Rick and Christine Onofrey, Dan Allie and Chris Keefe attended the Lincoln Day Brunch sponsored by the Westfield Republican City Committee and held at the East Mountain Country Club Saturday morning. (Photo submitted)
WESTFIELD – Massachusetts GOP leaders reacted Saturday morning to news that Senate President Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) will not seek re-election when her term ends at the end of the year. The politicians attended the Westfield Republican City Committee’s Annual Lincoln Day Brunch at East Mountain Country Club.
“Now that Sen. Murray is stepping out, Vinny is going to be running a similar campaign to mine last fall. He’s been in the house for a long time,” said Senator Don Humason, Jr. (R-Westfield) referring to Viriato “Vinny” deMacedo (R-Plymouth), a former colleague of his in the House of Representatives who has served since 1999 and has announced his candidacy for Murray’s senate seat. “He was a ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee. He’s known in the State House. I think he’ll make a fine senator.”
“There are multiple elections for Senate seats coming up this fall,” Humason said. “Gail Canderas (D-Wilbraham) and Stephen Brewer (D-Barre), their seats will be up, as well, and I know several Republicans who will be running.”
Representative Nicholas Boldyga (R-Southwick) also weighed in on his colleague’s candidacy.
“Vinny does a great job promoting limited government and jobs in his district,” he said, adding that the potential for Republicans to grab more seats in the upper house is good for the state.
“It balances the legislature,” Boldyga said. “A lopsided super-majority of either party is never good. It benefits the constituents of Massachusetts.”
Saturday’s event was emceed by Humason, who started things off with a group prayer. The event served to commemorate the life of President Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President. It was also a spotlight of sorts for several candidates vying for public office this year.
Westfield native Mark Fisher, a Shrewsbury businessman and tea party candidate for governor, is considered by many to be the top challenger to Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Charlie Baker. Baker has selected Karyn Polito, a former representative also in attendance, as his running mate.
“Democrats own this state – that means they own all the problems. They can’t blame the Republicans for anything,” Fisher said after describing himself as a “full platform, no excuses necessary conservative” Republican. “Whether it’s the fraud and the abuse and the scandal in EBT cards, food stamps, illegal immigration — they own all the problems.”
“(Lincoln) told us that we can’t please all the people all the time,” he said. “There are people in the Republican Party who believe we have to have a big tent, that we have to please everybody… I subscribe to the full platform theory. We don’t have to please everyone. We appeal to everyone.”
“I’m a tea party member, and I look to the tea party to infuse life into the Republican Party. We can’t hold them at bay,” he said. “When Scott Brown ran to the middle and disenfranchised these groups, we lost. You find two things in the middle of the road: losing candidates and roadkill.”
Dan Allie, Westfield At-large City Councilor, spoke to the dozens in attendance of his efforts.
“I gathered about 1,100 signatures to repeal the gas tax being linked to inflation,” Allie said.
He also spoke of the frustration felt by many small business-owners who, he said, continually feel the squeeze from Boston.
“We try to live within our income, so we can afford to pay taxes to a government that can’t live within its own,” he said. “Why does a slight increase in taxes cost you $200, and a substantial tax cut saves you about 30 cents? Have you had enough of Beacon Hill?”
Allie also spoke of a statewide decrease in local aid under the Patrick administration.
“Our state budget has grown by $6 billion in the last five years. At the same time, local aid has been cut by $645 million,” he said. “Westfield has lost about $5 million in that time frame.”
“The individual politics or circumstances of towns, that’s for the local officials to take care of,” Fisher said. “I want to bring jobs and lower taxes and that’s equal across the entire state. I tell people I want the original core of writing, reading, and arithmetic (in education). And I add geography, for the people on Beacon Hill who think the Mass. state border ends at 128.”
Polito said that voters must “put their feet in the right places and stand firm.”
“In Massachusetts, we should be great, and great doesn’t just happen,” she said. “Ronald Reagan once asked ‘are you better off now than you were eight years ago?’ I know we can do a whole lot better.”
“Transparency and common sense rules reform,” Allie said. “Putting bills in print, putting things on a legislative calendar so that everyone — media, watchdog groups, everybody — gets to know it. Put the stuff online, put the subcommittee votes online.”
“We can barely remember what America was, when you could down anywhere within a half-hour and get a job. You could go from the shipping department to being vice president and nothing could stop you,” Allie said. “Massachusetts is 48th or 49th in cost of doing business. That’s not helping.”
“I think Republican candidates across the state have done well by saying ‘look, there is an alternative to the juggernaut that is the Democratic Party in Massachusetts’,” Humason said. “They hold the constitutional offices, the House, the Senate, and if you the voters are unhappy with the direction the state’s taking, you have the chance to elect someone not of the majority party.”
