'The pull of Sal-n-Trav (quantitative..sorta)'
Ok, now I'm back to liking BMG. Why? Because Charley let rip one of the most hilareous posts I've ever seen: a quantitative analysis of the potential interaction between the Massachusetts Legislature and a potential Massachusetts Democratic governor. Charley preserved his credibility quite well with the following intro caveat: 'Walking that fine line between rigorous and nutty.' ... Now, I'm about to partially fisk this guy. But let it be known to all: I don't know if the poster is serious or not!!! I think he is. Therefore I shall march/blunder forward under that assumption:

Something we can expect on September 20th is a bunch of graphics from the Mass GOP linking the eventual nominee with Sal DiMasi, and Robert Travaglini.

Really? Do you think so? Would Republicans really do that? ...

It was a successful tactic in 2002 (though the crew back then inspired more hostility), but in some ways there is reason to consider the impact of the Legislature on the completion of a candidate's agenda.

Consider the impact of the Legislature. It never occurred to me.

Below I look to figure out and quantify what impact the Legislature would have on candidates' plans, and take a stab at quantifying that impact on the idelogical bent of the final outcomes such as laws.

Laws? ...

This is all first draft.

Totally theoretical. I understand.

I am not going to try to estimate competence.

Don't even bother.

That (competence) is an important factor, in many ways the most important one, but I see no way of fairly estimating it on a constant scale.

Then just ignore it!

Obviously, many disputes beween the branches of Mass. government (concern) corruption and power and have little ideological element (pensions, for instance).

Obviously. Ignore it!

Underneath, I perform some back-of-the-envelope calculations to try to estimate how the Legislature would impact Governors Reilly, Gabrieli, or Patrick.

Just the envelopes, please. Stuffed.

I am not including Healey or Mihos because partisanship would skew this data even more.

Good point. Partisanship in a decades-long-controlled Democratic Legislature does skewer things. Ignore it!

Personal relationships with legislators, favors to trade in, influence within the party that decides who gets how much help campaigning, knowledge of the rules of the Legislature all matter here.

I think you're on to something.

I encourage you to use this method, though (I) imagine many people would plug in their own numbers.

I can't imagine people plugging in their own numbers. I really can't.

I urge intellectual honesty when doing so, however -- just because you don't like Reilly or Patrick doesn't make them a 10 or a 0. If someone could get a consistent empirical scale using polling data, that would be great.

It's all about being objectively cerebral. I get it. ...

... And there are lots and lots of numbers.  ¶ 6:18 PM