Sep.04

electoral-vote.com

Dem 48

Ties 1

GOP 51

Massachusetts Heads to the Polls

There was an election in Massachusetts yesterday. And here we are, writing an item about it, because that's what we do. But it would be hard to imagine an election with less intrigue. Here are the results, such as they are:

• U.S. Senate: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) faced no challenger in her primary. Yesterday, she found out that her victim in November will be lawyer and Marine Corps veteran John Deaton. He seems a generally decent fellow, with an inspiring personal story. This will not matter one bit when he loses by 20+ points.
  
  
• U.S. House: Every single one of Massachusetts' nine congressional districts is very blue, and will have an incumbent running for reelection. In seven of the nine, nobody else bothered to file, either on the Republican or Democratic side. So, 7/9ths of the Massachusetts delegation to the 119th Congress is already known.
  
  In MA-08, for some reason, three Republicans filed to run in the primary. Robert Burke won, with 46.2% of the vote. His platform is "INVASION/BORDER CRISIS, EXCESSIVE SPENDING/ HYPER INFLATION, HOUSING, PARENTAL RIGHTS." Those are not the section headers, that's the entire platform. Why he's running, we do not know, as the district is D+15, and he's probably going to lose even bigger (to Rep. Stephen Lynch, D) than John Deaton will in the Senate race.
  
  Meanwhile, the one Massachusetts House district that is within spitting distance of being competitive is the D+6 MA-09, represented by Bill Keating (D). He already knew that his opponent would be nurse Dan Sullivan, who says it is time for a change. Good luck running on such a detailed, wonky platform, Nurse Dan (as he prefers to be called). It's difficult to even find his website, by virtue of the fact that Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) is a tad more famous. Anyhow, maybe Keating will be caught accepting gold bars from the Egyptians, and this race will become competitive. Otherwise, not so much, we think.

We told you it wasn't very interesting. Next week, Delaware, New Hampshire and Rhode Island bring primary season to a close. (Z)