How much do the moonbats hate Rep. Jim Lyons of Andover?
They hate him so much that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton endorsed his Democrat opponent.
The far left raised at least $160,000, probably over $200,000, to knock him out – a fourth-term GOP back bencher who represented parts of Andover, North Andover, Boxford and Tewksbury.
Sadly, his foes prevailed on Tuesday, with a 32-year-old lawyer named Tram Nguyen, a public defender by trade with a “partner” and three dogs. She won, going away, 11,500 to 9800 votes, in a turnout 25 percent above normal in the district.
“I’m proudest we brought the pro-life movement back to the State House,” Lyons was saying yesterday. “There are two sides to that story, and the nasty women on Beacon Hill hated me for keeping it in the public eye.”
But it wasn’t just his pro-life stance that got Jim Lyons into the cross-hairs of the alt-left. He’s the one who brought the Nativity scene back to the State House a few years ago – all that took was the threat of a federal lawsuit.
In 2011, Lyons was the legislator who forced the administration of then-Gov. Deval Patrick to admit that the state was even then spending $1.8 billion a year on welfare for illegal aliens. All he had to do that time was shut down the legislature for a few days until the hacks coughed up how much they were providing in handouts to undocumented Democrats.
Earlier this year he tried to remove Judge Timothy “Touchy” Feeley from the bench – didn’t succeed but he gave it a shot.
My own personal favorite Jim Lyons moment came last summer, when the legislative leadership was pushing for a third “Gender X” option on state driver’s licenses, in addition to M and F. Lyons came up with a brilliant idea – if there were 57 or 73 or whatever number of so-called genders, how could they all be lumped together as “X?”
Lyons filed 57 amendments, one for each “gender” he could find on Facebook. No gender left behind! Separate but equal? Not on Lyons’ watch! It was an absolutely brilliant move – he was calling the Dems’ bluff. If they ruled his amendments out of order, they were admitting the whole Gender X ploy was just another virtue-signaling grift.
Running out of time in the legislative session, the hacks pulled the Gender X legislation. I wrote a column about it that went national.
Needless to say, the hacks didn’t forget.
You should check out everything they threw at Lyons. It’s all on Nguyen’s website, and in her campaign-finance filings. It wasn’t just Hillary and Barack – Lyons’ opponent was backed by Seth Moulton, Maura Healey, Marsha Coakley (who lists her occupation as “not employed.”)
She was endorsed by NARAL, Planned Parenthood, Emily’s List, NOW, the teachers’ unions, the Sierra Club, all the local pinky-ring thug unions. Most of the “nasty women” in the State House sent in contributions. Not to mention the usual suspects in the Democrat non-working classes.
Here’s a list of occupations on the Democrat’s OCPF state filings:
“Non-profit manager… philanthrophic activist.. community development activist… director of advocacy… HR… advocate… trust manager… storyteller… musician… business agent… outreach….”
Another of Lyons’ obsessions, which most of us share, is the endemic corruption of the Democrat leadership at the State House. He never forgot to mention Stanley Rosenberg’s scandals, or the three convicted-felon speakers, and the fact that the current one, Robert DeLeo, was listed as an “unindicted coconspirator” in the probation-department scandal.
DeLeo, you may recall, paid at least $500,000 to the law firm of Mintz, Levin when he was trying to stay out of prison. A half-million! From his campaign account.
“Does an innocent person,” Lyons used to ask on the House floor, “really need to spend $500,000 just to be named in a federal indictment as an ‘unindicted coconspirator?’”
Hey, it was a nice payday for Mintz, Levin. Would you care to guess where Tram Nguyen had a fundraiser on July 18? Correct – 14 Mintz, Levin attorneys duked her more than $3,000, a small enough price to pay to help get rid of the unindicted coconspirator’s tormentor.
I ran into Lyons at an event in Wellesley last summer and he mentioned to me in passing that he was going door to door in his campaign. It should have dawned on me that he must have thought he had a real fight on his hands as he was seeking a fifth term. But he didn’t mention that the Beautiful People were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him.
After the gas explosions in September in his district, the moonbats even banned his daily updates from one of Andover’s big Facebook pages – he was too political, don’t you know.
Lyons doesn’t seem that devastated by his defeat. He has a Christmas tree business, which will keep him busy starting next week. He can spend more time with his wife Bernadette and his two twentysomething adopted sons.
He’ll be delivering a farewell address on the House floor, but if you really want to say goodbye to Jim Lyons, probably the best place to do it will be in the Great Hall at the State House Dec. 20, between 11 and 4. That’s when the Nativity scene will be on display again – thanks for one last good deed, Jim Lyons!