Jeff Perry, the Republican candidate for the Massachusetts 10th congressional district, left, and Democratic House candidate Bill Keating, take part in a debate at the New England Cable News, NECN, network studio in Newton, Mass., Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
October 14, 2010
The race for the 10th Congressional District is an interesting one in the way that there is no incumbent advantage. Because there is no incumbent it creates an opportunity from the start for both candidates to prevail. Therefore, the two party candidates running for this district Republican candidate Jeff Perry and Democratic candidate William Keating have an equal chance to win the election!
On Wednesday, October 13 these two candidates squared off in a debate on NECN, New England Cable News network studio in Newton, Massachusetts. The three independent candidates weren’t invited to participate in this debate that was hosted by NECN’s Broadside with Jim Braude. One of the independent candidates, Maryanne Lewis tried to show up at the studio but she was turned away. Even so, she claimed she would be victorious in this race because of the opening she has due to Perry and Keating’s constant fighting. She claimed, “The voters are completely disenfranchised with our current two-party system” and that “they feel the nominees will toe party lines and will adhere to a national partisan agenda.”
Inside the studio, Keating brought up the issue of Perry’s character and his incident as a Wareham police sergeant which I discussed last week during campaign scandals. But Perry fired back by telling the host Braude that he made no material misrepresentations on his 2007 application before the Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners, even though police and court records show that he did not initiate the investigation into the officer as he claimed in his answers on that application. He said that he "disclosed all material facts and, at the end of this, it's all political mudslinging."
Perry shot back at Keating by raising the issue of campaign contributions. He discussed how Keating was given a $1,545 campaign donation by a defense attorney that was representing a man who was being prosecuted on an attempted murder charge by the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office. This is controversial because Keating is the District Attorney of this county so it is sketchy as to why he would be receiving funds from someone on the “other side.” But instead of directly responding to Perry’s accusation, Keating flipped it around and asked why Perry, who is a partner in a law firm that does some criminal work, gave donations to the district attorneys on the Cape and Islands and in Plymouth County. Perry simply responded by asking “I gave money to the DA?” State records show that Perry gave to both the Plymouth County and the Cape & Islands district attorney.
A race with no incumbent candidate creates an intense battle for this district. Clearly there are a lot of issues like this hidden under the rug and these political debates will definitely continue to shed light on them! SOURCE
From what you have here it sounds like quite an intense race going on. Do you think this district favors one political party over the other which would advantage one of the candidates over the other? And do you think all these negative comments made during the debates will have a significant affect?
ReplyDeleteTo address BSchramm's comment, I would argue that this district favors the Democratic party more just by looking at who has had the seat in the House for this district. Since 1983, Massachusetts' 10th congressional district has had a Democrat represent them in the House and unless the views of the public start progressing towards the right drastically before the next election I feel it will stay this way for some time.
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