Taylor’s Takes: Massachusetts Mike is missing (an opportunity)

The fierce Republican side of me wants Mike Minogue to continue to ignore his primary opponent, Brian Shortsleeve.

My former, but still present, unenrolled mentality demands that Minogue come out of post-convention hibernation to engage in a spirited debate.

Leading up to the April MassGOP convention, Minogue was in whirlwind mode, criss-crossing the state to engage as many potential delegates as possible. He brought with him a strong message and a magnanimous personality.

But since Minogue practically swept the nomination, we’ve not seen or heard much from him.

I hear he has campaign ads running on television, but outside of the Boomers, who’s really watching the local news anymore? Digital ads on social media are fine, I guess. But they’re more easily ignored than TV spots. I see no upcoming in-person events listed on his campaign website.

Meanwhile, Brian Shortsleeve is all but begging Minogue to agree to a debate. This week, Shortsleeve took out spots on the Howie Carr Radio Network, announcing his acceptance of Howie’s invitation to an on-air debate and encouraging Minogue to “stop ducking” and do the same.

While I still wish that Shortsleeve would accept the inevitable and drop out of the race for the sake of uniting the Massachusetts Republican Party, I do admire his tenacity. Shortsleeve demonstrates he’s willing to put up a fight and show Massachusetts voters that he has no quit in him. Whether it’s sheer determination or utter pigheadedness, that’s up for debate.

As Shortsleeve’s stubbornness to concede the primary before the September 1 election hurts both candidates’ chances of defeating Maura Healey, Minogue’s unwillingness to engage his primary opponent in any way keeps both of them shrouded in obscurity to the lay voter.

Ask a friend that you would consider a typical Massachusetts Republican who they’re voting for in the primary. Chances are they haven’t been paying attention.

Can you blame them? There’s nothing to pay attention to.

Minogue, who, despite ramping up spending (averaging about $642,000 per month before the convention and over $1 million per month after), only has 16,000 followers on his campaign’s Facebook page.

Shortsleeve, whose war chest is dwarfed by Minogue’s ($985,000 and $9,500,000, respectively), has nearly twice as many followers on the same social media site.

What is money really buying Minogue if so few people are paying attention to what he has to say?

Using Facebook metrics is a very narrow spectrum, but I would consider it the most popular social media platform among the Republican voting bloc in this state.

Maura Healey’s Facebook campaign page has more than five times as many followers as Minogue’s, and more than both Republicans’ pages combined.

I understand Minogue’s assurance of a primary win in September, but a calculated risk of a few debates on radio, TV, and the more unconventional but ever-emerging online influencer space would go a long way in terms of name recognition.

Counting on a few short months to make your case to all Massachusetts voters after the primary doesn’t seem like a winning campaign strategy.

I believe Kamala Harris even wrote a book about it.

The opinions in this column are solely those of the author and not necessarily the opinions of The Howie Carr Radio Network.