John Tierney, the eight-term congressman from the North Shore, survived his toughest challenge by far, beating a talented moderate Republican, Richard Tisei. After struggling to explain an offshore gambling scandal involving his wife and in-laws, Tierney clearly was vulnerable. His 1-point win can be ascribed to many factors — from the big Democratic turnout for President Obama to the presence of a third-party candidate who siphoned critical votes from Tisei. But also crucial were the accomplishments in Tierney’s record, including his work on important student-loan legislation and his significant contributions to the Affordable Care Act. If there’s a lesson in Tierney’s victory, it shouldn’t be that Democrats always win. It should be that Massachusetts voters will reward their representatives for concrete achievements. Tierney should take that lesson to heart as he seeks to put the scandal behind him.
editorial | lessons from the election
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Baloney ! Tierney won because voters held theor collective nose and voted for him in order to not add to the Republican majority in the House. It's that simple.
what it proves is democrats do not care how crooked you are or even kill someone as long as there is a D after their name they will vote for them.....shame on them...
It only really demonstrates that terms such as Democrat and Republican don't mean quite the same thing in Massachusetts as they do elsewhere; it's about who has the power, the clout, and the leverage to rule. Ideologies such as liberal or conservative are secondary considerations. It really is a blood sport.
It would have been nice if the Editorial Board of The Globe had recalled these concrete achievements of Mr. Tierney before it decided to support his neophyte challenger.
It was a Hobson's choice between a crooked Democrat or a tea-party Republican.
When the party in power has the power to accepts any type of behavior actions...for the good or for the bad...as equal to achieve a win in an election then it encourages the same behavior for its followers....and encourages more of the same and leads to further more serious situations. We have tossed aside the way our forefathers bequethed to us and turned our backs on what use to be our foundations of God Justice Liberty and even the Persuit of Happiness for the love of money and the lust of power....and unfortunately we will end up paying the pipper for these choices.
If the Republicans and their allies had not spent more than 4 million dollars attacking his wife and making insinuations about him, Tierney would have won comfortably. I marched in the 4th of July Parade with Tierney, before the onslaught began, and he was cheered all along the way. This wasn't a Democratic Rally. This was a good cross-section of average people he had served for many years. They knew he was a workhorse for them, not a show horse for the press seeking to enlarge his own ego. If someone spent 4 million dollars denigrating me my wife would have divorced me, my mother would have thrown me out of the house, my kids would have moved away and my only loving company would have been one of my granddaughters because she and I have a Mutual Adoration Society numbering two. I know politics ain't beanbag but there is a cruelty to it sometimes that would make a normal human being uncomfortable.
It was a Hobson's choice between a crooked Democrat and a right-wing Republican. Flip a coin, and we lose either way.
Concrete achievements? Like showing us that crime does not matter in MA.