Pre-Election Post:
Everybody’s talking about candidates they don’t like. Here’s a candidate we really like!
Ted Busiek: Young, conservative, intelligent, pro-family.
Running a great campaign for Mass. State Senate against a horrible leftist incumbent.
Snubbed by the RINO state GOP. Attacked in the media.
November 4 2016
Mass. State Senate candidate Ted Busiek.
[NOTE: Unfortunately, Ted Busiek lost the election. But we haven’t seen the last of him. And there are more like him coming!]
A big reason this year’s election season is in such turmoil is that conservatives are livid with their Republican elected officials who have sold out on so many key issues. It’s not only true in Congress, but also in many state legislatures across the country.
But there are also some outstanding Republican challengers across the country at all levels who are rock solid. We’ve decided to profile one of the best.
Ted Busiek is running for the Massachusetts Senate in central Mass. He’s up against incumbent Sen. Jamie Eldridge, a far-left ideologue who has become increasingly arrogant over the years. Eldridge has either sponsored or been a strong supporter of every radical LGBT and Planned Parenthood initiative as long as we can remember. He also got cozy with radical pro-jihad Islamists in his district. (See our 2010 report.)
Eldridge even went after MassResistance last summer! |
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Recently Ted sat town for an interview with MassResistance. You can’t help but like this guy.
Not a wishy-washy conservative
Ted is 30 years old and an uncompromising pro-family conservative. He is an Air Force veteran, very intelligent, has creative ideas, and is refreshingly fearless. Because of his pro-family stands, the state GOP has publicly snubbed him and the mainstream media regularly attacks him (though local newspapers have been pretty fair to him).
Ted is pro-life and pro-2nd Amendment. He is opposed to same-sex “marriage,” opposed to homosexuals adopting children, and opposed “transgender rights” in public accommodations (the “bathroom bill”). And unlike virtually every other elected Republican in this state, he’s not afraid to say so.
He doesn’t stop there. Seeing the insanity of the recent “gender identity” laws, he advocates getting rid of the anti-discrimination laws altogether. He has a point that most conservatives would (privately) agree with: Fifty years ago these laws were instituted because of racial segregation. But times have changed. No legitimate business would do that anymore. In recent decades these laws have been hijacked by radical groups and have become a political mechanism to sue businesses over ideology and anti-religious belief, and force their radical lifestyle on others. This is simply wrong, says Ted. And it’s time to give people a greater freedom of association.
Touching the media’s third rail – and not backing down
Back in June, when Gov. Charlie Baker was getting ready to sign the “bathroom bill” into law, Ted tweeted, “Governor, these perverts aren't who got you elected, and pandering won't make them your friends.” That got the media’s attention. But it didn’t quite activate their wrath.
The following month Ted inadvertently created a media firestorm when he tweeted support for Donald Trump that included the term “self-righteous faggots.” He actually meant it in a more general sense of “jerks,” not necessary referring to homosexuals. “Ask anybody under 40 and they’ll tell you in today’s parlance that word means somebody obnoxious and irritating,” he said. But the media went ballistic. Across the state, newspapers and TV stations reported the story in a lurid fashion.
The Boston media went ballistic. Most GOP candidates would have caved in immediately.
There were widespread calls for him to apologize. Eldridge called on him to drop out of the race. Mass. Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, an open homosexual, said that Ted would “not be a welcome addition to the state Legislature.”
Not surprisingly, the State GOP chimed in. As Boston Magazine reported,
“Obviously, Mr. Busiek’s language is completely unacceptable and does not reflect the values of the Republican Party,” GOP chairman Kirsten Hughes said. State party officials added that they do not intend to spend any time or money in Busiek’s district, and the decision to drop out will be his to make.
But Ted has refused to back down and apologize—or drop out. To him, it’s a matter of principle. He tweeted, “Rather than just adapting to it when the Left decides on a new word you're not allowed to say, try refusing to comply. Exercise free speech.”
He told the media,
I’m willing to believe that there are some who genuinely find the term hateful and hurtful. But I’m not blind to the fact that for a contingent of the [social justice warrior] word-police, the goal is to ban any words that reflect the existence of a culture which views homosexuality unfavorably. Because they’d rather that that culture, my culture, simply didn’t exist.
See more of Ted's media coverage here.
