When I finally turned off the TV last night and went to bed one thing was very clear. Our country has expressed its outrage at the first two years of the Obama Administration and its policies in a big way. But I could not find one pundit on any of our local channels who acknowledged that. Then again why should they. All of the Congressional seats in Massachusetts and almost all of the Constitutional positions remained in Democrat hands. At first glance it looks like the Dems put a good old fashioned beat down on the Republicans in Massachusetts. But there are some signs that all is not well if you are an establishment Democrat. In the heavliy gerry mandered MA 2nd Congressional District for instance, Richard Neal, a 22 year democrat incumbent, was able to use his war chest to run TV ads and radio spots against his opponent, Republican Tom Wesley. Wesley's budget did not allow any of that and instead he relied on a facebook network and a grass roots effort. This district includes the Democrat strongholds of Holyoke, Chicoppee, Northhampton and Springfield among others. Yet wesley, a virtual unknown until his primary win in September, captured 41% percent of the vote! That is not a small number given the circumstances. Similar scenarios played out across Massachusetts! Offices like Secretary of State, State Auditor, and Governor had to be fought for to be held by incumbent Democrats.
So what did this election mean for Massachusetts going forward? Even before the polls closed I was hearing Democrat pundits on local radio stations bragging about having gone door to door in strong Democrat neighborhoods and bringing people to vote! I am not saying that is wrong but here in Massachusetts one of our unfortunate realities is that a large majority of Democrat voters do not follow the issues, they simply look for the D next to a persons name and vote accordingly. I heard that first hand while I was making hundreds of phone calls for Charlie Baker. So many people, mostly elderly, asked me who the candidates were for Governor. The next question was always, "Who is the Democrat?". The Massachusetts Democrat machine knows this all too well and that is why they rely so much on getting people to the polls any way they can. It's also why there are very few Democrat supporters outside the polling places holding signs or rooting for thier respective candidates, they simply don't need to be there. But something is happening in our great state that is a clue that change is coming. There are more and more Republican supporters and now Tea Party people showing up outside the voting locations every election and they are an energized group! It is not coincidence that Republican candidates were able to post respectable numbers in many of the races. Eventually, as the Tea Party movement and the Republican Party continue to spread the message that the rest of the country has already heard, the numbers will grow and the Democrat Machine tactics will no longer work. How many election cycles will that take? That will depend on how many good conservative candidates are willing to jump into the fray. It will also depend on how good the conservative movement will be at spreading their message, which for those people who do follow the issues is more often than not the right message. Fortunately new concepts like Facebook networking, internet news and blogging will help. While they won't admit it openly it should be pointed out that most of the people the Democrats currently rely on to vote like robots are older citizens who are less familiar with those new technologies. Yes, there is a change coming whether the Democrats admit it or not. Yesterday should not be looked at as a crushing defeat but rather as a hard lost fight that can pave the way to great victories ahead if the conservatives stay true to their course and don't give up!
