Joe Curtatone is on the market.
Proper now, the longtime mayor of Somerville is the main candidate for the Democrat nomination for governor in 2022 — and he has not even introduced.
Nor has he put collectively a fundraising operation or begun organizing for a statewide marketing campaign.
Nonetheless, a Boston Herald story final week on Curtatone’s rising criticism of Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s dealing with of the coronavirus pandemic caught the eye of lots of people.
One purpose why the story by Joe Battenfeld went dashing by means of the political system is that Baker, a RINO, is standard amongst Democrats each on the State Home and across the state. No one challenges him.
Democrats don’t assault Baker as a result of they contemplate him one in every of them, regardless of get together registration, and so they love working with him.
Another excuse that Curtatone, 56, caught the eye of the political class is that he’s the primary Democrat to point that he’s keen to take Baker on in 2022, if Baker seeks a 3rd four-year time period as governor.
Ought to Baker not run once more — and a case could possibly be made why he wouldn’t — Curtatone would have executed a lot to make him the frontrunner amongst potential Democratic candidates.
Nevertheless, Legal professional Common Maura Healey and even Boston Mayor Marty Walsh might need one thing to say about that. Democrat Healey, being the primary brazenly homosexual legal professional common, might be beneath quite a lot of stress to run for governor in 2022.
Baker, in the meantime, worn out by the job, and by protesters outdoors his residence in Swampscott, could also be eager about taking a kind of million-dollar-a-year jobs that huge pharma or huge medication would provide him. And who may blame him?
Baker, 64, was president and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Well being Care earlier than changing into governor, a job that may be trying fairly good throughout these days of turmoil, uncertainty and unrest.
Mayors don’t grow to be governors in Massachusetts, although. The final one to attempt was Boston Mayor Kevin White 50 years in the past, and he had his head handed to him by Republican Gov. Frank Sargent.
Neither do sitting Democrat attorneys common fare a lot better. Healey’s predecessor, Martha Coakley, was defeated for governor by Baker in 2014.
And the gubernatorial candidacies of then-Democrat attorneys common Scott Harshbarger and Tom Riley additionally went down in flames. Even Frank Bellotti, a former legal professional common on the time, was defeated within the 1990 Democrat gubernatorial main.
All these unsuccessful gubernatorial candidates have been, a technique or one other, conventional Massachusetts Democratic liberals, the best way former Gov. Michael Dukakis, elected governor 3 times, was. Not like the others, although, Dukakis initially ran not as a mayor or an legal professional common, however as a former legislator.
That apart, the Democrat Occasion has swung to this point to the left that it’s uncertain that any of them may even be elected to something as we speak.
In comparison with them and the normal liberal Democratic Occasion requirements that they represented, Curtatone is a far-out leftist radical.
Curtatone has extra in frequent with progressive U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley than he does with former Rep. Mike Capuano, the person she beat, and the person who mentored Curtatone in Somerville. Curtatone adopted Capuano as mayor.
Curtatone is a staunch progressive who made Somerville a sanctuary metropolis lengthy earlier than it grew to become a preferred Democrat speaking level, He brags about turning the one-time working class metropolis into probably the most progressive metropolis within the state. He not solely desires the MBTA to be environment friendly, however he desires it to be free as nicely.
Curtatone was anticipated to succeed Capuano in Congress, when Capuano was hopefully elected governor or to the Senate, neither of which occurred. As an alternative, Capuano was unseated by Pressley.
Now it seems that it’s Curtatone’s time to run.
In any case, how lengthy are you able to be mayor of Somerville? Curtatone was elected in 2004 at age 37 and has been mayor ever since. Earlier than that he was an alderman for eight years.
In the meantime, Curtatone has gone after Baker on the coronavirus pandemic the best way Joe Biden went after President Donald Trump. It labored for Biden.
He did it once more on Sunday throughout an interview with Jon Keller on WBZ-TV. “We are able to’t depend upon a authorities that has failed us,” he mentioned.
One technique to repair it’s to grow to be governor.
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