They’re all good ones, but #4 resonates:
No. 4: This one is for the Republican party: Run candidates in every legislative district, even if you have to put up the lame and the halt. That was how Tip O’Neill did it in the 1940s – he’d field Democrats in even the most Republican districts, getting the challenger’s name out and waiting for the GOP incumbent to retire or move on, at which point the Democrat would have more name recognition than the new Republican. Every cycle, Tip’s Dems picked off a few more GOP seats. The Democrats finally took over the Massachusetts House in 1946, and haven’t looked back. The other plus: Whenever a summer scandal breaks (think OUI, think young girlfriend working for lobbyist, think money-laundering scheme), the Republicans would already have a candidate in place to take advantage of the anti-incumbent vote.
#4, in fact, has resonance outside of Massachusetts. Frankly, that’s one of the reasons that we won LA-02: if we hadn’t had keeping running candidates there we would have never been able to take advantage of Jefferson’s weakness. Make ‘em work for it, and wait patiently for our chance to take the shot. I also like Jules Crittenden’s #11/#1: having these people work part-time appeals on general principles. The less time that they’re there, the less opportunities to spend money they’ll have.
Moe Lane
This would be the point where people tell me that Massachusetts is impossible to reform, impossible to repair, and impossible to flip. So we shouldn’t even think about trying, because we don’t have a chance in heck of doing anything useful.
Funny: that’s what they said about Louisiana.
Crossposted to Moe Lane.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
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Deval Patrick is the first Democrat governor......
NeoKong (Diary) Sunday, April 26th at 5:33PM EST (link)that the people of Massachusetts have elected in over twenty six years.The last Democrat governor was Mike Dukakis.The last Republican governor was Mitt Romney.
They will go red when motivated.
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I agree Moe #4 is a great idea but man #1 through #10...
JadedByPolitics (Diary) Sunday, April 26th at 6:36PM EST (link)would be great I just want the Republicans to get off their arses and DO SOMETHING….it’s like they are not even out there!
Unified Patriots – How-To:
Activists Taking Action
I particularly liked #6, #7, and #8 after reading the whole thing.
janis (Diary) Sunday, April 26th at 6:46PM EST (link)Every single state, city, town, and village in the country could use those three to save ENORMOUS sums of money. Not to mention all the state funded universities and county schools. Thanks for posting this one, Moe.
["moderate"]
Martin Knight (Diary) Monday, April 27th at 6:14AM EST (link)B … b … but … Moe! If we start running Republicans in Democrats’ districts, they will get mad! And then {sob} … they’ll be no more “Bipartisanship!” What will we do then?!
[/"moderate"]
Step #1 for fixing Maine...
From ME to You (Diary) Monday, April 27th at 11:15AM EST (link)Send all the Massachusetts immigrants back to Massachusetts!
Gotta love Howie Carr!
Proof That Tip O’Neill And The Dems Have Always Been Better Tacticians
Swamp_Yankee (Diary) Monday, April 27th at 5:35PM EST (link)The average conservative wants Russel Kirk to do Lee Atwater’s Job. And Karl Rove to do Antonin Scalia’s job. Tip was a pure tactician. He wasn’t even a liberal. Reagan loved him. But he held the moderate “working man” Democratic front, while the liberal schemed behind the scenes.
Tip’s famous phrase “All politics is local”. They grow the party from the bottom up. They don’t nationlaize issues is races where the Democratic national platofrm hurts the candidate.
Once they get power, they just consolidate it through patronage, unions, handouts, employment, subsidies and contracts. Its a brilliant clusterfu**.
We should run candidates in every race regardless. But “R’s have become such an anathema in Massachusetts that most people dont even try anymore.
Doesn't help with Repubs like this in MA
MGamo (Diary) Tuesday, April 28th at 8:34AM EST (link)http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/04/28/taxes_need_to_be_raised_in_massachusetts/
This guy is the dean of my public policy at a hugely liberal university. I had a conversation with him knowing he was Republican and figured the birds of a feather should flock together. Then I told him the only road to recovery was through conservatives solutions and not the country club Republicanism of Weld and Swift. Needless to say, he wasn’t happy.
“A man who never quits is never defeated.” – Fred D. Thompson