It's true. Also there was Scott Brown, if we're discussing state-wide elections.
(I'm going to take this slightly seriously from here; sorry if I'm over-geeking.)
Still, in the last election in Singapore--which, admittedly, was a wakeup call for the ruling PAP--they only got a hair over 60% of the vote. The political systems are very different, so I don't know that anyone collects the voting statistics this way, but I suspect that Democrats regularly get more than 60% of the aggregate vote for Massachusetts House and Senate seats. Partly this is because so many of the Democrats run unopposed, but that kind of just proves the point.
It would be interesting to see where that data's collected.
One problem--and I think it is a problem, actually--with the Republican governors going all the way back to William Weld, as well as Senator Brown, is that they essentially did no party building to speak of. The Republicans, as a party, are in disarray all over Massachusetts. I don't actually think it's good for governance that there's no serious political opposition party. And I say this as a supporter of the progressive wing of the Democratic party.
But with the Republican brand so identified nationally with the crazies who have hijacked it from the moderates who used to exist in New England, I suspect that something non-linear will have to happen for a serious opposition party to emerge in Massachusetts.
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Date: 2014-04-16 07:20 am (UTC)(I'm going to take this slightly seriously from here; sorry if I'm over-geeking.)
Still, in the last election in Singapore--which, admittedly, was a wakeup call for the ruling PAP--they only got a hair over 60% of the vote. The political systems are very different, so I don't know that anyone collects the voting statistics this way, but I suspect that Democrats regularly get more than 60% of the aggregate vote for Massachusetts House and Senate seats. Partly this is because so many of the Democrats run unopposed, but that kind of just proves the point.
It would be interesting to see where that data's collected.
One problem--and I think it is a problem, actually--with the Republican governors going all the way back to William Weld, as well as Senator Brown, is that they essentially did no party building to speak of. The Republicans, as a party, are in disarray all over Massachusetts. I don't actually think it's good for governance that there's no serious political opposition party. And I say this as a supporter of the progressive wing of the Democratic party.
But with the Republican brand so identified nationally with the crazies who have hijacked it from the moderates who used to exist in New England, I suspect that something non-linear will have to happen for a serious opposition party to emerge in Massachusetts.