Cape Politics

The Massachusetts GOP old guard's false hope for 2010

Republican old guard pushing a health insurance tycoon
Romney redux will finish off what's left of once great party

By Walter Brooks

It's beginning to look like Democrat Governor Deval Patrick may be the covert consultant for the Massachusetts Republican Party.

Why else would the GOP old guard be pushing a heath insurance company C.E.O. as their choice as a candidate for Governor in 2010?

Only a former boss of the Big Dig would be a less popular choice with the independent voters they need to win in 2010 --- do you know anyone who thinks health insurance companies are popular during the worse recession in a half century?

Charlie's their gone-guy for Guv

The few elected Republicans left in the state are making the rounds these days touting Charlie Baker of Harvard Pilgrim as their guy for Guv.

Apparently their criteria is his wealth, which of course voters will resent as they pay their ever increasing health insurance premiums.

A daunting 59% revealed that say they've never even heard of Charlie Baker in a statewide poll published last month, while in a poll here Christy was the choice over Deval Patrick 6 to 1.

The old guard's efforts are apparent in the recent visits by State Senator Scott Brown with the help of Cape Cod's only statewide pol State Rep. Jeff Perry and the puff piece in the current issue of Boston magazine below.

And all this is happening as one of Massachusetts' most popular Republicans, Christy Mihos, is eager to carry the "Grand Old Party" to victory next November.

Back when everyone loved Republican Governors

The last Massachussetts Governor who called Cape Cod his home was Francis Sargent, 1969-1975 on right, who founded the Goose Hummock Shop in Orleans and lived at the tip of Barley Neck in East Orleans.  He achieved renown among conservationists and advocates of a multi-modal urban transportaion system by canceling most highway construction inside Route 128, with the exception of the Northeast Expressway in 1970.

Sargent became a strong advocate for changing the federal laws governing aide to states for highway construction so that more funds were available for mass transit projects such as subways and light-rail vehicles.

Sound s little like our own Christy Mihos, doesn't it?

Yes, there was a time when Massachusetts Independents and Democrats elected what were called Progressive Republicans to state office in the Bay State, before the dogmatic, partisan right wing took over the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower. But you have to be pretty "long in the tooth" to remember Elliot Richardson, Ed Brooke and Frank Sargent.

Charlie Baker - Harvard Pilgrim CEO, healthcare reform pot-stirrer,
Great Massachusetts Republican Hope, 52

"The question I've always struggled with is, Can I bring something to the table? Before you even get to could you actually win, you gotta start with whether you think you could actually get anything done. It's not clear."
                         - Charlie Baker.

Will he or won't he? We've been here with Charlie Baker before: when Baker, at the time a highly regarded Weld aide, mighta-shoulda-wasn't Paul Cellucci's running mate in 1998; when he flirted with a gubernatorial bid in 2006.

Now Baker is again weighing a campaign for governor, and it looks as if it could be a go-unless he opts to pass, again.

Meanwhile, he's contending with the crossfire from the state's warring hospitals, as well as the simmering federal healthcare debate, which could dramatically shift the terrain for insurance companies like his.

It's all a lot to mull, and Baker says he'll reveal his 2010 plans soon... Boston magazine.