02.01.2023/Breaking News
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End of an Error: Beleaguered MassGOP gives walking papers to controversial chief
They didn’t drink the Kool-Aid after all.
Jim “Jones” Lyons’ catastrophic reign as head of the state’s Republican Party came to a merciful end Tuesday night in a meeting room over a bowling alley in Marlborough.
The MassGOP’s state committee voted 37-34 to elect Amy Carnevale, a state committeewoman from Marblehead, as party chair, replacing the irascible Lyons, who oversaw a series of disastrous defeats at the ballot box.
The meeting, which the nearly bankrupt state party held at The Apex, a bowling alley and entertainment center, capped the end of a long and bitter battle for control of the state Republican party.
Humble pie: With their party dead broke, MassGOP members met at a Marlborough bowling alley Tuesday night to choose their new leader
Lyons helped derail now former Gov. Charlie Baker’s hopes of running for a third term, cheering on Trump’s endorsement of former state Rep. Geoff Diehl.
One of the most clueless gubernatorial candidates in recent memory, Diehl doubled down on Trump in a state where the man is reviled. Struggling to raise any kind of cash, Diehl blew more than $100,000 on Trump political henchman Corey Lewandowki, who served as a “senior advisor.”
Some advice. Diehl won his party’s nomination only to get his derriere soundly kicked by now Gov. Maura Healey.
But if Diehl was simply clueless, Lyons was far worse, earning the nickname Jim “Jones” Lyons from Howie Carr after the infamous 1970s cult leader who led his flock to their demise in a mass suicide.
Lyons championed Trump and pushed the MassGOP to the fringes of the wacky far-right in a state where moderate Republicans like Baker have been winning elections for decades.
And in one of his more memorable moves, Lyons shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to investigate Healey’s sex life - and then stiffed the opposition research firm that did the work.
Way to go, Jim.
Democrats feasted on his mistakes, capturing all statewide offices and expanding their already overwhelming majority on Beacon Hill.
Lyons kept the crazy going right up until the closing days of his reelection campaign, pushing an improbable sounding $5 million lawsuit against Republican party moderates for allegedly sabotaging his brilliant leadership.
But when the end came for Lyons on Tuesday night, it was anti-climatic, taking two rounds of voting over a couple hours.
The roughly 200 party members and activists who turned out for the momentous meeting gave a round of applause after one state committee member remarked on the lack of rancor during the deliberations.
In brief remarks, Carnevale, the MassGOP’s new chief, pledged to work on rebuilding the stricken state party.
She’s no moderate, but Carnevale clearly brings a more even handed and far less acrimonious approach to the key post.
We wish Carnevale luck. For with less than $100,000 in the state party’s coffers, she going to need luck - and a whole lot more.
Boston business leaders to Beacon Hill: Show us the money!
State legislative leaders are sitting on a mountain of cash right now.
And Greater Boston’s captains of industry want to see some of that tax money coming back into their own coffers.
The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and the Massachusetts Society of CPAs went public early Wednesday morning with a proposal to lower the tax load on local businesses and executives.
Among the proposals made by the two business groups:
Taking the edge off the newly minted millionaire’s tax, including credit for taxes paid in other states and hiring a consulting firm to study the impact of the new levy.
Hike the threshold for the estate tax in Massachusetts from $1 million, currently one of the lowest in the nation, to $5 million.
Lower the short-term capital gains tax rate to 5 percent. On the long-term rate, either reduce it to less than 5 percent, or reintroduce the pre-2022 rules that phased out the tax the longer the asset is held.
It will be interesting to see if Gov. Maura Healey bites on any of this.
Stay tuned.
What is Contrarian Boston?
I have fielded emails over the past several months asking what Contrarian Boston is about.
Here’s a link to our mission statement – you can find it in the “about” section.
For a more prosaic, nuts-and-bolts description, read on.
An online newsletter, Contrarian Boston publishes every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. In Contrarian Boston you’ll find analysis of the day’s news, and original reporting as well.
Our focus is:
· Politics and all levels of governance, good and bad, with an emphasis on state and local, with some national mixed in;
· Economic growth and business, especially real estate, housing and new development projects;
· The media and why it does what it does;
· Education, from school board spats to the doings of multibillion-dollar university endowments;
· And whatever else catches our fancy.