Massachusetts, one of the bluest of blue states, voted Charlie Baker and Karyn Polito into the gubernatorial offices last week by a thin margin.
The state bucked a national trend of Republican gains in many other offices. The day after the election, an interactive map of the blue-red vote provided by The Boston Globe, showed a wide red (Republican) swath through the middle of the state, with the western towns in the 413 area code predominantly blue (Democratic), along with the Gateway Cities of Springfield, Worcester, Brockton, Lynn and others in that emergent economic sector voting blue alongside the Greater Boston area, which includes the most affluent – and most populous – municipalities in the state.
But to think that the voting turnout implies a budding common sensibility between the state’s east and west would be misleading. Unopposed Democrats filled many of the state legislative ballot slots, a sharp delimiter of voter choice.
Regardless of what one feels about the Baker-Polito ticket, or the Republican party in general, the hope is that the new team will be able to attract talent to legislative office that will, in the future, offer voters a viable two-party choice. Baker’s established, respectable administrative history in the nonprofit, government and and financial sectors proves that he doesn’t need to buy himself a job. Polito’s strong, positive local profile in her Central Mass. hometown of Shrewsbury capably and cleverly split the ticket between Boston and the rest of the state, particularly if anything west of I-495 is considered West.
Coakley’s concession speech drew criticism, with some saying it contained more goal-oriented content than much of her campaign stumping. During Baker’s first press conference on Nov. 5, he ducked specifics about his plans for the office, except to say that he would seek to hire talented people.
As for the ballot questions … here’s a bone to pick. The order of the questions in the Voter Guidebook issued by the state differed from the order in which they appeared on the two-page ballot. From observational experience, this threw some voters who had entered the voting booth with a string of responses memorized in the order in the guidebook; some of those who started zipping through the ballot before they caught the discrepancy asked to recast their ballots. Those who may not have requested to do so may have voted in a way they didn’t intend. There’s no way to know the actual margin of voter error in this case, but it’s something to consider; it’s the little things that kill you.
The voters’ verdict on the ballot questions was: Gas tax indexed to inflation, repealed; the budget for infrastructure rehabilitation won’t be growing on that front. Bottle recycling expansion, denied; it was fought vigorously by those who noted that many municipalities already have recycling programs, but proponents said this is beside the point. Casino repeal, voted down, so here come the dice and slots; let’s hope that the promised jobs and infrastructure improvements really materialize (particularly in light of the defeat of the gas tax index). Mandated Massachusetts sick days, overwhelmingly approved.
Attitudinal lines on these issues are still as split as they were before the election. It will require a strong consensus-driving governor to bring the red and blue together.n
