February 6, 2010 by Jim O'Sullivan, special to the BIR
The Jan. 19 election to succeed Paul Kirk - and Ted Kennedy - in the United States Senate was supposed to be the tripwire. The vote that launched a thousand domino campaigns, Democrats vying against Democrats for seats long held safe by Democrats, and expected to be held by Democrats long into the foreseeable.
Instead, state Sen. Scott Brown's election over Attorney General Martha Coakley has sent the state's plurality party into an unaccustomed place: the wilderness contemplative. Read more
August 1, 2009 by Jim O'Sullivan, special to the BIR
The terrain onto which the four major candidates for governor of the Commonwealth tread is one fundamentally different-looking than the turf onto which a former Justice Department official and corporate attorney named Deval Patrick trod in early 2005.
And it's not just the economy, the Obama-altered electorate, or the cultural uncertainty jolted into voters by the uncertainty of living in a post-Farrah, post-Jacko, post-Ed McMahon world.
It'll be the first election after the great Bunker Hill Day/Evacuation Day Imbroglio of 2009. Read more
Phil Johnston, Lifelong Democratic Stalwart, Has Three Passions: Politics, Fairness, Equality
August 2, 2010 by Greg O'Brien, special to the BIR
Philip W. Johnston, a former chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, always knew how to spot a winner. Read more