Ted’s handling of the media, particularly in candidate debates, has been very impressive, especially for a first-time candidate. He comes off very polished, unflappable, and fearless. He clearly understands that being scared is always a ticket to trouble.
Ted Busiek, Jamie Eldridge, and a third party candidate debate on local cable TV. Ted was great! Watch it here. |
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Despite media’s focus, “pocketbook issues” are a big draw locally
Although the mainstream media only wants to talk to Ted about the “culture war” issue, the people in his district are far more interested in “pocketbook” issues. So that’s where he focuses his campaign, though he doesn’t back away from any issue.
Most Republicans tend to be reticent to suggest any big changes in anything. But Ted has no shortage of creative ideas that he’s thought through pretty well.
He feels strongly about reducing or eliminating the state income tax and changing other taxes to help local manufacturing. He advocates scrapping the state EBT welfare system and bringing the programs back to the municipal level.
Other interesting ideas include getting rid of daylight savings time and repealing the ban on fireworks. He says his experience living in Canada for two years in college that the drinking age should be lowered to 18, especially if that is the legal age to serve in the military. No one can accuse him of being a typical boring candidate.
His full list of platform ideas is here.
He says that when he discusses these ideas with people in his district, he gets very positive feedback. The most common response he gets is, “Why aren’t we doing this already?”
In the military he was an Arab translator. He understands the dangers we face. He also understands the immigration problem in a way most people don’t. His fiancée is from Honduras, he’s traveled there, and he can see that stark differences in culture can make unfettered immigration ultimately unworkable and destructive.
A winnable district, though an uphill battle
His district, the Middlesex & Worcester Senate District, is in central Massachusetts and includes Marlborough, Acton, Boxborough, and surrounding towns. It’s not really as liberal as the incumbent stands reflect. It’s a mix of liberal “Cambridge” types and more conservative working-class people, including many Chinese who are traditionally socially conservative.
Sen. Eldridge does not seem to like mingling with actual constituents. But Ted enjoys it immensely. Although he spends a lot of time going door to door, all year he has focused on going to various town events and meetings where he meets lots of people. This has raised his profile considerably, he says. Also, the small local newspapers have been quite fair in their reporting of his campaign issues, unlike the larger regional and statewide media.
This should be the future of the GOP
Ted Busiek is head and shoulders over the rest of the legislature in having constructive ideas that unfortunately almost nobody wants to talk about.
He sees his campaign as sending a message to the State Republican Party, says Ted:
Trying to co-opt the Left’s positions and trying to be Democrat-like is never going to work for long in Massachusetts. In the Legislature, Republicans get elected by selling good, conservative ideas. If you’re doing the right thing, you can’t be scared of offending people. Our side has better ideas and they will shine through.
But from the beginning, the State GOP was hostile to him
Ted’s story of becoming a candidate reflects the dysfunction of the Republican Party. After years of serving on his local GOP Town Committee, this past year he decided to run for State Senate.
But when he said he was interested in running, a State Committee member told him:
Don’t run. You’re sucking up resources that should be going to more deserving places, and you’ll be wasting your time, and you’ll never win. Why would you do something so stupid as running for the State Senate?
Then, after he got in the race -- well before the “culture war” flap-- he says that the State GOP led him on about helping his campaign financially. After dozens of emails, phone calls, visits to the (lavish) state headquarters in Boston, he finally got the message. On the other hand, the Democrats give their first-time candidates huge support. It baffled him.
You’d think that the Party would say, “He’s trying to increase our market share in the State Senate. Let’s try to fill in some of the gaps for him and help him out.”
I think that we have a Party in this state that does the opposite of that. If people have an interest and they have some talents that they’re bringing to the table, we should want to give them some kind of support, fill in their gaps.
Fighting till the end
Fellows like him are the future. What the Party has been doing is self-defeating. In this day and age, having the courage to tell the truth is so rare among politicians, and so much needed.
He realizes this race is an uphill battle. He’s not only up against a fairly entrenched Democrat, but a State Republican Party where the Governor recently signed the transgender “bathroom bill,” appoints liberal Democrats to major positions in his administration, and occasionally wears rainbow lapel pins to the State House.
Ted says he “takes the long view” on change in the GOP and in society.
If you live in the Middlesex and Worcester Senate District, you can vote for Ted Busiek right now!