A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics
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A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics | |
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April 24, 2005Two State Governor?According to boston.com
This is not as crazy as it seems, in that Weld is a New York native, and thus has a stronger connection than Hillary Clinton did before she dropped in. I like Weld a lot. Indeed, he was the inspiration for me to become a Republican in the 1990's, and it was when the Republican-controlled Senate rejected his nomination as Ambassador to Mexico that I dropped out of the GOP. Still, his abandoning of his position as governor of Massachusetts in mid-term would surely be an issue if he were to run for governor of New York. Many people think he simply became bored. That might be less of an issue were he to run for Senate against Sen. Clinton. Posted by rickheller at April 24, 2005 01:47 PMComments
Weld was telegraphing a 2006 run in New York five years ago, so it's not a BIG surprise. Jesse Helms' personal attacks on him (for his support of medicinal marijuana) during his nomination hearings were a low point even for Helms. And Weld's sticking to his guns for five months reflects well on him. We need more Welds in office. Lots more. From either party is fine with me. Posted by: Tully at April 24, 2005 03:07 PMOh my! That is the best political news I have heard in a while. I really hope Weld does it! I would make the drive to NY for a few weekends to volunteer for that race, in a heartbeat. I think if Weld can get the GOP nom in NY, he'd beat most democrats easily, especially if his opponent were either a liberal moralist or dem machine insider. He's charismatic, intelligent, and has other redeeming qualities. But he also comes across as something of a dilettante. Maybe he's ADD or something. His mid-term bail of the MA governorship truly is characteristic of the guy, and it's absolutely valid for it to be an issue should he run. I never much liked him. He seems to have a short attention span, not a whole lot of respect for the office, and often didn't seem to care about the job that much. I'd have a hard time voting for a guy if I felt he might just suddenly lose interest. IMO, this is a genuine character flaw in the guy. Posted by: bk at April 24, 2005 08:49 PMI've always liked Bill Weld, but I think this would be a tough battle for him. Hillary might not have been a true New Yorker in 2000, but it will be hard to make the carpet-bagger label (however accurate) stick in 2006. It would be ironic if they could make it stick on Weld, though. This whole scenario reminds me of the mid-1990's in California, when many Republicans were fed up with Pete Wilson as governor and actually sought out former New York Congressman Jack Kemp to run against him (Kemp, who went to university in California, never returned any calls). Anyways, I always felt that Weld was upset with the party establishment for not giving him better support during his 1996 Senate race against John Kerry. A common argument heard by some of the GOP was that he was preferred in the statehouse and I don't think he ever really believed that the party had the right to decide for him which offices he would run for. He made some veiled threats about giving up the statehouse, probably because he hoped it would draw the fence-sitters into his camp, and when he lost the election, he called their bluff and left. What would have been interesting is if Kerry then went on to win the Presidential election against Bush. We probably could turnaround and draw a fault-line leading back to the GOP lukewarm support for Weld that would have derailed Kerry almost ten years ago... Posted by: Bobby at April 24, 2005 09:28 PMThis is interesting. I guess I haven't followed Mass politics enough to know the whole story about him leaving his seat mid-term. I just assumed that he had left to run for the Senate. He's a fascinating guy...kind of my type of Republican, and probably the only type of Republican who could win in New York. If he challenged Hillary for the Senate, you'd have to wonder if his old nemesis John Kerry would be pulling for him...lol. Posted by: AH at April 25, 2005 10:34 AMRumor has it BW is too buddy buddy with Hill to challenger her for the Senate, and he is really only considering a run for Governor. Posted by: Mathew at April 25, 2005 11:20 AM |
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