Sunday, September 27, 2009
'The Curse of The Middlesex County DA'
Margery has a nice rundown of the pluses and minuses of Dem senatorial candidates. But what caught my attention was the reference to "the Curse of The Middlesex County DA," as it may apply to Martha. Actually, it should be the Curse of the Massachusetts Attorneys General.
The last six attorneys general all lost election bids to move up the ladder to the Senate or the Corner Office: Elliot Richardson, Robert Quinn, Frank Bellotti, Jim Shannon*, Scott Harshbarger and Tom Reilly. The last seven of eight failed, if you go back to Eddie 'If your name was Edward Moore' McCormack. The exception was Ed Brooke -- but he was an African-American Republican. So maybe it's really the Curse of White Male Massachusetts Attorneys General. Martha better hope so -- and that it's not the Curse of the Democratic Massachusetts Attorneys General. ... She's certainly dull enough to qualify for the latter category. ...
* Lumpy didn't have a straight-forward shot at loserdom like other AGs. He lost his bid for the Senate while a congressman -- achieving AG loserdom status earlier than normal. He later won the AG race in '86, only to get knocked off four years later in the primary by future loser Harshbarger, proving the AG Dem loser pattern beyond reasonable doubt.
Update -- Going farther back, the pattern/curse gets worse -- much worse. The elected attorney general who preceded Eddie McCormack, George Fingold, was apparently running for governor when he died in office. Can’t get more cursed than that. … Fingold's temporary successor, Edward T. Martin, and his three immediate predecessors all hit the AG glass ceiling too.
But there's hope yet for Martha! Democrat Paul A. Dever, AG from '36 to '41, won election as governor in 1948. But it took him a prior failed gubernatorial bid, fighting through World War II and losing a pathetic post-war race for lieutenant governor before cracking the AG ceiling. Dever and Brooke. That's it. The other AGs this and last centuries, all absent losers on the gov and U.S. senate fronts. ...
Margery has a nice rundown of the pluses and minuses of Dem senatorial candidates. But what caught my attention was the reference to "the Curse of The Middlesex County DA," as it may apply to Martha. Actually, it should be the Curse of the Massachusetts Attorneys General.
The last six attorneys general all lost election bids to move up the ladder to the Senate or the Corner Office: Elliot Richardson, Robert Quinn, Frank Bellotti, Jim Shannon*, Scott Harshbarger and Tom Reilly. The last seven of eight failed, if you go back to Eddie 'If your name was Edward Moore' McCormack. The exception was Ed Brooke -- but he was an African-American Republican. So maybe it's really the Curse of White Male Massachusetts Attorneys General. Martha better hope so -- and that it's not the Curse of the Democratic Massachusetts Attorneys General. ... She's certainly dull enough to qualify for the latter category. ...
* Lumpy didn't have a straight-forward shot at loserdom like other AGs. He lost his bid for the Senate while a congressman -- achieving AG loserdom status earlier than normal. He later won the AG race in '86, only to get knocked off four years later in the primary by future loser Harshbarger, proving the AG Dem loser pattern beyond reasonable doubt.
Update -- Going farther back, the pattern/curse gets worse -- much worse. The elected attorney general who preceded Eddie McCormack, George Fingold, was apparently running for governor when he died in office. Can’t get more cursed than that. … Fingold's temporary successor, Edward T. Martin, and his three immediate predecessors all hit the AG glass ceiling too.
But there's hope yet for Martha! Democrat Paul A. Dever, AG from '36 to '41, won election as governor in 1948. But it took him a prior failed gubernatorial bid, fighting through World War II and losing a pathetic post-war race for lieutenant governor before cracking the AG ceiling. Dever and Brooke. That's it. The other AGs this and last centuries, all absent losers on the gov and U.S. senate fronts. ...
