Mass GOP convention nominates most extreme pro-gay Governor & Lt. Governor candidates in history
Shuns challenger who promised "pro-family" judges
Conservatives sell out in droves
POSTED: April 21, 2010
The Massachusetts Republican Party has nominated the most extreme pro-homosexual, anti-family candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor ever to run as Republicans for a state's top offices. Predictably, the results were greeted by cheers in homosexual blogs and websites across the country. The delegates to the Massachusetts State Republican Convention last Saturday overwhelmingly nominated Charlie Baker for Governor and his hand-picked running mate Richard Tisei for Lt. Governor.
As some observers put it, the RINO takeover of the Massachusetts Republican party is now complete. Vast numbers of social conservatives essentially sold out their principles in favor of the party establishment's wishes.
Charlie Baker publicly supports homosexual "marriage" and abortion. While CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care the company had a policy of supporting "gender identity or expression." In 2008 Harvard Pilgrim scored a perfect 100% from the national homosexual group Human Rights Campaign for its employment policies. (This means it even paid for employees' "sex-change" procedures!)
Baker's fiscal history is also troubling. He was Gov. Bill Weld's budget chief during the expansion of the "Big Dig" -- the most expensive public works project in history -- in the 1990s. For the last ten years Baker has made millions as head of Harvard Pilgrim, as premiums went up by several times the rate of inflation. Baker also supports the Quinn Bill, seen as a fiscal boondoggle by many conservatives.
Richard Tisei, a state senator and Baker's hand-picked running mate, is probably the most left-wing Republican officeholder in Massachusetts history. He is openly homosexual and is a co-sponsor of the radical "Transgender Rights and Hate Crimes" bill (H1728) currently in the Legislature. He strongly supports same-sex "marriage" and voted NOT to let the people vote on it. He appears in a hideous pro-homosexual "marriage" propaganda video produced by the homosexual lobby (complete with phony statistics). He has a 100% rating by NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts and a 100% rating by Planned Parenthood. He co-sponsored the expanded buffer zone bill. He also co-sponsored the "emergency contraception bill" that was vetoed by Gov. Mitt Romney. On the fiscal side, Tisei has voted against bills to reduce taxes earning him the wrath of Citizens for Limited Taxation.
Shutting out challenger who reached out to pro-family voters
Christy Mihos, the other candidate for Governor, was denied a spot on the September primary ballot as delegates flocked to Baker, leaving Mihos - who publicly reached out to pro-family voters -- with 318 out of 2,544 votes, only 11%. He needed 15% to get on the ballot.
Front page that morning. Reading the front page of that morning's Boston Globe you sort of knew what was coming at the convention.
Mihos, a self-made millionaire businessman from Cape Cod, though not completely pro-family, was the only candidate for Governor in decades willing to support conservative social issues. As a member of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, appointed by Mitt Romney, Mihos tirelessly battled the corrupt efforts by Democrats to raise tolls for pork. He gave a forceful, convincing speech.
In his speech before the convention Mihos said he would appoint only pro-family judges to the state Supreme Court, and that he would veto the "Transgender Rights and Hate Crimes" bill. And on his website Mihos said that he supports the Opt-In Parents' Rights bills.
Apparently Mihos' positions were not persuasive enough to keep large numbers of pro-family Republicans from succumbing to pressure and abandoning him at the last minute, causing him to lose his spot in the primary. Baker, on the other hand, used his speech to praise former governors Weld and Cellucci -- who gave us Margaret Marshall and other liberal judges, and greatly expanded public funding for homosexual programs in the schools.
VIDEO: Hear for yourself Christy Mihos speak on pro-family issues at Mass. Republican Convention.
How did this vote happen?
It was a combination of (1) aggressive, hardball tactics by the Republican establishment to keep Mihos out of a primary fight; and (2) apathy and intellectual laziness by pro-family Republicans and their willingness to follow orders.
From start to finish, most of the convention was choreographed to promote the Baker-Tisei campaign and persuade delegates to support that team.
(The fact that Mihos ran a weak campaign didn't help much. But he definitely would have had the votes under normal circumstances, even so.)
Some interesting things we saw at the Convention:
Ronald Reagan's "11th Commandment" about not attacking fellow Republicans was completely out the window. One would think that at a GOP convention there would be some restraint, but no.
