Markey so fearful of Gomez he goes negative right out of the box

By Dan Spencer | 12:00 PM on May 03, 2013

The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.

Democrat U.S. Senate hopeful, the very Liberal Congressman Edward Markey, launches a negative ad just two days after winning the Democrat primary in the campaign to fill the now vacant Senate seat formerly held by John Kerry.

The despicable Markey ad, features Gomez’s face directly next to Osama Bin Laden’s. It’s hard to imagine how worried and desperate Markey must be to do that to a former naval aviator and Navy SEAL. Markey’s ad is pure swift boating — a tactic the left relentlessly rails against. The Markey ad brings back memories of the controversial Max Cleland ad that became a Liberal/Progressive cause célèbre during the 2008 campaign, but even that ad didn’t do what Markey campaign has done.

So why does Markey feel he has to resort to such gutter tactics at the start of his campaign against Republican nominee Gabriel Gomez? Perhaps it is the newest polling on the Gomez/Markey race. According to a new Emerson College poll released Thursday, Gomez trails Markey by just six points — 36 percent to 42 percent. The Emerson College poll is in line with the just released Public Policy Polling revelation that its first general election Massachusetts Senate poll finds that Markey leads Gomez by only 4points — 44% to 40%.

A single digit race is remarkable considering the two-to-one registration advantage Democrats enjoy over Republicans in Massachusetts.

The Emerson College poll also suggests that Independents are breaking for Gomez at a nearly two to onr rate — 46% to 25%.

In addition to the polling, perhaps Markey is trying to change the subject from his failure to take Gomez up on his challenge to Markey to accept three debates. As Gomez puts it:

“Ed Markey launched his mudslinging campaign with negative political attacks. He will do and say anything to avoid talking about what matters most – out of control spending in Washington and putting people back to work.

As a professional debater, Congressman Markey has debated every day for almost 40 years, why stop now? Why is Congressman Markey afraid to stand before the people of Massachusetts and deliver his negative attacks in person?”

There is no other reason why the Markey campaign would take such a negative tone right out the box unless they were fearful of losing. That’s because Markey is a relic of the past, a 36-year Congressman that first went to Washington when Gomez was playing Little League baseball, and never left.

Massachusetts voters are overwhelmingly Democrat but they still echo the rest of the American public that is fed up with the way Washington works. Ed Markey is the epitome of Washington and that’s why he is on the verge of losing this race.