Massachusetts and the Nation Vote

Healey, Campbell, and other Democrats sweep statewide races; local legislative delegation reelected; Republicans hold on in Plymouth County

Massachusetts, like the rest of the nation, went to the polls last Tuesday, and the results are in. Without recapitulating everything — The Boston Globe and The Associated Press traditionally provide the best nuts-and-bolts coverage of Massachusetts election results; the AP typically contacts Town Clerks to obtain their numbers, and I have used both as the sources for this article — we will focus on the races that this newspaper has covered and found relevant to our main interests, namely, the preservation of the common lands, waters, and rights of the several Towns of Plymouth County.

“Dux Femina Facti”¹: Healey and Campbell lead Statewide Dems to Victory

    At the level of our state constitutional officers, it was a ground-breaking night for the Commonwealth, and a triumphant one for Democrats. With the election of Attorney General Maura Healey as Governor and Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll as Lt. Governor; of Boston City Councillor Andrea Campbell as Attorney General; of Methuen State Sen. Diana Dizoglio as Auditor; and the re-election of Deborah Golberg as Treasurer, five of the six constitutional officers of the Commonwealth are women.

Sec. of State William Galvin, of Brighton, was also reelected.

The Healey-Driscoll ticket beat the Diehl-Allen ticket by landslide margins across Massachusetts, receiving, according to the Associated Press, 1,542,340 votes, or 63.5% of the vote, to 847,543 votes, or 34.9% for the GOP ticket. Libertarian candidate Kevin Reed received 1.6% of the vote.

( Governor-Elect Maura Healey; photo credit — Wikimedia Commons. )

Though the Democratic ticket triumphed across the state, Diehl and Allen ran strong in Plymouth County. Diehl carried a number of communities, especially a large swathe of traditionally Republican “Swamp Yankee” Towns of interior southeastern Massachusetts: his own Whitman, alongside East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, Bridgewater, Hanover, Hanson, Pembroke, Halifax, Middleborough, Lakeville, Rochester, Carver, and Plympton.

Maura Healey, meanwhile, carried the coastal portions and more urbanized portions of the County, from the outskirts of metropolitan Boston, to Brockton, to the coves and marshes of the South Coast. Healey won in Hull, Hingham, Scituate, Norwell, Rockland, Abington, Brockton, Marshfield, Duxbury, Kingston, Plymouth, Wareham, Marion, and Mattapoisett.

The Political Geography of Massachusetts and Plymouth County

This was not unexpected; Diehl not only hails from Whitman, but Plymouth County and southeastern Massachusetts from Sandwich north and west form one of the traditional heartlands of Republican support in the Commonwealth.

In general, if one looks at the political geography of Massachusetts going back to the 18th century, it is a story of two grand electoral alliances: the metropolitan core and the furthest periphery in alliance against the semi-periphery.

That is why it is typical to see Democrats do extremely well inside Rt. 128, in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, Chelsea, etc., as well as extremely well in Western Massachusetts and Cape Cod (frequently the two geographical extremes of the Commonwealth, Williamstown in the northwestern corner, and Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod, vie for “most Democratic Town” by share of votes cast).

Meanwhile, Republicans tend to do well in the semi-periphery: a vast semi-circle incorporating suburban and rural parts of southeastern Massachusetts (Plymouth and Bristol Counties, for the most part), the Worcester Hills, and parts of the Merrimack Valley/North Shore.

    Locally, what is notable is the trend of often well-to-do² coastal Towns realigning from the Republican to the Democratic column. Healey, remarkably, carried not only Duxbury, traditionally a rock-ribbed Republican Town prior to about the mid-2010s, but also Norwell, which remains relatively Republican-leaning in its orientation.

    As we shall see, however, the votes of these latter communities on other issues suggests that it was distaste for Diehl’s campaign — at once extremist and aimless, fire-eating but listless, and also weirdly lazy — that helped Healey carry these Towns.

     Andrea Campbell trod a similar path to Healey at the statewide level, with the AP reporting that Campbell received 1,499,194 votes, or 62.6% of the vote, to GOP candidate James McMahon’s 896,713 votes, or 37.4% of the vote.

     In Plymouth County, however, Campbell ran behind Healey, carrying Hull, Hingham, Scituate, Norwell, Rockland, Abington, Brockton, Duxbury, Plymouth, Marion, and Mattapoisett. McMahon carried Whitman, East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, Bridgewater, Middleborough, Lakeville, Rochester, Wareham, Carver, Plympton, Kingston, Halifax, Hanson, Pembroke, Hanover, and Marshfield.

A Good Night for the Local Delegation

Our local legislative delegation were all returned to office, with incumbents of both parties being sent back to Beacon Hill by their constituents.

Rep. Josh Cutler (D-Pembroke), whose Sixth Plymouth District includes all of Duxbury and Pembroke, and portions of Hanson, Halifax, and Marshfield, was reelected. Mr. Cutler received 11,964 votes, or 55.9% of the votes, to GOP challenger Kenneth Sweezey, of Hanson’s 11,964 votes, or 44.1% of the vote, according to the AP.

Duxbury, Pembroke, and Marshfield’s two precincts in the district all voted for Rep. Cutler. Hanson’s two precincts in the district, and Halifax’s one precinct, were carried by Mr. Sweezey.

In the neighboring Twelfth Plymouth District, centered around Kingston and North Plymouth, but containing pieces of Pembroke, Halifax, Plympton, and Middleborough, incumbent Democratic Rep. Kathleen LaNatra was reelected by the voters, receiving 10,402 votes, or 52.2% of the total votes, compared to Republican hopeful Eric Meschino’s 43.6% of the vote, according to the AP. Independent Charles McCoy received 843 votes, or 4.2% of the vote.

