An overlooked fact in the MA election

[gaspee]

MA has never had a female Senator. MA has never had an *elected* female governor.

Romney beat a woman for governor.

Food for thought.

My state, RI, is almost as bad at electing female politicians as our neighbors to the north. Women you think can't lose, get their butts kicked by bad male candidates.

I don't understand how it happens - I've lived in Texas, Florida, San Francisco and RI and I don't find the northeast to be any more or less sexist than the rest of the country. Maybe it's not even significant but I find it very interesting. We got our biggest asshole in the universe current governor when he beat a woman in 2002 (reelected against a man in 2006)

Maybe it's just coincidence or maybe Coakley was just a bad candidate.

Edited to add -- woohoo - never had a negative rec before! Fuckwad.

[Justitia]

1. That is interesting. Here in TX, we've had women in both positions, from both parties.

Gov Ann Richards, we miss you!

And of course we suffer w/Sen Big Hair - Kay Bailey Hutchison.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. Romney beat a woman?

Surely someone should have reported that to the police.

[Kurt Remarque]

3. yada yada yada....dems just blew it. not pretty

[saracat]

4. Another way to try to blame women, or jnust another way to take the onus of defeat

off the bad policy of the leadership? Rahm, Reid crafted this little debacle with WH approval. it isn't anybody's fault but theirs and the Democratic Party. When Democrats are Democrats, we win. When Democrats pander, we lose.Truman pointed that out years ago but some can't learn from experience.

[gaspee]

8. Uh...

Not blaming women at all - blaming the assholes who won't vote for a woman.

[gaspee]

9. I also think

Coakley was not a good candidate. It was a horrible campaign. I blame the rightward shift of the party more than anything else.

As a radical feminist, lesbian, socialist, I would be the last one to blame women. I was pretty glib with my last post, but I do think there is a 10 foot thick glass ceiling out there and it's going to take a generation before women can win a fair share of seats, governorships and the presidency.

[Alexander]

5. Yet Hillary Clinton won against Obama in the presidential primary in 2008.

I think the main problem with Massachusetts is the female candidates for the major statewide offices are simply terrible at getting elected.

-Jane Swift, the unelected governor, saw her approval ratings plummet after she used state staffers and helicopters for family use.

-Shannon O'Brien, who ran against Romney, was horrible during the debates. She failed to effectively question Romney's record on abortion, and her asking Tim Russert if he wanted to see her tattoo was nothing short of awful.

-Coakley took this race completely for granted and went on vacation to the Caribbean in the middle of an election. She only defeated the other Democrats in the primary by virtue of running out the clock, since there were really only 3 months to campaign. She probably figured the same thing would happen against Brown.

In both this race and the 2002 gubernatorial race, the outcome was fairly close. Both O'Brien and Coakley only lost by about 4-5 points or so. When Hillary Clinton trounced Obama in Massachusetts, it was a 16-point rout. Not even close.

[eridani]

6. I'm thinking that the state legislature corruption was probably relevant

At least that is what a number of MA posters have said here.

[OneBlueSky]

7. no, but they've had a black senator . . . and long before it was as accepted . . .

as it is today . . .so the MA voters are not averse to electing someone "different", i.e. not a white male . . .