Jeff Beatty campaign update

News From The Trail
From Jeffbeatty.com

JEFF BEATTY IS ON A ROLL!!!

1. Jeff Beatty, Republican Nominee for United States Senate will appear at a Pep Rally on Friday, October 24, 2008 at 5:30 p.m. Beatty will join his supporters for a rally at Lincoln Square, Worcester, MA. 01610. The Rally will kick off his tour of Massachusetts, where he will spread his vision of leadership to the citizens of Massachusetts.

2. Next, Jeff Beatty will join Jim Braude and Margery Eagan on Monday, October 27, 2008 for the only radio debate in the United States Senate Race. The debate will be held at Boston's 96.9 WTKK, 55 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125 at 1 p.m., and will be rebroadcast at 7:00 p.m. Beatty Volunteers will be holding a tailgate party before the debate, everyone is welcome!

3. Lastly, be among the first to view a new and powerful commercial that is now posted on http://www.jeffbeatty.com/. This is an important campaign, and with your support, we can defeat John Kerry!
Please forward this to your friends and family. Thank you again for your continued support as we remain on the road to victory!

http://www.jeffbeatty.com/

See the debate the Kerry campaign doesn't want you to

The highlights of the Jeff Beatty - John Kerry Massachusetts Senatorial debate can be found here, I will find and post video of the entire debate later when Jeff Beatty's people get that up on youtube(the Kerry campaign is meanwhile trying to burn all available copies).

Republican is ready to challenge Kerry

GOP candidate says he can provide change for Mass.
Boston Metro

As the November election approaches, many voters are seeking change in the government.

Republican Jeff Beatty, who is looking to unseat U.S. Sen. John Kerry, hopes to be part of that change. His background rests heavily in security-based operations. In college he was in the ROTC and was a card carrying Teamster before joining the Army, where he served in the elite Delta Force. He was also a member of the FBI and CIA prior to creating the company TotalSecurity.us, which he ran for a dozen years until the end of 2007.

Beatty decided to run for Senate because he believes that Kerry poorly represents Massachusetts in Washington, citing Kerry’s decision-making process and previous affiliations to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as corrupt.

“This is just wrong,” said Beatty, “It is wrong to be working for special interests and not for the interests of the voters in Massachusetts.” If elected, he plans to bring jobs back to Massachusetts by putting strings on federal funding and lowering state taxes to bring more businesses in.

He also wants reform the Treasury Department and take back assets executives have received to help homeowners.

“Voters are ready to replace Senator Kerry, but not with another millionaire, they want somebody who understands their life,” said Beatty.

“I think we’re going to win this election because on Nov. 4, when people go to the voting booth they’ll ask themselves a question: who do I trust to protect my family, job and country?”

Jeff Beatty debates John Kerry October 20th, 2008, on NECN

Beacon Hill spending cuts to hit Medford

By Rob Barry/ rbarry@cnc.com
Fri Oct 17, 2008, 03:26 PM EDT

Medford Transcript

With projected state expenditures expected to exceed revenues, Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday issued $1.053 billion in Section 9C cuts. As a result, city officials fear Medford may be slammed with a shortfall of up to $280,000.

“The School Department did an analysis this morning,” said Mayor Michael J. McGlynn. “At the low end we’re looking at a $50,000 cut in education grants. At the high end, $200,000.”

In addition McGlynn said the community policing grant of $80,000 would likely be in jeopardy.

“We’re assuming a part of that or all of that is gone,” said McGlynn. “Without cuts in local aid, we’re looking at a deficit of $300,000 citywide if the maximum is cut.”

Officials are calling this the largest mid-year cut in Massachusetts’ budget history and its impact will be felt by many.

State Rep. Paul Donato, D-Medford, said funding for human services will be hit the hardest. Organizations for low income and special needs individuals — like Ferguson Industries for the Blind in Malden — will have to close their doors.

“The reverberation not only comes from state services,” said Donato, “but in today’s economic times the decrease in volunteer services and private contributions play a large part.”

What’s ironic, Donato said, is that those most affected by an economic downturn will be the hardest hit by these cuts. But state revenues are down from a decline in income, corporate and real estate taxes collected. Adjustments had to be made.

Chapter 70 local aid was not on the chopping block for this round of cuts, Donato said, and the state is in better shape than many others.

“But we’re not sure what’s going to happen in the 2010 budget,” said Donato. “But it appears there will be some impact on local aid.”

A water taxi for the Mystic?

By Brad Kane, Globe Correspondent

The next mode of mass public transportation in Medford may be by boat on the Mystic River.

The city government is using $706,000 in federal grant money to develop a Mystic water taxi as part of a larger plan to increase the city's interaction with the meandering waterway by linking existing and future developments.

The water taxi will also be an alternative form of transportation and could link the city's 55,565 residents to riverfront developments in Somerville, Malden, and Everett, said Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn. There is also the possibility of the boat taking people into Boston.

