Cape Politics

Vieira may run against Patrick in the Third Barnstable District

Falmouth-Town Moderator Considers Run For State Representative

According to this week's Falmouth Enterprise, David T. Vieira, who is in his eighth year serving as Falmouth Town Moderator, is considering a run against incumbant State Representitive Matt Patrick, also of Falmouth in the Third Barnstable District.

Mr. Vieira, who is a Republican, ran once before against Mr. Patrick, who is a Democrat in 2000 and lost.

Ohio State Senator proposes banning adoptions by Republicans

Republican children say "Well, it's just plain boring most of the time.'' 

Research exists that strongly suggests that adopted children raised in Republican households  are more at risk for developing emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, an alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves.

Ohio State Senator Fires Back at Proposed Gay Adoption Ban Legislation

Memo from Robert Hagan to Ohio State Senate
From: Senator Robert Hagan (on right)
Date: February 22, 2006

Credible research exists that strongly suggests that adopted children raised in Republican households, though significantly wealthier than their Democrat-raised counterparts, are more at risk for developing emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, an alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves, and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities.

In addition, I have spoken to many adopted children raised in Republican households who have admitted that, ``Well, it's just plain boring most of the time.'' In fact, one adopted child raised in a fiercely partisan Republican household in suburban Cincinnati described his upbringing as ``18 years of hellish terror.'' ``A nightmare I haven't yet awoken from,'' said a 25-year-old Republican adoptee that chose to remain nameless.

If you are interested in co-sponsoring this legislation, please feel free to contact my office.

Senate Building
Room #051, Ground Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Telephone: 614/466-8285
Email:  haganoffice@maild.sen.state.oh.us 

Source: Ohio FOX19, here.  

Run Christy, run ! But as what? (We'll know Thursday night)

Although most Cape Codders rarely see a copy, the Boston alternative weekly newspaper, The Phoenix, often covers politics in our 'hood, as this week's  extensive coverage of Yarmouth's Christy Mihos and his wealth demonstrates.

Christy’s choice will be announced Thursday night (see last item)
Mihos could be a contender — but only if he loses his Republican baggage

The conventional wisdom is already fixed: if Christy Mihos — the convenience-store magnate and Big-Dig whistle blower who has pledged to run for governor — campaigns as an independent, he’ll be doing the Massachusetts Democratic Party a huge favor. Mihos would pull voters from Republican lieutenant governor Kerry Healey, or so the thinking goes. And this, in turn, would give the Democratic nominee — Tom Reilly? Deval Patrick? Chris Gabrieli? — a cakewalk into the corner office.

You’ll hear this argument both from liberals, who make it with a kind of nervous glee, and from the smattering of Massachusetts conservatives not linked to the Healey campaign. If Mihos challenges Healey in the GOP primary, says Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation, “We’ll wish them both well, and be supportive of whichever one of them wins.” And if he makes an independent bid? “Then I think I’m going to simply have to slice my wrists,” she answers. “You’d be splitting the vote just to elect the Democrat. And that’s something I don’t even want to think about.”

Relax, Barbara. An independent Mihos candidacy could be just as dangerous to the Democrats as to Healey. For that to happen, though, Mihos has to break with his Republican past and embrace a new political identity — and right now, it’s uncertain whether he’s prepared to take that step.

Straight talk
Mihos’s regular-guy persona is a big source of his appeal. Most candidates protect themselves with smooth-talking press flacks; when they do speak, it’s in cautious, carefully crafted sound bites. Mihos takes a different tack — which is how, late last week, this reporter found himself in Mihos’s palatial West Yarmouth home, ogling the Kennedy compound across Lewis Bay and parsing the upcoming campaign with Mihos and his comely wife, Andrea. (There is, of course, an obvious tension between being an Average Joe and living in a $6.5 million mansion on the Atlantic. Mihos sublimates it with blue-collar verbal tics, repeated references to his Brockton roots, and an eager, seemingly guileless mien; whether this can hold up over the course of a high-stakes political campaign remains to be seen)...

