Maloy wins again
It’s official: Aaron Maloy is still the Republican nominee in the race to succeed retiring state Rep. Shirley Gomes in Cape Cod’s Fourth Barnstable District. After a recount of the ballots cast in each of the district’s seven towns, the 24-year-old openly gay political newcomer widened his primary night margin of victory over Harwich Selectman Don Howell from 12 votes to 17. Howell, who had been endorsed by MassEquality, issued a concession statement following the completion of the Oct. 2 recount in which he congratulated Maloy, a vocal opponent of marriage equality, and wished him well on the campaign trail.
“I feel relieved,” said Maloy after the recount. Then, somewhat startlingly, he confessed with a laugh, “and I also feel very scared.” Maloy is most concerned about being able to raise the money to compete with openly gay Democrat Sarah Peake, who had $41,000 heading into the September primary to Maloy’s $3810. Never mind the fact that in addition to being well-funded, Peake, a Provincetown Selectman who gave Gomes a stiff challenge in 2004, is a well-organized and experienced campaigner.
The difference in experience was painfully clear at a candidate forum on health and human services issues sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Lower/Outer Cape Community Coalition at the Eastham United Methodist Church on Sept. 28. Peake showed up with several campaign volunteers in tow, a stack of campaign literature and buttons and ballpoint pens touting her candidacy, all of which were laid out on a table with other candidate information. Maloy, on the other hand, confessed that he had sent his supporters to the United Methodist Church in Orleans and he didn’t have his cell phone handy to redirect them. And during the forum Maloy drew a few chuckles with his earnest but perhaps overeager response to the question of how he would maintain contact with human services professionals and consumers if elected: “Well, the door to my apartment will always be open,” he began. By contrast, Peake opened by noting that she has already established relationships with the local human services community. “Most of you in this room I know already because I go to your meetings,” she said at the outset. “I’m at the public forums, I’m there and I’m participating. I’ve done that already, I’ll continue to do it.”
That’s not to say Maloy doesn’t have things working in his favor. He has effectively sought to portray himself as a political outsider — Howell was clearly the GOP’s “establishment candidate” in the primary — and his opposition to same-sex marriage has brought him plenty of attention. And though Democrats slightly outnumber Republicans in the district, 53 percent of Fourth Barnstable voters are unenrolled and the seat has been in Republican hands since the early 1990s. Despite his financial woes, with the recount behind him, Maloy sounds ready for battle. “If we do lose this seat, there’s going to be no accountability in the Massachusetts Legislature,” he warns, sounding the state GOP’s mantra. “Basically if the Republicans lose their ability to request a roll call there’s going to be no transparency in state government. … It will create an unhealthy political environment in Massachusetts.”
Peake however, has been hustling for those independent votes. Prior to the primary, the candidate says she knocked on the doors of 2500-3000 Democratic and unenrolled voters. “I was in Chatham yesterday and knocking on doors of Republicans and Democrats and unenrolled as well,” she adds of her strategy. “And it’s just spending time in the district going to events like this being at the post office and transfer stations and going door to door — you meet people and you connect on the issues.” Peake could also benefit from the enthusiasm among unenrolled Cape voters for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Deval Patrick, who swept the Cape in the Democratic primary. “The unenrolled are very active voters,” Peake observes. “For example, in Chatham more people pulled a Democratic ballot in the primary than there are registered Democrats in Chatham. Which means that a large number of the unenrolled took out a Democratic ballot. I think the excitement over Deval Patrick’s campaign has invigorated people and is going to cause a very high turnout in the general election.”
With two gay candidates espousing different views on marriage equality, the issue may become a factor in the race. But Peake says it hasn’t been much of an issue thus far. “I think they know what my position is, they know what Aaron’s is, which stands in sharp contrast to mine. I mean, he wants to strip us of our civil rights.” And she confesses that she’s not given much thought to the fact that her race against Maloy is the first time in state history where two openly gay candidates have squared off against each other. Since three of the six primary candidates in the race were gay, says Peake, the chances were pretty good that one or both of the candidates left standing would be gay people. “Maybe I’m just so focused on what the issues are and what I need to do when I get to Boston … I haven’t really spent too much time dwelling on this potentially historic race that’s going on down here,” she says.
Link to original article.
BTW, just caught opinterph's demand for an 'apology'... all I can say is, reading that article, totally detached from reality about 'the lost art of political compromise' (pinning the blame on both parties, instead of the Republicans, where it belongs), it all makes sense now...
Gone after removing years of senior Democratic Leadership on various committees to do what was best for his party/power than doing what was best for Texans. May the sun-of-a-beyotch burn in hell!
Go back and re-read my original post.