"There is so much development taking place along the river in all neighboring communities that there is potential to create a whole new economy," McGlynn said. "They know what we want to do and that there is a lot of potential there."

The federal money, which comes from the Ferry Boat Discretionary Program, will be used to plan the taxi route of three or four Mystic sites in Medford and then develop a dock at Medford Square. The grant was originally $825,000, but Congress rescinded a portion of it, leaving $706,000.

"The value of it is what it can bring in the future, not necessarily what it is going to do right now," said Lauren DiLorenzo, director of Medford community development. "Even if there is a downturn in economic activity, now is the right time to get the infrastructure in place. It may not affect every citizen today, but it will go toward helping people in the future."

A large part of Medford's economy once was shipbuilding, particularly clipper ships, and the Mystic River played a large role in their construction. While the same Mystic cuts through today's Medford, the city is not taking full advantage of what the waterway offers, McGlynn said. To increase its use of the waterway, the city has developed more parkland on the riverfront and helped developers with projects like Station Landing, a 16-acre mixed-use facility on the river.

"Lots of people would like to be able to enjoy the river more, but people can't get to it very easily," said Penny Antonoglou, a Cambridge resident who works five days a week in Medford. "Some stretches are really nice, but there is some discontinuation between those areas."



Full post

Angry at Beacon Hill? Vote Republican

By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist
October 12, 2008

MASSACHUSETTS voters could send a message to liberal Democrats on Beacon Hill by voting to rescind the state income tax. Or they could just stop sending liberal Democrats to Beacon Hill.

"If you really want to send a message . . . send more Republicans," said state Representative George Peterson, a Republican from Grafton.

There are only 19 Republican legislators in the 160-member House of Representatives; only five of 40 state senators are Republican.

That means the Bay State votes overwhelmingly for Democrats who bring a certain fiscal philosophy to their job.

That philosophy is no mystery. Democrats view taxpayer-funded government services as essential to solving a range of problems.

Yet, even as voters elect Democrats, they're angry about how they spend their money. Taxpayer anger is supposedly the impetus behind Question 1, which calls for eliminating the state income tax.

So, why not get angry enough to switch horses and vote Republican?

"I always tell people that if they want to send a message to Beacon Hill, they should vote for Republicans. Nothing gets the attention of the majority party faster than a slew of lost elections," said Charles Baker, president and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare. "Look at 1990. The Republicans won a ton of House and Senate seats, and Bill Weld, Paul Cellucci, and Joe Malone all got elected to statewide positions. The climate, for a while anyway, changed."

At the moment, it's hard to find many Republicans to elect. Baker, who served in the Weld administration, is often mentioned as a possible Republican candidate for governor or US Senate. However, he has yet to commit to a race.

Commonwealth Unbound, the online magazine of the nonpartisan public policy group MassINC, recently noted that Massachusetts ranks dead last in the nation in contested races by the major parties for seats in the Legislature.

Of 160 House contests, only 28 have both Democrat and Republican candidates. In the Senate, seven races have both Republican and Democrat candidates.

It has been 12 years since any Republican represented Massachusetts in Congress. US Senator John Kerry is running for reelection against a little-known challenger, Republican Jeff Beatty. Democrats won back the governor's office in 2006.

The 1990 election that swept William F. Weld into the governor's office swelled Republican ranks in the Legislature to the point of being able to sustain a gubernatorial veto. The GOP's numbers have been shrinking ever since.

As governor, Mitt Romney recruited more than 100 fellow Republicans to run for legislative office. Not one won election.

"There's a disconnect" between what Massachusetts voters say they want and who they elect, said Republican state party chairman Peter Torkildson, a former congressman who lost his seat to a liberal Democrat.

"If you're a Republican here, you have to be Joe DiMaggio. You have to be a tremendous player. The standards are very tough to meet," said Peter Blute, a Republican who also went to Congress, until he, too, was defeated by a liberal Democrat.

A range of theories explain the GOP's lack of traction in Massachusetts. They include the Bay State's broad-based rejection of social conservatism; the general disdain for Bush administration policies; the power of local labor unions; and the fact that many who find the Massachusetts political climate offensive simply move elsewhere.

It's also hard for Republican candidates to raise money and attract media attention.

But there could be opportunity in the Bay State's current political flux. If Democrat Barack Obama wins the presidency, Governor Deval Patrick could go to Washington. Patrick said he won't, but that isn't stopping Democrats like state Treasurer Tim Cahill and Attorney General Martha Coakley from positioning themselves. Kerry's name also comes up in connection with an Obama administration, and US Senator Edward M. Kennedy's illness leaves questions about that seat, too.

But, first, the GOP needs good candidates at the grass-roots level. They're hard to find because Republican candidates in this state usually go nowhere but home on election day.

The Question 1 vote will measure one facet of citizen anger. But if Massachusetts voters keep electing liberals, maybe they should get angry at themselves for doing it.

Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com.