...Thanks to state election deadlines, Mihos has until March 7 to decide whether he’s running as an independent or a Republican. But there’s really no reason to wait that long. Sticking with the GOP means heading to almost certain defeat in a primary that’s stacked against him, something Mihos knows full well. Running as an independent, meanwhile, would turn him into an ally of most Massachusetts voters, position him to nab support from every end of the political spectrum, and pave the way for a buzz-generating insurgent candidacy.

First, though, Mihos needs to realize that running as an independent isn’t just a fallback option. And if he can’t get excited about the possibility, he’s probably not the right man for the job.

What's Christy worth?

A lot, apparently. Mihos has promised on more than one occasion that he “won’t be outspent” in his run for governor. Since Republican front-runner Kerry Healey’s husband Sean Healey, the CEO of Affiliated Managers Group, recently sold $13 million in AMG stock, this may be Mihos’s way of saying he can spend at least that much.

But can he? In 1998, Mihos and his brother James sold their 142 Christy’s convenience stores to 7-Eleven’s parent company. Christy’s started as a single grocery store; when Christy and James took over in the late ’70s, there were about40 stores.This is the source of Mihos’s cash. (Mihos later bought back 10 stores on Cape Cod.) But because it was a private transaction, the terms of the sale remain a mystery.

He’s got more money than most of us, obviously — witness his $6.5 million home and the $5.5 million investment property located next door. Still, there’s reason to think Mihos may have allowed an exaggerated notion of his wealth to develop. Exhibit A: a $4.5 million mortgage from Citizens Bank that Mihos and his wife, Andrea, took out on their home in 2004.

Asked about this mortgage, Mihos says it’s actually a line of credit, and that he won’t need it to fund his campaign. He also backs off his vow not to be outspent. “I’m going to spend enough to be elected, okay?” Mihos says. “I won’t have to use that line of credit or sell houses or anything like that. It will certainly not be a hamster-driven campaign . . . . I’m going to spend enough to win.”

Read the whole Phoenix article here, and comment below.

UPDATE: On Monday, Hub Politics reported:

Cloak (and Dagger) Room Politics

Senator Kennedy took a look at the Democratic Caucus results and decided it was time to kill Cape Wind now.

The runaway winner of the Democratic Party caucuses, which selects delegates to the Party's Nominating Convention in June, was Deval Patrick.

Patrick supports Cape Wind. His opponent Tom Reilly, does not, to say the least. Ted Kennedy's guy in the Governor's race, after Patrick declared his support for the wind farm, became Reilly by default.

Who's left to help Ted on Beacon Hill? 

But Reilly is faltering badly. It doesn't look like he's going to even get the nomination. Worse yet, he'll be giving up the AGs office in the process. Kennedy will have no one at the Statehouse opposing the project come next January. That's after it's approved by the federal agencies and when the State was supposed to sue. Massachusetts will not sue the federal government when Patrick is Governor. 

Add to that the little annoyances of Kennedy having to give a speech to the "Patrick" convention in June, and run on the same ballot as Patrick in November, (Kennedy on the top of ballot incidently helps Patrick win) and it sent Teddy straight to the bottle and to Congressman Don Young's Conference Committee.

Favoring a time honored tradition that all ancient congressman know, the back room, otherwise know as the cloak (and dagger) room, Kennedy used the amendment process to slip a micky into the Coast Guard Bill to kill the project.  Creating a strange alliance in the process, Sen. Kennedy, liberal Democrat and Cong. Young, conservative Republican, what's next, a deal on ANWR?

Cape Wind liberates John Kerry, sinks Ted's son

And oh yes, don't think this is only about the Governor's race, it's about John Kerry's aspirations too.  A Patrick governorship makes a Kerry run for President more likely. If Kerry takes the leadership on this issue, with cover from the Corner Office, he get's out from under Kennedy's enormous shadow.  Cape Wind liberates John Kerry.

