,’ he said.”
[Crossposted from FrederickClarkson.com ]
Oh yeah. And not only does MA have marriage equality, but its in our state Dem platform. That doesn’t seem to be any disincentive to joining the party — which umm, unlike the Republicans is gaining not losing members.
Lived in the North End of Boston for three years in the late nineties. Apart from your baseball team, I love you guys!
heh.
They broke the “The Curse of The Babe.”
You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet;-)
No offense, but I’d consider Illinois and Maryland, at least, to be bluer. 🙂
-Alan
you’d consider? Doesn’t sound like evidence to me.
MA congressional delegation dems — %100
State House and Senate — Supermajorities in both houses.
Statewide voted dem in at least every presidential election since 1972 (except 1984) and thats without my checking.
And we’ve got the Kennedy’s.
What makes those states bluer than Massachusetts.
I goofed on Maryland–they are not bluer than Massachusetts. But Massachusetts is actually fourth, behind Illinois, New Jersey, and Washington (though WA needed two recounts to avoid landing in a tie with Michigan for thirteenth place). Here’s my admittedly semi-arbitrary system for making these rankings (which I’ve never posted anywhere before, feel special):
-Start with 100 points.
-Deduct Bush’s 2004 victory margin (plus a ten point
penalty), or add Kerry’s margin (plus a ten point
bonus).
-Deduct ten points for each Republican senator.
-Deduct fifteen points for a Republican governor.
-Subtract six points for every state legislative body
controlled by Republicans.
-Add a ten point bonus for states that have not had to
deduct any points, and subtract ten points for states
that had to deduct at every step along the way.
*In states that have nominally “Democratic” control
over state governments, but who have two Republican senators and went for Bush by more than twelve points, I treated all the state offices as though they are GOP controlled for points purposes. Those people may have (D) next to their names, but they are not what we would recognize as “blue”, I guarantee you.
Illinois: 131
New Jersey: 126
Washington: 126
Massachusetts: 120
Vermont: 115
Delaware: 112
Maryland: 108
Rhode Island: 106
New York: 106
California: 105
Connecticut: 105
Hawaii: 104
Michigan: 101
Wisconsin: 99
Oregon: 99
Maine: 98
Minnesota: 83
Pennsylvania: 80
New Hampshire: 79
New Mexico: 79
West Virginia: 77
Iowa: 70
Louisiana: 65
Arkansas: 65
Colorado: 58
Nevada: 56
Montana: 54
Virginia: 50
Florida: 48
Arizona: 47
North Dakota: 36
Indiana: 32
South Dakota: 31
Ohio: 30
Missouri: 26
Nebraska: 20 (approx.; state legislature is
nonpartisan so I deducted 10 instead of 12)
Tennessee: 19
North Carolina: 18
South Carolina: 16
Georgia: 15
Kentucky: 13
Mississippi: 13
Texas: 10
Kansas: 7
Alabama: 7
Alaska: 6
Oklahoma: 2
Idaho: -5
Wyoming: -7
Utah: -11
Looks about right, doesn’t it?
There was supposed to be an asterisk after each of these lines:
-Deduct fifteen points for a Republican governor.
-Subtract six points for every state legislative body
controlled by Republicans.
Instead, the formatting read it as “bold the second line”. Not my intent…
-Alan
You forgot to swing a chicken over your head three times and howl at the moon like a dog.
please bust this out as a full on work of statistics….
it’s pretty good in a very funny way.
Utah = -11.
They don’t have the Redsox???
Tell me how did the bluest state ever elect Mitt Romney – he seems like such a strange duck.
So what happened — everyone had a hangover on election day — or what?
well there are many oddities about our having four GOP govs in a row. And there are strong differences of opinion about why it is. Here is the short version of my take.
The good news is that a lot of these factors are changing. Former House speaker Tom Finneran and some of his key supporters are gone — and replaced by progressives. There are some progressive reform movements animating the party in some parts of the state. And the party itself is experiencing a revival and doing some effective grassroots trainings and other aspects of political development.
Well bless you — just remember that next time you can do what we did here in Washington – keep counting the votes until you get it right. — Yes, I’m joking —
Love Gov. Gregoire – she is doing a terrific job – happy to have her – thank God that Rossi did not win.