Rep. LaNatra carried her own Town of Kingston, and the precincts of Plymouth, Plympton, and Pembroke that fall within the 12th district. Mr. Meschino won the Middleboro and Halifax precincts in the district.

Moving south to the First Plymouth District, which includes most (13 precincts) of the Town of Plymouth, incumbent Republican Rep. Matthew Muratore was reelected, receiving 12,311 votes, or 58% of the total, to Democratic challenger Stephen Michael Palmer’s 8,930 votes, or 42% of the total. Rep. Muratore carried his own Town of Plymouth.

In a sign that the divisions on the South Shore are not always, strictly speaking, partisan, Reps. Cutler and LaNatra, who are Democrats, endorsed Rep. Muratore, a Republican. For his part, Rep. Muratore endorsed Reps. Cutler and LaNatra against their Republican challengers.

Mr. Palmer, the Democratic candidate in the district, perplexed many local observers when, at this Fall’s WATD candidates’ debate, he delivered his opening statement and proceeded, without warning, to walk out of the debate.

The local delegation, in my view, were rewarded by voters for diligently attending to their interests – for example, attempting on several occasions to bring legislation to impose a moratorium on any radioactive or other kinds of dumping into our Bays.

Republicans Hold On In Plymouth County

    At the regional/county level, it was a far worse night for Democrats. The “red wave” that did not materialize nationally or statewide was in evidence in Plymouth County.

    Alex Bezanson, Democrat of Abington, came up short in his race to unseat Bridgewater Republican and current Chair of the Plymouth County Commission. Mrs. Wright received 109,861 votes, or 54.5% of the vote, to Mr. Bezanson’s 91,564 votes, or 45.5% of the vote.

Mr. Bezanson carried three communities in Plymouth County: Hull, Marion, and Brockton. Mrs. Wright carried every other community.

Regular readers may be aware that this publication was hopeful that Bezanson would best Wright, and worked towards that end. Mr. Bezanson, whose opponent, Carlos Da Silva, we supported in the Democratic Primary, was an opponent of a casino and a respecter of local democracy; Mrs. Wright was manifestly not. Her victory, on which she is to be congratulated, does not change the fact that a casino/race track remains impossible to build under current state and local statute, no matter how furiously and undemocratically the County government might seek to impose one.

  As an historian, I was taught to always seek out causes, deep contexts, contingent factors, and more, that help explain current events. I will attempt to do so here:

 A number of factors worked against Bezanson.

  The first factor is what I would call the increasing nationalization of our politics, combined with the genuine extremism and strangeness of the Diehl campaign. A contradiction was born: people, understandably angry at the party in power nationally at declining economic and social conditions, wished to vote against it; but the candidate offered up by the opposition party was so extreme that many of these same angry voters found themselves forced to put aside their misgivings and vote for Healey. Meanwhile, that anger was visited somewhere else, upon down ballot Democrats in favor of down ballot Republicans, especially in races that aren’t perceived to “matter” – which, unfortunately, is the view of many voters’ regarding County-level races like Commissioner and District Attorney. Unable to punish the Democratic Party through Maura Healey, they did so via Rahsaan Hall and Alex Bezanson.

   A second, and I must say a surprising and disappointing factor, was that some of Bezanson’s fellow Democrats, including party stalwart, my own former State Rep. and current Plymouth County Treasurer Tom O’Brien, of Kingston, supported Commissioner Wright, a conservative Republican. I do think it notable and indeed, unusual, when a member in good standing of the local Democratic establishment refuses to support a candidate from his own party against one from the opposition who is manifestly opposed to local democracy and the rights of the several Towns (cf. Article 89, Constitution of Massachusetts) to self-government.

  Brockton Attorney Rahsaan Hall was likewise unable to dislodge longtime Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz. Mr. Hall, the Democratic candidate, received 76,120 votes, or 36.8% of the vote, while Mr. Cruz, the GOP incumbent, received 130,638 votes, or 63.2% of the vote, according to the AP.

  Hall’s restorative justice-based campaign was the first serious challenge in a long while for Cruz. Hall carried Brockton, while Cruz carried every other community in Plymouth County. Despite — or rather, because of — Hall’s exceptionally hard-working and thoughtful campaign, money from the Charlie Baker-linked super PAC Massachusetts Majority poured into the race, handing Cruz a significant advantage.

On the most closely fought of the ballot questions, Question 1, which would impose a 4% tax on income over one million dollars, the only Plymouth County community to support the measure was Brockton. The other 26 communities voted against the Question.

   On the whole, it was a well-fought election, and congratulations is to be extended to all the winning and the losing candidates and their supporters. Democracy is a group activity, and it does not work unless we all participate.

  County Commissioners, District Attorneys, and State Legislators will be sworn in on Jan. 4th. Maura Healey and Kim Driscoll will be inaugurated as Governor and Lieutenant Governor on Jan. 5th. The new Attorney General, Auditor, Treasurer, and Sec. of State will be sworn in on Jan. 18th.

1. “A woman was the author of the achievement”; Virgil, The Aeneid, Book I, Line 364. The Latin phrase originally referred to the deeds of Dido, the first Queen of Carthage.

2. There are exceptions, such as your comparatively impecunious correspondent. Indeed, Duxbury was always divided, in the mind of my youth, into “the Yacht Club side” and “the cranberry side” of Town. These were approximations, archetypes, that contained exceptions and anomalies, but that spoke broadly of social realities in late 20th century Duxbury.