Ironic this is happening during a Kennedy re-election campaign. His hands are somewhat tied on Cape Wind, even without an opponent. He can't be heard opposing the wind farm openly during the election where 80% of the voters support it.  It might give them the notion that he doesn't really represent us, and worse, someone may run against, not him next time, he'll be too old, but against the heir apparent, nephew Joe-for-Oil.

And before I forget this little tidbit, Senator (the father) Ted Kennedy's opposition to Cape Wind screws Congressman (the son) Patrick Kennedy's Rhode Island district out of a lot very good paying union manufacturing jobs. All for what?

Romney flip flopping all over South Carolina

In the Washington Post:
Romney Touts Conservative Credentials in S.C.
To win in Mass he was "pro-choice", but now says “I’m pro-life. So, the issue is settled.”

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- In a speech Thursday night to the Lexington County Republican Party, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) left little doubt about how he will position himself ideologically if -- as expected -- he joins the 2008 presidential race.

Mitt Romney speaking at The Citadel (on right) during his trip to South Carolina this week (AP)."I am a conservative Republican governor of the bluest state in the country," Romney said by way of introduction to the crowd of approximately 240 people gathered at the Columbiana Hotel and Conference Center.

Romney's speech marked his second trip to the Palmetto State in the space of a week (he was in Spartanburg last Friday) -- a schedule that makes clear the importance he places on running strong in the state's 2008 presidential primary, which will follow the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Playing to the conservative bent of the South Carolina Republican electorate, Romney dedicated much of his 32-minute speech to red-meat issues.

On his support for English-immersion classes in Massachusetts: "In America people need to speak English if they are going to be successful."

On same-sex marriage: "Marriage is primarily about the nurturing of children. A child benefits from having a mother and a father."

On abortion, Romney stated his belief in the sanctity of human life -- a stance that many critics argue he has reversed since first running for office against Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) in 1994.

(For more on the alleged Romney flip-flop on abortion, check out Lee Bandy's column in this morning's State newspaper. Bandy is the leading political reporter in South Carolina.)

Asked after the speech whether his background as a Massachusetts governor and Mormon might hurt his chances of appealing to South Carolina's evangelical voters, Romney said that while "people want to see their leaders as people of faith ... they don't put much significance in the brand."

The Massachusetts governor also sought to use humor to connect with the conservative audience. He recounted a question he received earlier in the day during an appearance at The Citadel, the state-run military school made famous in part as the inspiration for Pat Conroy's novel, "The Lords of Discipline." Telling the story, Romney said he was asked about Johnny Damon's decision to leave the Boston Red Sox for the New York Yankees. "It just proves I have something in common with people in South Carolina," Romney said he responded. "We both hate Yankees." The remark drew a laugh from the crowd.

"Thanks y'all"

After concluding his speech, Romney was given a gift basket, which prompted a "thanks y'all" from the Northeasterner.

Romney received a positive -- if not overwhelming -- response to his address, which he delivered without the aid of notes. His speech was attended by several staffers expected to form the core of his 2008 inner circle, including Trent Wisecup, the director of Romney's Commonwealth political action committee, spokeswoman Julie Teer and Commonwealth PAC finance director Spencer Zwick.

See Chris Cillizza column in the Washington Post here , and comment below.

Romney reaches out to party’s evangelical base
LEXINGTON COUNTY GOP BANQUET

By LEE BANDY, Staff Writer, The State

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, sought Thursday to clear up any confusion South Carolina voters might have about his stance on abortion.

In the past, he has said he favors a woman’s right to choose. During his losing race against U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy in 1994, he said he supported the “substance” of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made abortion legal. Romney said he wanted to keep abortion “safe and legal.”

Today, he has a new stance that has evolved over a period of time, Romney said in an interview with The State newspaper prior to addressing the annual Lexington County GOP Bronze Elephant Banquet.

Romney, a Mormon, said what changed him was the focus on stem cell research.

