Gov. Charlie Baker had almost as disastrous a week in Massachusetts politics as the fake Indian.
Tall Deval didn’t suffer the national ignominy that Elizabeth Warren endured, but the pasting he got from his own party should render him at least as big a laughingstock locally as Pocahontas is on the cable networks.
It’s a great gig, being governor. You get to run around the state badmouthing President Trump, trying to double the gasoline tax and posing for photos with chicks you went to high school with, like the one in this photo — Mindy d’Arbeloff, who is now her Needham High classmate Tall Deval’s $128,710-a-year “deputy chief of staff.”
Even the lieutenant governor ,Karyn “Pay to Play” Polito, has been having a fantastic time, as you can see in the other photo — is there anything more fun than chowing down at the Olympia in Lowell with the very ethical Democrat Rep. David Nangle of Lowell, now under federal indictment charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and five counts of filing false tax returns.
So you can see why Tall Deval and Pay to Play want to party on in a third term in 2022. Which is why Baker was willing to drop close to a million bucks in an attempt to take back control of the Republican State Committee this week.
It’s an obscure body, but the committee sets rules for, among other things, the state party conventions. And God forbid if the GOP in 2022 were to allow a, say, a real Republican to get onto the primary ballot against Tall Deval — it might be very embarrassing.
In a state poll last week before Super Tuesday, Tall Deval turned out to be more popular among Democrats than Republicans. That probably has something to do with his plans to double the gas tax. Trump’s approval rating among the local GOP is 82%, Baker’s is 50%.
So although Baker spent hundreds of thousands of dollars sending out postcards in the 80 fights, none mentioned him, because it would have been the kiss of death. Republicans support Donald Trump, and they don’t support doubling the gasoline tax, which Tall Deval wants to do above all else this year.
The bottom line is, in 2019 when Baker lost control of the committee, there were 47 votes against him. After Tuesday, approximately 60 members of the committee now support the current anti-Tall Deval chairman, Jim Lyons.
How radioactive has Tall Deval become?
Down in Plymouth, his hacks recruited a novice candidate named Jesse Brown for the special state Senate election. They simultaneously ran him for the state committee. In both cases Brown was pitted against Jay McMahon, a lawyer from Bourne who is from the Republican wing of the Republican Party.
Tall Deval’s super PAC spent $14,025 on mailings for Brown. On Tuesday, Baker’s boy lost not one, but two elections.
McMahon defeated Tall Deval’s coat holder in the Senate primary, 8,281-6,474. For the state committee, Baker’s stooge was crushed by McMahon 7,416-5,229 (with a third candidate taking 947).
A call was placed to Brown Thursday asking him for a comment on how Gov. Baker’s endorsement(s) aided his losing campaign(s). The call was not returned.
At his precinct in Swampscott Tuesday night, Baker refused to say who he voted for in the GOP presidential primary, although he did say it wasn’t Trump. Undoubtedly he cast a ballot for Bill Weld — it’s a Yankee thing. Their families both came over on the Mayflower.
There are 351 cities and towns in the commonwealth. Against Trump, Baker’s candidate Bill Weld carried exactly two of them — Pelham, by a margin of 10-7, and Gosnold, 4-3. (Gosnold, incidentally, includes Naushon Island, ancestral home of John Forbes Kerry’s family. Another Yankee thing, in other words.)
It was Weld’s worst stomping since 1978, when he lost the attorney general fight to Frank Bellotti, a race in which Weld also lost 349 of the state’s 351 cities and towns. The difference is, in 1978, Weld got 21% of the vote. On Tuesday, against President Trump, he could only manage 9.3%.
No wonder Tall Deval didn’t do any robocalls for his payroll patriots running for state committee.
On Tuesday, the reporters in Swampscott also asked Baker about the state committee race in his district. Baker had paid for an anonymous mailing on behalf of Rick Wood, who was running against Steve Zykofsky, another one of those evil Republican Republicans.
“My hope is that many of the people that have supported me in the past will do well tonight. Rick Wood was a big supporter of mine, and I certainly hope he does well.”
For the record, Wood was destroyed by Zykofsky. Poor Tall Deval — a million bucks down the drain. Michael Bloomberg wasn’t the only arrogant snot to discover this week that money can’t buy him love.
But it could have been worse for Tall Deval. He could have been the fake Indian.