Polls Give Markey Double Digit Lead in Senate Race
A look back at the highlights as candidates campaign for U.S. Senate.
Two polls last week show double-digit leads for U.S. Rep. Edward Markey over his Democratic opponent U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch in the race for U.S. Senate.
Results of a UMass Lowell/Boston Herald poll last week showed Markey (D-Malden) leads Lynch (D-South Boston) by 29.5 percentage points among potential Democratic primary voters.
The poll also shows Markey is leading over all three Republican candidates.
Fifty percent of those polled said they would vote for Markey, while 20.5 percent said Lynch, giving Markey a 29.5 percent lead. Twenty-three percent said they were unsure how they plan to vote.
Markey and Lynch face off in the April 30 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by John Kerry’s appointment to Secretary of State.
On the Republican side, Markey also led, according to the poll, coming in 19 points over former Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez, 17.2 percent over former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and 23.2 percent over State Rep. Dan Winslow .
The poll also showed Lynch leading over all three Republican candidates: 18 percent over Gomez, 17 percent over Sullivan and 24.5 percentage points over Winslow.
A second poll last week, this one by the League of Conservation Voters, which is supporting Markey in the special election, also shows him with a double digit lead. The poll shows Markey at 42 percent, with Lynch at 28 percent.
AFL-CIO not endorsing in the primary
Both Lynch and Markey continue to bring in endorsements and seem to be splitting union support, however, neither candidate will get the backing of the state’s largest labor organization. The AFL-CIO has decided not to endorse in the Democratic primary.
The Boston Herald reported this week that Steven Tolman, Massachusetts AFL-CIO president, said the union will work to defeat whichever Republican candidate wins the GOP primary.
GOP candidates kick off campaigns, national TV weighs in
With just a month and a half until the primary, the candidates are wasting no time campaigning, building teams and putting their all in the sprint toward the April Primary.
Republican Candidate Michael Sullivan officially kicked off his campaign Saturday in Abington. This week we also learned Sullivan hired Richard Tisei’s former campaign manager to manage his campaign for U.S. Senate. His camp also includes former State Rep. Karyn Polito as his “campaign chairman,”
Dan Winslow (R-Norfolk) spent some time with Attleboro Patch when he came through town to meet and greet potential voters.
Winslow also got himself some national attention when MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow pointed out a discrepancy when he blasted his party last weekend for holding a straw poll at the Danversport Yacht Club. Maddow pointed out Winslow has been on the board of directors of a yacht and tennis club.
Lynch says no to advertising on WCVB-TV due to contract dispute
Congressman Lynch Friday told WCVB-TV station president and general manager Bill Fine he will not advertise on the station due to a contract dispute between the television station and its workers.
According to a statement released by the Lynch campaign, members of IBEW Local 1228, which represents more than 60 camera operators, editors, and technicians at WCVB, have been working under an extended contract for nearly two years. The last contract between the union and WCVB ended in July 2011.
Endorsements keep pouring in
This week Lynch received support, with endorsements from Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch, Norfolk County Sheriff Michael Bellotti, State Senator John F. Keenan, Majority Leader Ron Mariano, State Rep. Bruce Ayers and State Rep. Tackey Chan.
Endorsements for Markey this week included the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund, the Environmental League of Massachusetts Action Fund and the Advocacy Group MoveOn.
Both party primary elections are scheduled for April 30. The special election is scheduled for June 25.
J.Yuma
9:16 am on Sunday, March 10, 2013
Wow! - A Democrat leading in Massachusetts!,...Can you believe it?
marc bowlen
9:40 am on Sunday, March 10, 2013
The 1st thing I would do is disband all these unions as they have become gangs! They are very dangerous in the fact that they organize their groups to turn out to elect these nazi's in the Democratic Party! I guess people in Massachusetts are masochistic, they like being whipped, they are being whipped by these democrats they continue to elect! We have these groups like unions, gay rights, minority groups, abortion rights activists organizing in mass to further their insignificant agendas by turning out in mass to vote democrat then they recieve tax payer money for their programs in tax payer money from the democrats once they are elected! They don't care that these social programs that recieve tax payer money are bankrupting this country!
Mike
2:51 pm on Sunday, March 10, 2013
Union membership is in direct correlation to the middle class. When union memberships go down, the middle class declines as well. Just a fact. It's very telling you pick on gays, unions, and minorities, like a real Tea Party Republican. You should be ashamed to call equality, worker's rights, and women's health issues insignificant but I'm guessing you watch Fox News. Your Nazi reference reinforces your historical ignorance as well since the Nazi party rounded up gays and minorities and tried to kill them all, hardly a pillar of the DEM platform. Gay Americans and minority groups are not special interests and until the GOP can see that women, minority and gay people actually vote, they will continue to lose every election they can't steal.