“I studied it long and hard. And when I came out of the process, I said I would not support embryo farming or embryo cloning for research or anything.”

“I’m pro-life,” he declared. “So, the issue is settled.”

Skeptics suggest that he did an about face on the abortion issue because he knew he was going to run for the presidency in 2008 and needed to reach out to conservative Christians, who make up a large part of the GOP base.

Earlier, Romney spoke at The Citadel, where he told any doubters that he is a complete conservative — fiscally and socially.

This was Romney’s third trip to South Carolina, home of the first-in-the-South presidential primary. No Republican has ever won the White House without first winning South Carolina.

Is he running?

“I’m keeping my options open,” Romney said.

He acknowledged that South Carolina is a critical state in the primary process.

“Your state provides a real service to the nation. South Carolina examines the candidates early and vets them. And it has been pretty good in picking who the nominee is going to be,” Romney noted.

Romney, who is testing the presidential waters here, said it’s too early to be making any decisions. He noted the election is nearly two years away, and “that’s a lifetime in politics.”

Asked how a Mormon like he might fair in a state like South Carolina with a heavy Southern Baptist population and where many folks call themselves evangelical Christians?

Romney said, “Most people in South Carolina want a person of faith as their leader. But they don’t care what brand of faith that is.

“There are some, a much smaller group, who say I agree with that but I’d just as soon not vote for a Mormon all other things being equal.

“Generally, all things are not equal. And if I were to get into this race, it would be because I was convinced that all other things weren’t equal.

“And then there are a tiny group of people who wouldn’t vote for a Mormon no mater what. I won’t get them.”

For any evangelicals who have doubts about Romney, he said, “I believe Jesus Christ is my savior. I believe in God. I’m a person of faith and I believe that’s the type of person Americans want.”

Reach Bandy at (803) 771-8648 or lbandy@thestate.com and read his column in The State  here, comment below.

Blute won't oppose Ted, but he'd run with Christy

Former congressman Blute forgoes campaign against Kennedy
"If Christy Mihos or somebody asked me, I would consider it..."

By Glen Johnson

BOSTON --Peter Blute, a former Republican congressman and Massport chief, said Thursday he has decided not to challenge Sen. Edward M. Kennedy this fall, possibly leaving the Massachusetts Democrat without a re-election opponent for the first time in his 43-year political career.

Blute, who most recently worked as a radio talk show host in Boston, told The Associated Press: "I would have enjoyed a race about the future of our country in a time of war, but in the final analysis, it came down to a family decision. This would have been a full-tilt, 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week race for the rest of the year and I would have missed too much time with my wife and kids."

Nonetheless, the Shrewsbury Republican would not rule out a run for lieutenant governor, should one of the existing gubernatorial candidates choose to tap him as a running mate.

"I could be persuaded because that's a much more manageable race," Blute said. "If (convenience store magnate) Christy Mihos or somebody asked me, I would consider it. But it looks like to me that Christy is positioning himself to run as an independent."

Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey is seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination and is expected to announce a running mate within the next two weeks...

Read the rest of this Globe story here, read the reaction to Blute's first announcement here, and comment below.

Presidential biographer Reeves: Nixon believed war between US and China inevitable - and China would win

Hearing this during a public forum at the John F. Kennedy Library, I turned to a former colleague sitting next to me and the look on his face matched the one on mine - first I'd heard of that.

Richard Reeves, who has written biographies of JFK and Nixon, was at the library Monday to promote his new book, "President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination."

Reeves said Nixon told him "that a war between East and West, with the West led by the United States and the East led by China, was inevitable. It might be a shooting war, it might be an economic war, but their interests were fundamentally different over the long term and eventually they would clash, and the jobs of the leaders of the West were to prevent that from happening, to prevent that for as long as possible, because he believed, Nixon, that the East would win that confrontation."