Scott Brown for Baker. Sen. Scott Brown gave the keynote speech. One would have expected it to be neutral, but it was basically an endorsement of Baker & Tisei over Mihos. Pretty cheesy.
No candidate for state Attorney General. The Republicans didn't bother to recruit a candidate for Attorney General, so Martha Coakley has a free ride. Among a long list of pro-homosexual, pro-abortion and anti-family actions, Coakley is suing the federal government to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act. We suspect that the Republican's didn't want to have to talk about any of that.
The 2010 Republican Party Platform, though a well-crafted document, has no mention of abortion, same-sex "marriage", or other pressing social issues. You can read it HERE.
What's wrong with this picture? The MassEquality, NARAL, and the ACLU booths were right in the main area in plum spots. On the other hand, the politically conservative Massachusetts Republican Assembly table was stuck in relative Siberia, at the far end of a corridor in the back.
Real big tent. The ACLU's table was right next to Sen. Scott Brown's table, and just down from NARAL and Mass-Equality.
Wacky but slick anti-Mihos attack handout. The Baker campaign gave every delegate a very slick full-size glossy card attacking Mihos for a remark he made in 2006 when he ran for Governor as an Independent, that he would support Deval Patrick. The card highlighted two quotes from Mihos:
"I'm not part of the establishment Republican Party, and I had to move on and do what I think is right. The party has morphed into what the Democrats are; they are both controlled by special interests." - Boston Globe, 3/2/2006
"People are checking out because what the Republicans are selling people aren't buying. . . . People are leaving these parties because there's not a dime's worth of difference between the two of them." - Gubernatorial debate, 9/5/2006
Sounds about right to us. We think that a lot of grassroots Republicans would agree.
Below: Anti-Mihos card given to every convention delegate..
Why no opponent for Tisei? Even though he is widely disliked, no one ran against him. We were told that at least one potential candidate was "strongly dissuaded" by the Party and decided to run for another office instead. For about a week MassResistance tried to find someone -- anyone -- to run against Tisei at the convention. We heard a million excuses from people. No one would even make calls. There was a lot of fear of the Republican establishment.
Nasty speech by Kerry Healey. Former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey wins the prize for the nastiest speech of the day. She was on the stage to nominate Baker but basically just lashed into Mihos for running against her as an Independent in 2006. In particular Healey, who hosted a Planned Parenthood event at the 2006 convention, blasted Mihos for not being a good enough Republican!
A bright spot: the State Auditor race. The only primary race coming out of the convention is for auditor, between Mary Connaughton and Kamal Jain. Mary has the odd distinction of (1) being the only State Auditor candidate in memory who's actually an auditor; and (2) has stood up to hostile state agencies in the past and demanded that the public see their books. Go, Mary!!
Baker runs away from conservative label. The Transgender bill issue caused a huge uproar, especially after Mihos mentioned it. After his speech Baker, when pressed by the Globe, said that he'd veto the Transgender Bill but that he didn't want to be seen as anything but a social liberal. As the Boston Globe reported:
Baker, who supports gay marriage and abortion rights, denied that he was trying to court social conservatives. "I think a guy who supports gay marriage and is pro-choice and has been pretty clear on those and picked a gay fella as his running mate is pretty much not pandering to much of anybody,'' Baker said, putting a hand on Tisei's shoulder.
MassResistance not welcome. So what's new? When our people got there the convention staff apparently took notice. During Tisei's speech a convention official approached MassResistance blogger Amy Contrada and snidely challenged her and asked who she was, as she was taking video. Never mind that there were dozens of others in that area videoing it, plus the press. And Amy was an official delegate. Well, somebody's got to tell it like it is.
We warned you that this would happen
Back in December and January all the major pro-life groups in Massachusetts vigorously campaigned that Scott Brown if elected "would be a pro-life vote in the US Senate" - despite Brown's numerous public statements that he is "pro-choice."
MassResistance wrote that the message that sent to all Republicans was that all you have to do is not be as terrible as the Democrat and the pro-family movement would abandon their principles and fall into place. It would accelerate the death of the Massachusetts pro-family movement.
These are the fruits of that effort. And the conservative movement has only itself to blame, and if we don't stop this it will get worse.
If Baker and Tisei are elected, the state will surely reflect their strong support for the homosexual movement, abortion, and the RINO establishment.
