VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL
NOVEMBER, 2010
Election night 2010 was stunning for many here in Massachusetts, but the results were not always what we hoped for.
Many of us worked hard on campaigns, taking time away from families and jobs to help elect our favorite candidates. When the candidates we worked for were defeated, it was natural to feel depressed.
If you are new to politics, losing is doubly hard. Pre-election polls showed close races for Governor and for local congressional seats. We were blessed with a great crop of hard working candidates, including Jon Golnick, Bill Hudak, Marty Lamb, Jamison Tomasek and Kevin Begley. Polls indicated that Golnick and Hudak had a good chance to win and people were hopeful that many entrenched machine politicians could be retired. In most cases, those hopes were not fulfilled.
Don’t despair!
There are now 21 newly elected Republican state representatives. They are: Jim Lyons, George Ross, Paul Adams, Sheila Harrington, Shaunna O’Connel, Steven Levy, Geoff Diehl, Marc Lombardo, Dan Winslow, David Vieira, Randy Hunt, Steven Howitt, Angelo D’Emilia, Nicholas Boldyga, Kimberly Ferguson, Richard Bastien, Kevin Kuros, Matthew Beaton, Ryan Fattman, Peter Durant and Donald Wong.
Andover went from having two Democrat representatives to two Republicans. North Andover, Methuen, Boxford, Haverhill and Georgetown have a new Republican State Representative in Jim Lyons after his defeat of Barbara L’Italien.
These wins should not be overlooked and they are an important part of building a farm team for the future. A strong Republican party, one that can challenge the entrenched power structure, must be built from the ground up. We are now in a position to do that. Starting in January 2011 we will have a total of 35 Republican State Representatives. In 2012 they will help Scott Brown retain his senate seat and will help to get other Republican State Reps and State Senators elected.
Many of you became engaged because of the Tea Party movement and your distaste for the leftist tilt of our state and national governments. We applaud you for becoming politically active. The movement that you have joined is new and has tremendous potential. It will continue to grow and prosper as long as you do not lose faith and stay involved.
November 2nd was an important day in American history. The American people rejected the socialist agenda of the Democrat party. Republicans took back control of the Congress after gaining over 60 new seats in the House and 6 or 7 seats in the Senate (including Obama’s old seat, with the win of Mark Kirk). The Tea Party also won big, having backed 129 candidates with 119 of them winning.
But our work is not done. Unfortunately Republican adherence to our nation’s founding principles is not assured. We must remain vigilant and let all our representatives know, both Republican and Democrat, that we expect them to be faithful the Constitution, to restore our liberties, and to stop squandering our nation’s future .
They need to know that we will be watching and that you will be here, ready to fight, in 2012!