Mitts loses agency head over Cape Wind, ex-GOP chair disses him

Head of state development resigns
Douglas Foy, the conservationist turned development secretary in the Romney administration, jumps ship

The Globe reported today that recently there were reports within the environmental community that Foy, on right, was chafing at some administration initiatives. He disagreed with Romney over the governor's opposition to a wind farm off Cape Cod, as well as his decision to pull out of negotiations over a regional greenhouse gas compact.

Or as The Herald put it: Douglas Foy, a conservationist who butted heads with developers and occasionally with his boss Gov. Mitt Romney, said yesterday that he’s stepping down next month as the state’s chief development secretary. Foy, 59, has quietly clashed with Romney on a number of issues — including the governor’s opposition to the wind-farm facility off Cape Cod and the decision to pull out of an anti-air-pollution pact with other states...

Greg Spier, a Foxboro housing developer, had a message for Foy yesterday: good riddance.
“I’m not sorry to hear he’s stepping down,” said Spier, arguing Foy’s housing programs were “almost utopian” and stunted the construction of new housing.

But Peter Shelley, vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation, said he was disappointed by Foy’s departure. “Our view in the final analysis is that the governor seems to have failed to support Doug’s vision...”

Foy, a former Olympic rower, spent 25 years heading the Conservation Law Foundation before becoming secretary of the Office of Commonwealth Development in January 2003.

In that post, he spearheaded several key administration initiatives, including Gov. Mitt Romney's so-called "smart growth" initiative, a plan to concentrate housing and other development near commuter hubs and the development of a 20-year transportation strategy that includes a "fix-it first" strategy to repair roads and bridges before building new ones.

Romney will feel a wind chill in IOWA

If Cape Wind gets scuttled by our business-governor and lobbyist's money, Mitt Romney may be another victim (in addition top 200,000 Cape Codders). 

IOWA is America's biggest wind power state where the farmers reap big bucks by renting space for Iowa's wind farms. So when environmentalists from Massachusetts attend the rallies there next year with placards explaining how Romney stopped the wind farm here, he may regret his anti-wind rhetoric.

Read the The Globe report here. Read The Herald story here. Read Romney's reception on Cape Cod last year here. See Foy's state agency here. 

Ex-Chairman says Mass. GOP is in an ‘incestuous’ state:
Jim Rappaport alleges wealth of unfair advantages, loses party Independent's support and is moving Christy Mihos to run against Healey

In today's Boston Herald, Bay State Republican State Chairman from 1992-1997 Jim Rappaport, on right, blasted his own party yesterday as an “incestuous” insider’s club rife with “incompetence” which is choking off support for the minority party.

“The absolute, total incompetence of the state party” has left it “worse off than it was four years ago,” the real estate magnate told the Herald. Party rules bar the GOP from endorsing one Republican over another, but Rappaport says the party apparatus is unfairly lining up in Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey’s camp.

Rappaport pointed to the present State GOP Chairman Darrell W. Crate’s job as CFO in Healey’s husband’s asset management firm, Affiliated Managers Group.

“The relationship between the lieutenant governor and the chairman is incestuous,” he said. “It is not, how can I put this politely . . . a level playing field. That’s why Christy Mihos is thinking about running as an independent.

Mihos responds 

“I’ve been a registered Republican longer than Mitt Romney and Kerry Healey combined,” Mihos said. “I just have to get beyond the issues that Chairman Crate may be in Kerry Healey’s corner, and I just have to keep working.”

Also raising suspicions is the abrupt firing of Mihos’ brother-in-law, Arthur Argeros, from the GOP-controlled MBTA. Asked if the firing was payback, Mihos, famously fired by ex-Gov. Jane Swift from the Turnpike Authority, replied, “I would to hate to think it would be, but I know Jane Swift was in a firing mood, I hope nobody else was...”

Read the Herald story here. See the New Boston Fund here, Rappaport Charity here.

How the candidates feel about slots

Candidates weigh the pros, cons of Slots in Mass.

