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The Boston Globe

Opinion

Scot Lehigh

Murray’s exit good news for Democrats

In his six years as a statewide office holder, Tim Murray has pulled off an astounding feat. He has become that rare politician who seems too small for the lieutenant governor’s job.

It’s not just that Murray never grew in the job. He actually seemed to shrink there. That reality makes Murray’s announcement that he won’t run for governor good news for the Democratic Party and a victory for common sense.

Comments

Is it also good news for Republicans? Is there anyone in any party who looks 'gubernatorial?' Massachusetts seems to prefer importing politicians of late.

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Charlie Baker - would be great - but the globe would endorse any democrat before they picked Baker.

 

And the Herald would endorse any Republican. So what? That just means they cancel each other out. It's also clear that you would vote for any Republican, even a ham sandwich, as you are so fond of saying. Also a so what issue, since it is your perogative to vote as you see fit. I'm far more interested in whether there's anyone aspiring for office who, you know, cares about good government. Whether or not Charlie Baker is capable was lost as a message in 2010 because his only message at the time was 'vote for me because I'm a Republican, I'm not Deval Patrick, and I'm angry about everything.' That's not a message worth voting for. He'll need to retool if he wants to be taken seriously. I've heard Kerry Healy mentioned but I haven't seen anything from her, so I have to wonder if she's interested or not. And whether or not the Globe would endorse any Democrat or not, are any candidates showing credible interest?

"that rare politician who seems too small for the lieutenant governor’s job."  Ouch!  Great job, Scot!

The Globe, Scott Lehigh included, did not chose to cover what Lt. Gov. Murray was doing in the Lt. Gov. job. They determined long ago that the extraordinary Mayor of Worcester would not be their kind of Governor wannabee. If you are a person interested in helping veterans and their families, or are a city or town official looking to the state for needed help, or are a gateway city official trying to rebuild your city or waterfront, or are a person interested in preventing domestic violence...you all know firsthand what the Lt. Gov. has been doing because you saw him working with and for you. You surely didn't read it in the Globe.  Gov. Patrick would be the first to acknowledge that far from being "too small" for the job, Lt. Gov. turned the job into something worth having. After all these years of reporting, it is sad to realize that Mr. Lehigh never really grew into anything beyond the cynical State House political reporter he was in the 80's.

Get real, there is no good news for the party now hammering the middle class.  Warren will regret ever using that term.   That term and what the middle class experiences at the hands of the Democratic party between now and her possible future run will haunt her.

The timing is interesting. Maybe the Lt. Gov. thought he might get past the weird car accident, and his relationship with the Chelsea Housing chief (with attendant lies), but decided he can't politically survive being seen with Gov. Patrick as he announced an income tax rate increase to 6.25%!  May all Democrats who are considering supporting an income tax increase get the same message.

I thought Charlie Baker had a great chance against Patrick last time but he ran like he didn't want the job.

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No his campaign manager was poor, and he persona needs to be a little more friendly.

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It's true that the Globe has not covered Mr. Murray's "accomplishments" (as fine as some of them are)--because he is not newsworthy.  He has no constituency beyond his own ambition.  He's getting plenty of coverage now, though.  Worcester is back on the map (if not on the Pike)!

Lehigh leaves out, either negligently or purposefully, the role played by the State House Corner Office Occupier in this sordid tale of mudget politicians. Deval the Taxer-Wannabe said just this week that he and Tiny Tim had often discussed Timothy's role as a Deval Corner Office successor. And, continued Deval, Timmy had full assurances that Deval would have been right there in Timmy's corner had Timothy the Worceter Wonder Driver decided to try and succeed . . . Deval. Those discussions are just made for political farse drama . . . More or less in the same league as a growing majority of voters' appreciations of Deval's efforts at creating his own legacy as a Tax and Spend Liberal Supremo... on a par with his Chicago political hack best bud, Barry the O. Maybe Timmy could run for a city councilor office in Worcester and get elected, or maybe he could be on a par with Guy Glodis, another Worcester County political wunderkind.

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Somewhere many years ago you must have failed as a captionist?