News reports from the final debate between Democrat Ed Markey and Republican Gabriel Gomez conclude that Gomez, a first-time candidate and self-styled "new kind of Republican," delivered a strongperformance. With just days left in the campaign before the June 25 special election for Senate, Gomez has trailed Markey, a 37-year veteran of the House, in every single poll. Markey currently leads by average of more than 9 points.
But in the debate Tuesday night, Gomez hit Markey hard on the Democrat's long Washington tenure, a running theme in the Republican's campaign. Here's an excerpt from the Boston Globe's report:
Gomez, the Republican nominee, is trailing in the polls and in need of a jolt to shake up the race. He all but pleaded with voters to give him a shot at serving the remainder of John F. Kerry’s Senate term.
“I ask you to give me 17 months, and see if I’ve kept my word,” he said in his closing statement. “And if I have, then you can reelect me. And if I haven’t, then vote me out.”
He repeatedly argued that electing his Democratic rival to the Senate, after 37 years in the House, would only continue the gridlock in Washington.
“Nothing’s going to change if Mr. Markey wins this election,” Gomez said. “We’re going to have the same D.C. down there and the same dysfunction. The only thing we’re going to have is him moving from one building to the next.”
As Joanna Weiss, a Globe columnist, put it, "when Gomez says, “Give me 17 months” — and promises to fix all of Washington in that time — a part of you wants to dare him to try."
The Gomez campaign released a web video of the Republican's best moments in the debate:
A new poll from Suffolk University finds Democratic congressman Ed Markey with a seven-point lead ahead of this month's special election for the U.S. Senate in Massachsuetts. In a survey of 500 likely voters, Markey received 48 percent support, while his Republican opponent, businessman and retired Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez, received 41 percent support.
A Republican polling firm has found that the Massachusetts special election for the U.S. Senate is in a dead heat. Democrat Ed Markey, the longtime congressman, leads Republican and first-time candidate Gabriel Gomez by just a point. According to McLaughlin and Associates, a firm that often works for Republican candidates, 45 percent of likely voters in Massachusetts support Markey, while 44 percent support Gomez and 11 percent remain undecided. The election is on June 25.
Off the top of his head, Democratic Senate candidate Ed Markey of Massachusetts can't think of a tax increase proposed by his party that he's opposed. Speaking to reporters, Markey, a longtime member of the House of Representatives, couldn't say if he'd voted against an income tax increase.
"Are there areas where you've broken with your party leadership where they've pushed for some kind of tax increase and you've said no?" a reporter asked Markey.
Republican Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez continues to poll within single digits of his opponent, Democratic congressman Ed Markey, in the special election for Senate in Massachusetts. According to a new poll from PPP, first reported by BuzzFeed, Markey leads Gomez, a political newcomer, by 7 points, 48 percent to 41 percent.
As BuzzFeed points out, Markey may be shoring up the Democratic vote after a divisive Democratic primary:
Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey, his party's nominee for Senate in next month's special election, asked a former House colleague not to show up to a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. earlier this week. A Markey staff member reportedly called Ben Jones, a former Democratic congressman from Georgia who also starred as Cooter in the television show The Dukes of Hazzard, to disinvite him from a fundraiser.
Democrat Terry McAuliffe leads his Republican opponent, Ken Cuccinelli, in the latest poll of the 2013 gubernatorial race in Virginia. According to Quinnipiac, 43 percent of registered voters in the Old Dominion support McAuliffe, a businessman and former chairman of the Democratic party during from 2001 to 2005, while 38 percent support Cuccinelli, the state's attorney general.
Ahead of his official nomination this week as the GOP's candidate for governor of Virginia, state attorney general Ken Cuccinelli has a new ad outlining part of the Republican's economic plan.
"I have a plan to make Virginia an engine for job growth," Cuccinelli says in the 30-second spot. "It starts with ending tax loopholes and putting an end to special interest giveaways." He touts his proposal to lower tax rates for small business owners and middle-class families.
It's been a roller coaster of a special election in South Carolina's First Congressional District, and about 24 hours before the polls close, the race for the House seat once held by Senator Tim Scott looks to be a close one.
Gabriel Gomez, the Republican candidate for Senate in Massachusetts's special election next month, has released his first ad. The spot is a biographical introduction for the political newcomer, a collection of snippets from Gomez's GOP primary victory speech last week and TV news reports about his candidacy.
"An aircraft carrier pilot, a Navy SEAL, Harvard business school grad," explains one newscaster in the ad.
"A new kind of Republican," says another. Watch the ad below:
Republican attorney general Ken Cuccinelli leads Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor's race by 10 points, according to a poll released Sunday by the Washington Post. Among likely voters in this November's election, 51 percent said they would support Cuccinelli, while 41 percent said they would support McAuliffe.
The special election campaign for Senate in Massachusetts is only a few days old, but it's already looking close. A new PPP poll shows Democrat Ed Markey leading his Republican opponent, Gabriel Gomez, by only four points. Here's more from PPP:
PPP's first poll of the general election in the Massachusetts Senate special finds a close race, with Ed Markey leading Gabriel Gomez by a 44-40 margin.
The first independent poll of next months' special Senate election in Massachusetts shows Democrat Ed Markey with a six-point lead over Republican Gabriel Gomez. The Wall Street Journal has the details:
Ed Markey, the 19-term Democratic representative and dean of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, will face political newcomer Gabriel Gomez, a Republican, in next month's special election for the U.S. Senate.
In the primary elections held Tuesday, Markey handily defeated rival congressman Stephen Lynch for the Democratic nomination to succeed fellow Democrat John Kerry, who resigned from the Senate upon being confirmed for secretary of state. The 66-year-old liberal Democrat from Malden has held a significant lead in the polls over any GOP challenger.
The first television ad from Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli features his wife, Teiro. In the ad, Mrs. Cuccinelli focuses on the softer side of the Republican attorney general's political career.