It would have been a nice political coup, one in which the GOP could have added another state Senate seat. A top Baker administration official made overtures to Democrat Anne M. Gobi, who was just sworn in Wednesday as the state senator from a Worcester County-based seat, to work for the new Republican governor.
The outreach came from Baker’s environmental secretary, Matthew A. Beaton of Shrewsbury, who gave up his state representative seat to join the administration. Gobi appears to have given some thought to the idea, but turned it down.
Had she accepted, there would have been a special election that would heavily favored the Republicans. That victory would have given the GOP seven seats, the most it would have had in years in the 40-member Senate.
Gobi, a 14-year member of the House from Spencer, won the Senate seat by a handful of votes in a tough battle. She prevailed in good part because the retiring incumbent, Stephen Brewer of Barre, worked hard — against what most analysts thought were very tough odds — to make sure the seat stayed Democratic.
Beaton and Gobi had served together as House members on the joint Environmental, Natural Resources, and Agricultural Committee. Gobi was chairwoman.
Another Keller at large
It’s hard to imagine a greater contrast among Republicans than the one between the usually moderate Massachusetts Republican Party and the Club for Growth, the conservative group that has been known to threaten Republicans around the country that it deems too squishy.
But Barney Keller has lived in both worlds, serving as state GOP spokesman from March 2008 through June 2009 and, more recently, for about four years as the club’s spokesman, making him a well-known voice on the right side of the national Republican Party’s schism. Keller, a 30-year-old Belmont native, grew up around politics. His dad is Jon Keller, the longtime WBZ political reporter.
The younger Keller announced this month that he was moving on from the club to join the Philadelphia-based GOP campaign consulting firm, Jamestown Associates, as executive vice president in their Washington office. But he’ll be taking full advantage of the free market system, working on contract as the club’s spokesman for the immediate future, even as he launches his new career.
He calls liberal Massachusetts the “den of the lion.” But it prepared him well for a life among Democrats. He’s married to one, he says. Where do his own politics lie, with club conservatives or Charlie Baker-style Yankee Republicans?
“I have the experience working in both types of environments,” he said. “My ideology is really kind of irrelevant.”
Ah yes, clear as ketchup. Said like a good political consultant.
The Patrick years, on video
Former governor Deval Patrick can be forgiven for the spree of nostalgia he undertook in his administration’s closing days. Perhaps less deserving of absolution is Patrick’s YouTube account, which has posted a series of videos that focus less on Patrick’s time in office than on his 2006 gubernatorial campaign and its uplifting rhetoric.
In one video posted Tuesday, former Patrick aides recite lines from his famous “Just Words” speech — the one a presidential candidate named Barack Obama cribbed from in 2008. In an earlier spot, staffers reenact Patrick’s rousing 2012 Democratic National Convention speech.
There’s an informative roundtable discussion with all of Patrick’s chiefs of staff, a 4:36 video of Patrick as he “reflects on the journey.” Even his 2006 campaign cochairs, Norm and Amy Gorin, get their own video, which does not dwell on Amy Gorin’s short stint as Diane Patrick’s chief of staff.
Biden being Biden
New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen is the first woman in US history to serve as both a governor and senator. Her reelection last year over former Massachusetts senator Scott Brown also marked just the second time a New Hampshire Democrat earned a second term since the Civil War.
But on Tuesday when Shaheen met Vice President Joe Biden for her ceremonial swearing in, Biden didn’t have history on his mind. All he could think about was Shaheen’s husband, Billy.
“Jeanne, you brought that bandit with you?” Biden said as Billy carried a Bible with him for the oath.
And when Shaheen’s children, spouses, and grandchildren joined for a group picture, Biden had more to say about Shaheen’s husband, who liked the moniker “First Hunk” when his wife was governor.
“Hey guys, I love your mom and your grandma, but if I am in trouble, you know who I want with me? Billy. This is my guy,” Biden said.
“Don’t tell them that; they feel that way already,” said Shaheen.
“No, no, no, I love ya,” Biden said to the senator, kissing her on the head. “I love ya, but I tell ya what, man. I told ya, Billy, if we grew up in the same neighborhood, man, we would have gotten in a lot of trouble together.”
As the family dispersed, Biden grabbed a smartphone and took a selfie with Shaheen’s grandson, A.J.
Make room for the other Scott Brown
Here in the 21st century, there are apparently worse things for politicians than losing an election. After all, once you disappear from the public stage, you may no longer be the top entry in a daily Google alert.
That’s, alas, what has happened to Scott Brown, the former Massachusetts senator who lost his bid for a New Hampshire Senate seat back in November.
In the months leading up to the election, journalists who asked Google to send daily alerts of Scott Brown in the news received links to scads of stories about the politician. Scott Brown making a speech. Scott Brown meeting voters. Scott Brown on TV.
These days? A Scott Brown Google alert is much more likely to bring you news about quite a different Scott Brown: a Scottish soccer star, captain of the Celtic. Sample headline: “Celtic braced for Dundee United backlash.”
No talk of Ebola or securing the borders or fighting ISIS in these Scottish Scott Brown stories. On the other hand, Massachusetts Scott Brown never gave us quotes quite like this one: “Dundee United have had their ups and downs but they have some great individual players and Tannadice is always a hard place to go to. So it should be an interesting game and we’re looking forward to it.”
For Guinta, questions from the FEC
New Hampshire Republican Frank Guinta was sworn back into the US House Tuesday, returning after he lost reelection two years ago. Instead of sending a note of congratulations, the Federal Election Commission sent a six-page letter asking his congressional campaign to clear up four potential violations of campaign finance law.
The commission said that on Guinta’s post-general-election finance report there were indications that two of his donors gave more money than the legal limit, that he designated contributions for use in his September primary after he was allowed to, that he did not file necessary “last-minute” reports close to Election Day, and that he did not properly disclose contributions from certain businesses.
Guinta spokesman Ethan Zorfas said the campaign has been in touch with its accountant “in an effort to ensure no inadvertent errors were made.”
While the FEC regularly asks candidates for more information or to clear up questions, there appears to be no resolution to a 2010 investigation into the origins of a $245,000 personal loan to Guinta’s campaign.
Guinta, a former Manchester mayor, defeated Democrat Carol Shea-Porter last year in New Hampshire’s First Congressional District.
Pataki, Perry will make first trips to N.H. in 2015
Former New York governor George Pataki and soon-to-be-former Texas Governor Rick Perry are scheduled to be the first 2016 potential presidential candidates to visit New Hampshire in the new year.
Pataki is scheduled to meet Republican activists in the Manchester and Seacoast areas on Sunday and Monday. An aide to Perry confirmed a two-day trip Feb. 10-11 with no other details.