Markey won his race handily tonight. Kennedy conceded. I bet Pelosi didn't call AOC and concede to her though. Every progressive group that endorsed Markey (other than Blue America) is trying to claim the credit but it really was a team effort that centered totally around Markey. Proof of that pudding.
Tomorrow is primary day in Massachusetts and the more progressive of the two candidates, incumbent Ed Markey, is ahead of Joe Kennedy III in the Senate race. Every public poll this summer has shown Markey ahead and the latest-- an Emerson poll released yesterday-- has him beating Kennedy 56-44%, The RealClearPolitics polling average has Markey ahead 52.0% to 40.8%, an 11.2% gap.
Pelosi made a very big mistake a couple weeks ago. She endorsed Joe Kennedy III in his bid to unseat and replace Massachusetts progressive Ed Markey. Pelosi's endorsement immediately turned the race around. Kennedy had been substantially ahead and Pelosi's kiss of death, brought a tidal wave of momentum into the race-- for Markey. Since Pelosi's endorsement there have been two public polls.
As I've said many times, Joe Kennedy III doesn't take a sip of water or tie a shoelace before considering how it will impact his eventual run for the presidency. Largely on the romanticism of his name, he was elected to an open House seat in 2012, where he hasn't been an especially impressive member. He's certainly no AOC-- not on any level. A member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, he's barely a progressive.
Source: Victor Grigas – CC BY-SA 3.0
Counterpunch, July 22, 2020
Losing Thoreau in Boston
by James Bovard
Man In The Middle by Nancy OhanianPeople think of Massachusetts as an all blue state. It isn't. There's a Republican governor. And although Hillary won in a landslide in 2016, Trump still got over a million votes (33.5%). And in 2018, Republican Geoff Diehl won 36.2% of the vote statewide against Elizabeth Warren in the U.S.
In the 2018 election, Democrats increased their majorities in the Massachusetts state legislature, picking up 3 seats in the state Senate and 10 in the state House. There are 4 special elections on March 31, a week from Tuesday. Tomorrow the state legislature will decide whether or not to postpone the elections. My bet is that they will. These are the vacant seats being contested:
Elizabeth Warren has let her dogs loose on Bernie. In the last week, the PCCC-- which has been respectful of Bernie while they valiantly supported their candidate... even as her campaign started sinking and laying off staff-- has gone into opposition mode against Bernie as though they were dealing with Bloomberg or Trump.
