People from MA, Marty Meehan is leaving. Does anyone know about this?

[babylonsister]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3160511&mesg_id=3160511

[rox63]

1. Yep, we've been seeing this coming for a while n/t

[babylonsister]

2. Thanks. First I'd heard of it. nt

[MBS]

3. yes, Globe had article today mentioning the likelihood

of his getting the chancellor position at U Mass Lowell:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/13/meehan_the_likely_selection_for_umass/

Why he would want this job is a total mystery to me, but there it is.

[TayTay]

4. Lots of good reasons

It is not fun to be in Washington right now. People spend millions of dollars to get these jobs and, frankly, sometimes it sucks to be in Congress. The Iraq War doesn't have a solution, the liberal blogs are all over Meehan to take the money he raised in-state and ship it out-of-state to other Democrats and so forth. (Really, if given a better option, a lot of Reps would leave. It's not fun there at the moment for a lot of people.)

Marty Meehan has always wanted to be a Senator. That is not going to happen. Marty has young kids and he decided that the best thing for his family was to take the UMass Lowell job and the $60,000 pay increase and stay home and have a stable, less stress filled life. Can't say as I blame him.

Hey Rox, we have to get a new Congressman. And, IMHO, this is by no means a walk for a Democrat. Anybody who tells you that doesn't live here.

[MBS]

5. academia less stressful?!

HA!! :)

I get what you mean, but soon enough Marty will get what I mean :)

[TayTay]

7. Yeah, I know.

I used to work there too in a previous life. But, right now, it does kind of suck to be in politics. Marty is giving up some real power and a chairmanship with oversight on Iraq. (And he wanted to be a Senator real bad and that ain't happening anytime soon.)

[rox63]

8. Yeah, we live in a reddish corner of Mass

I'm interested in finding out more about Nikki Tsongas' positions on the issues. It would be nice to have a woman as our congress-critter. This seat is definitely not a lock to stay blue, so the various Dems running for it will have to work hard to keep it blue.

[_dynamicdems]

6. People have been talking about it for a while.

I'm in NH, but half the folks here either work in MA or used to be from MA, so the politics of our neighbor is always a topic of conversation. The widow of Paul Tsongas is supposed to run for the seat, from what people are saying. Water cooler talk, so to speak. It must have been reported in the local papers.