• Chris Gabrieli (Democrat) views slot machines as not much different from Keno and other forms of legal gambling.
• Kerry Healey (Republican) is open to the idea of adding slot machines at racetracks.
• Christy Mihos (may run as Republican or Independent): Mihos said he had been ambivalent about adding slot machines at racetracks.
• Deval L . Patrick (Democrat) is opposed to bringing slot machines to Massachusetts.
• Thomas F. Reilly (Democrat) is open to expanded gambling in Massachusetts and ready to work with the Legislature to make sure it's done right.

Read their complete positions on slots in the Globe story here, and comment below.

Read recent survey on how over half of the residents in Southeast Massachusetts favor a casino here. 

No party yet? No problem, says Mihos

The nonpolitician who would be governor
No party yet? No problem, says Mihos

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff

Christy Mihos is not your typical candidate for governor. He's not sure whether he'll run as a Republican or an independent. His strategist quit two weeks ago, another adviser also counsels Democrats, and his campaign manager is new to this line of work.

Endorsements? He's not pursuing them now, he says.

A headquarters, fund-raising, and his stand on many key issues? All to come, Mihos calmly asserts.

But the presence of the unorthodox Mihos could well determine the outcome of this year's race for governor. If he runs as an independent, he becomes Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey's worst nightmare, inevitably draining GOP votes away from her in November.

And if he runs as a Republican, Mihos could be a force in the GOP primary if he uses his substantial fortune, amassed from a convenience store empire, to draw attention to his maverick candidacy and its populist, antiestablishment themes.

''I'm unbought and unbossed," Mihos told a group of about 60 Republican activists at a Danvers restaurant earlier this month. ''I'm not a politician. If you're looking for a politician, go to the other camp."

Mihos said he will announce on March 7, the deadline date, whether he will run against Healey in the Republican primary or as an independent. Either way, he said, he's a candidate.

''I'm in; I'm absolutely in," he declared...

If there is an essential story thread that Mihos pitches in his self-styled ''insurgent campaign," it's something like this: Successful entrepreneur refused to be muzzled by powerful interests as he tried to flag waste and abuse on the $14.6-billion Big Dig.

Privately, past and present turnpike officials say Mihos was disruptive and accomplished little in terms of cost savings. But his unsuccessful effort to stop toll increases to help pay for the Big Dig won him praise from Boston commuters from the west who are paying for improvements that benefit toll-free commuters from the north and south...

Pay to name bridges, pay to run pike stations, "we need the money" 

In searching for revenue, Mihos (pronounced MY-hos) proposed selling the service plazas on the Pike to pay off bonds and take down the tolls. He even suggested that the authority sell commercial naming rights to the new Interstate 93 bridge over the Charles River (on right- click image or here to see a night shot) and claimed it could bring in $100 million from a bank or corporation eager to put its name on the span.

Recounting a conversation, Mihos said then-governor Paul Cellucci, who appointed him to the board, told him Cardinal Bernard Law and others were urging him to name the bridge for Leonard P. Zakim, who, after many years of working for religious, racial, and cultural harmony as director of the Anti-Defamation League of New England, had died of cancer at the age of 46.

''I said, 'Well, the Jewish community, if they want it for Lenny, let them bid too,' " Mihos recalled telling Cellucci. ''We need the money."

Cellucci, evidently ignoring the fund-raising scheme, in 2000 announced plans to include Zakim in the bridge name...

Earlier this month, Mihos and his wife, Andrea, sold their principal residence of 21 years in Cohasset for $2.25 million. Parents of a daughter and son in their early 20s, the couple now resides year-round at what had been their second home (Photo on right. Click image to enlarge), an enormous expanded Cape-style house, on Great Island, a gated community of mostly conservation land in West Yarmouth. The property, with an adjacent three-bedroom guest house and boathouse, is worth at least six times the value of the Cohasset property.

''I'm the luckiest guy in the world," Mihos told a reporter as he played fetch with Reagan, the family's 11-year-old Yorkshire terrier, on the lawn, overlooking his private beach, a dock, and Nantucket Sound...

Read the rest of this column here, and comment below.