When President Obama nominated John Kerry to be the Secretary of State Democratic Rep. Ed Markey didn’t miss a beat announcing his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Most in Massachusetts assumed that Markey was a shoe-in; but that was before a charismatic ex-Navy Seal Gabriel Gomez beat the top two Republican candidates in the primary for the special election.
Gomez has been a daunting opponent for Markey who is holding a very small lead. Markey should be well ahead of Gomez and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is getting mighty worried; so concerned that they are pouring money into the race.
The DSCC is blanketing Massachusetts with a $700,000 ad buy attacking Gomez. The election is only two weeks away and the Democrats are clearly worried that Gomez will run a Scott Brown-like upset and hand the GOP another Senate seat.
Ed Markey has been in Congress going all the way back to the Nixon Administration; while Gomez, is a former Navy Seal and successful businessman and new to politics. Another concern for Markey is that Gomez is of Hispanic decent. Gomez’s parents came to this country from Columbia. Markey hasn’t been in a real election battle in decades and Gomez is running a strong campaign against the long-time incumbent.
Democrats have a huge numerical advantage in Massachusetts, but special elections generally have very low turnout. Gomez will benefit from an electorate that is older and more conservative than found in a regular general election and anything other than a strong lead in the polls puts Markey in peril. The special election will be held on June 25.
Meanwhile Markey isn’t giving Democrats much confidence as demonstrated by the huge ad buy and is expected to be augmented by involvement from other outside groups.
Trying to frighten seniors that will likely have a significant presence in the special election Democrats are accusing Gomez of planning to gut Medicare and being a foot soldier in the mythical “war on women.”
More of the same from the left; let’s hope it works as well as it did in the Scott Brown election for Edward Kennedy’s seat.
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