A Cahill aide writes in response to Michael Graham’s piece yesterday:
Dear Rich,
I am writing regarding Michael Graham’s piece on Treasurer Tim Cahill yesterday.
I will concede Cahill is not down the line on every issue of conservative orthodoxy, but Graham’s article finds Cahill wanting because he compares him to a hypothetically perfect conservative candidate. The only fair way to appraise Cahill is to juxtapose him with the liberals that the Republicans are actually offering, Charlie Baker and Richard Tisei, not with theoretical conservative avatars who are not on the ballot.
There was no mention of that fact that Baker is pro-abortion, is a gun grabber who calls himself a “Bill Weld Republican” (Weld endorsed Obama), was one of the intellectual godfathers of Romneycare, (the pilot program for Obamacare), was the CEO in charge of financially structuring “The Big Dig,” a.k.a. the biggest fiscal disaster in state history. Nor was there any mention of the fact that Tisei was the only Republican to vote against the income tax rollback last year, that he’s got a 100 percent NARAL rating, is a co-sponsor of the “trans-gender bathroom bill,” etc.
There are a few other things that bear correction. I’ll try to be quick:
Cahill “has no organization behind him”: Cahill’s running as an Independent, but he has 70 percent name ID in the state, has $1.5 million dollars more in the bank than his nearest opponent, has been elected twice statewide, and has had 13,000 people sign up to volunteer since September.
“If this trend continues, Cahill is going to face the question that kills almost every independent candidacy when the two major parties have competitive candidates: Who needs you?”: Actually, the “trend” shows that Cahill has jumped four points since the last Rasmussen poll was taken in March while Baker has dropped five points within the same time frame, putting the two candidates in a statistical tie for second place.
Finally, I’d like to answer Graham’s question of who needs Cahill. The answer is, blue-collar Democrats, but also conservatives like Graham who should be sick of backing liberal Republicans that will sell them out when convenient. Also independents who want their taxes lowered and deficit hawks who want to slash the size of government rather than just trim it around the edges. Anyone who wants an alternative to a Democratic party that is run by its most extreme left wing and a Republican party that is run by a feckless, unprincipled establishment. They all need Cahill.
The bottom line is, there is one ticket running for governor of Massachusetts with a conservative message this year, fiscally or otherwise, and it ain’t the Republicans. It’s the Independent, Treasurer Tim Cahill.