Gee, where have we heard this before.
Gabriel Gomez, the Republican candidate for Senate in Massachusetts, has taken to arguing lately that he is independent of the national GOP. He has vowed to be a “pain in the butt” to fellow Republicans in the Senate, and has described himself as a “green Republican” who believes that “humans are a big part of the problem” of climate change.
“I’m not tied to anybody,” Gomez said yesterday. ”I’m not tied to any rigid ideological position.” It’s an understandable message, given that he’s running in a blue state, and given that he’s trailing Dem Ed Markey in polls.
Yep, that's the old Scott Brown line, the line any Republican candidate running statewide in Massachusetts has to parrot to stand a chance at the polls. But like Brown, who faithfully lined up with Mitch McConnell on vote after vote after vote, including
filibusters, Gomez is full of it. As Greg Sargent points out in this story, Gomez is benefitting from a raft of fundraising emails from Republican senators, most recently from Marco Rubio, but particularly from none other than minority leader
Mitch McConnell. The message from Mitch?
"The Republican majority in the Senate begins with your support today."
Yeah, Gomez is going to be
totally independent if he gets to the Senate. It just so happens that he's opposed to current gun safety efforts by Democrats in the Senate, that he refuses to answer where he stands on key women's health issues, and that
he would vote to repeal Obamacare. None of that means he'd be a lockstep vote with McConnell on
every issue, just the key ones.
Please contribute $3 to Ed Markey.