Less than two weeks before Election Day, Republican Brian Herr campaigned in Pittsfield, Massachusetts today, hopeful it will help him unseat Senator Edward Markey. But, the race has not received much attention.Despite entering the race way back in January, Brian Herr is still struggling with name recognition, facing a consistent polling gap of more than 20 points, according to Western New England University Polling Institute director Tim Vercellotti.
“It really raises the question of why another Republican candidate, perhaps of a higher public profile, didn’t take this on,” Vercellotti said. “I think part of it is the unique nature of this Senate seat. Markey just ran for this seat about 15 months ago to serve the rest of the term when John Kerry stepped down to become Secretary of State. So it may have been that Republican challengers looked at this and saw a candidate fresh off of a successful statewide election with the name recognition and the perks of incumbency that go along with it and decided, well, it’s just not the right time to take a crack at this.”
While the public seems to have put the race on the backburner in favor of the governor’s race, it appears Senator Markey has done so as well. Without a primary on either side, Herr requested he and Markey debate five times over the last five weeks of the general election across the state. The only direct face-off was October 17th on New England Cable News and lasted a half-hour. In contrast, gubernatorial candidates Martha Coakley, Charlie Baker, Evan Falchuk, Jeff McCormick and Scott Lively have debated multiple times throughout the state, usually for an hour at a time. Vercellotti says Markey’s camp is running a classic incumbent’s campaign.
“When you’re this far ahead as Ed Markey is debates really don’t help you that much,” Vercelloti said. “They’re not going to do a whole lot for you. They have the potential to do a whole lot for your opponent. So the wise strategy is to simply minimize the number of debates. Now, that’s a strategic point of view. That’s not necessarily good for voters or good for democracy in terms of people finding out how candidates compare and how they stack up against each other. There’s nothing like seeing them both on the stage at podiums or at a table facing each other. So from that standpoint Massachusetts voters do lose out by the lack of debates in this race.”
Meeting with a handful of supporters at the Berkshire GOP’s election headquarters in Pittsfield, Herr, a two-term selectman form Hopkinton, called Senator Markey’s campaign strategy a disservice to the voters.
“Senator Markey’s strategy is to not campaign,” Herr said. “Senator Markey refuses to debate us again. He refuses to come out and do things like this. He’s not traveled across the state extensively and meeting voters one on one as we have done. The strategy is to keep the race as low profile as possible. If he does not campaign a lot of the people in the media, in Boston in particular, don’t cover the campaign. If they don’t campaign, they don’t cover him, they don’t cover us. So the strategy is to keep it as quiet as possible and hope that the people of Massachusetts just sort of forget about the race for U.S. Senate.
Senator Markey spoke about the race with WAMC News in July.
“What I do is run straight ahead,” Markey said. “I don’t take anything for granted. I work as hard as I can every single day. I try to represent Massachusetts on the key issues that they want to have fought for by their Senator. That’s the best way to ensure that you can in fact stand for reelection. So I’m fighting every day for the values, for the priorities that Massachusetts voters would fight for if they were in Washington.”
Herr says any public attention ahead of Election Day has been on the governor’s race. Polls have Republican Charlie Baker and Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley in a dead heat to replace Democratic Governor Deval Patrick, who is not seeking a third term. Berkshire GOP Chair Jim Bronson says Herr and other Republican candidates could ride Baker’s coattails to victory.
“If you’re excited about a governor’s race, the top ticket race, you’re far more likely to then go support that party when you’re pulling the level so I think it only helps,” said Bronson.
As Republicans nationally hope to take back the Senate this election, Herr says he knew he’d be in a two-week race all along and plans to ramp up his efforts accordingly.
“I just believe in standing on own our two feet and pushing hard so people understand who I am,” Herr said. “So no we haven’t invited anybody from outside the state because I think the people of Massachusetts deserve to look at the candidates themselves without some of that interference that can come from others.”