Art Goldsmith
11:21 am on Sunday, March 10, 2013
The democratic machine does not work for the people of MA. Life time elections should stop. Make them come home and live and pay for the messed they create while they are in office. After returning to MA, I find, the only way to get a democrat out of office is to put him in jail, or they pass away. Which leads to current state of affairs. Come to the Massachusetts Miracle We have "Welfare for your daughters and jails for your sons"
Mike
2:37 pm on Sunday, March 10, 2013
Art, I know how to solve your problem. You can move to another state. Kentucky might be good for you. Or Texas. I hear your pain though. I'm really angry that my kids are gong to be paying for Bush's Iraqi Invasion - Operation Freedom (or whatever name he gave to that Halliburton Multi-Billion Dollar Hand-out) for the rest of their lives but instead of complaining like a little old man, I do something about it. I vote against the Party of Deficit Spending, the GOP. And I chose to live in a state with representation that matches MY views. You should try it!
Steve Marino
6:00 pm on Monday, March 11, 2013
WOW! Maybe you need to start watching Fox News to get some facts!
Even with 2 wars Bush peeded thru 4 trillion in 8 years, Obama has spent 6 trillion in 4!
Don't let the facts get in the way!
john
2:53 pm on Sunday, March 10, 2013
Does any of this really matter? Boehner says he has no idea how to solve the deficit issue. By the end of Obamas term it will be about 20 trillion. Local politicians can't get anything done in DC. These guys all agree that small cuts that will have no impact on the national debt are a waist of time but the first thing they do is stop White House tours.Punish the people. The USA is on a slow boat to China,disgraceful. Although I don't agree with military cuts we need to be concerned why the new state of the art fighter jets are a 1 billion apiece. We need a leader but instead we have a couple hundred non leaders.
Mike
4:05 pm on Sunday, March 10, 2013
Yes, it matters because it seems only one party is trying to get something done. Solving the deficit issue is not that hard, it's just that certain politicians, like Boehner, will not get the job done. I have a great idea for him, raise taxes on the top 1%, close loopholes that give tax credits for yachts and private jets, stop rewarding companies for sending jobs overseas and stop giving billions to oil companies that post record high profits every quarter. I know, call me crazy, no Republican in his right mind will do this and bite the very hand that feeds them. But don't lump all politicians together and pretend it's both parties. The Iraqi war "which took about nine years longer and a few trillion dollars more than expected" and those "extremely expensive in retrospect" Bush era tax cuts put us where we are now. Stop pretending it's local politicians from MA. And if you can't agree with military cuts, you're part of the problem. Look at our budget - 60% goes to military spending and trust me, it's not going to soldiers or veterans. The War machine needs to be kept in check.
john
4:47 pm on Sunday, March 10, 2013
So I take it that you think stopping the WH tours is a step in the right direction? We the people own that house,presidents are merely guests.The cost for Obamas last golfing trip was about $950,000. Do you have any concerns about that? I hear that he has had over 100 golf trips.I never said it is Ma politicins,I said they have little impact. Obama,Reid,McConnel,Boehner. 4 people are destroying this country . Why would they care? They jump on the underground private trollys that shuttle politicians around DC and have there hemroids checked at our expense. Why can't people see that we are becoming the opposite of what we claim to be trying to acomplish around the world? A dictatorship government.
Bill
5:08 pm on Sunday, March 10, 2013
Wow - I give you all exhibit A on why the same liberal dems keep getting elected in this state. So much wrong, so dumb. Do you actually believe that raising taxes on the infamous 1% will even dent the deficit? Do you not understand that entitlement programs - SS, Medicare, Medicaid and other direct payments to people represent 66% of fed spending and they are going bankrupt. I am all for cutting military spending, but it 20% of the budget - not 60%. See link below
The issue is that dems and Obama won't touch entitlements since that is their core voter so they run a smoke screen about the 1%, corporate jets and other "loopholes" Do you even know what a loophole is?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/07/everything-chuck-hagel-needs-to-know-about-the-defense-budget-in-charts/
Steve Marino
6:04 pm on Monday, March 11, 2013
Mike, please crawl out of MSNBC and breath truth!
Wally
3:02 pm on Monday, March 11, 2013
Life long politicians. A Massachusetts tradition continues.
J.Yuma
6:37 pm on Monday, March 11, 2013
Mile's politics run deep - Obama good, GOP bad, but always agenda before principle.
I am leaving to Florida Mike, but understand this - I am a law abiding citizen with kids in local school and I make a point to support local business and I'm the person you want in your community,..but I have principle and the progressives in Mass. are out of control.
You're the person who suspends a little boy because his pop-tart resembles a gun
People like you are a threat to the rights and freedoms given us by God.
When your neighbors don't share your core values - get new neighbors.
bobpadgett
9:12 am on Monday, April 8, 2013
Last election Ma. voters elected someone who will represent all the political hacks and illegal immigrants within our borders. It would be nice to have a US Senator to represent the worker's who pay the bills for the unemployed,the welfare recepients, and the illegal immigrants. MARKEY = Malarkey!
Saber Walsh
10:26 am on Monday, April 8, 2013
Markey is a ideological New Bolshevik who has the SEIU behind him.
So is anyone really surprised when we see him double-digits ahead of the "grounded, blue collar guy?" supported by trade unions when our country really hasn't much call for trades (or jobs, really)?