Back in 2004, the Red Sox finally won the World Series. The headline on Boston.com: "When pigs fly, when hell freezes over". Well that same headline could have been used when Massachusetts did something that it rarely does -- elect a Republican senator! Scott Brown, a Republican, won the special election to fill the seat left vacant upon Sen. Ted Kennedy's death. We have elected Republican governors, but the last Republican senator from MA was Ed Brooke who served from 1967 to 1979. According to his Wikipedia biography, he was the first African-American senator elected by popular vote.
Many people believe that MA is a very liberal state. In some ways that may be true, but voter registration statistics disagree. According to the site DemocraticUnderground, there are 4,220,488 registered voters (as of 2008). Of those voters, 2,141,878 are listed as Independents (no party affiliation), 1,559,464 as Democrats, 490,259 as Republicans, and 28,887 as one of the many third parties. If anything, Independents and third party members are increasing.
Third parties include but are not limited to: the Conservative Party, Natural Law Party, Green Party USA, We The People, and the Constitution Party. The amount of Independent and third party voters is not surprising considering that MA is the cradle of the American Revolution.
Massachusetts also provides a variety of contrasts. There are old mill and factory communities, fishing communities, and country hamlets in addition to old cities. Our public transportation system is the oldest in the U.S. and its blue line was the first subway line to travel underground across water. It connects downtown Boston with East Boston and some communities on the North Shore.
I look forward to sharing more information with you about the beautiful state of MA and its residents.
Alan Cohen
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