I do wonder how much that "traditionally" still applies. South Boston, Back Bay, Seaport, and Beacon Hill are not working class dominated areas. Seaport is a new development full of the wealthy. South Boston was the historically working class part of his district but it's been gentrifying over the years as people with higher income jobs …
I do wonder how much that "traditionally" still applies. South Boston, Back Bay, Seaport, and Beacon Hill are not working class dominated areas. Seaport is a new development full of the wealthy. South Boston was the historically working class part of his district but it's been gentrifying over the years as people with higher income jobs move as close to the core city areas as they can, if they can afford it. Quincy is one of the least white cities in the area, with >30% of the city being Asian-American.
The district has changed a lot since the 90s and early 00s when Lynch first came around. If you made an ideological clone of Lynch but without his incumbency, name recognition, history, and connections, I think they'd end up struggling to break through in a primary without doing something to hide their more moderate ideology.
As-is he probably has the seat as long as he wants it, but as you note we do have recent examples of complacent and arrogant incumbents losing primaries.
Indeed. The fact that Boston now has an Asian American Mayor speaks for itself. This is not the same city that was once run by hardline social conservative Ray Flynn. Interestingly, his son Ed Flynn is a Boston City Councilor, but just as Bob Casey Jr wasn't as militant a social conservative as his father, he's not as militant about social issues.
Beacon Hill has NEVER been a working class area. As long as my hometown has been around, it has ALWAYS been a bastion for the elite. We call them Boston Brahmins, wealthy English American Republicans who dominated the city until the Irish population came and in turn dominated until recent years.
Yeah, I didn't want to make my comment too long but I was pretty sure that Beacon Hill and Back Bay have never been working class areas. I know Back Bay was originally developed to attract more upper-middle class residents to the city for tax purposes.
Nowadays, if there's a business opening a location that appeals to that middle class and especially upper middle class demographic (e.g. Patagonia) it's almost always in one of: Back Bay, Harvard Square, or Seaport. Or, very frequently, multiple of those locations. Case in point: Patagonia has a store in Harvard Square and another in Back Bay.
I did say it was traditionally quite socially conservative. I didn't say anything about working-class people, a phrase that has been hijacked in the U.S. not to mean anything about working!
Lynch hasn't ever been at risk of losing re-election. The GOP has failed so hard trying to even run candidates to challenge Lynch that he ended up essentially winning re-election in 2018 and 2020 with no real opponents.
We'll have to see how this plays out come the Democratic Primary next year. Providing Lynch survives the primary, he won't be at risk of losing re-election.
I do wonder how much that "traditionally" still applies. South Boston, Back Bay, Seaport, and Beacon Hill are not working class dominated areas. Seaport is a new development full of the wealthy. South Boston was the historically working class part of his district but it's been gentrifying over the years as people with higher income jobs move as close to the core city areas as they can, if they can afford it. Quincy is one of the least white cities in the area, with >30% of the city being Asian-American.
The district has changed a lot since the 90s and early 00s when Lynch first came around. If you made an ideological clone of Lynch but without his incumbency, name recognition, history, and connections, I think they'd end up struggling to break through in a primary without doing something to hide their more moderate ideology.
As-is he probably has the seat as long as he wants it, but as you note we do have recent examples of complacent and arrogant incumbents losing primaries.
Indeed. The fact that Boston now has an Asian American Mayor speaks for itself. This is not the same city that was once run by hardline social conservative Ray Flynn. Interestingly, his son Ed Flynn is a Boston City Councilor, but just as Bob Casey Jr wasn't as militant a social conservative as his father, he's not as militant about social issues.
Beacon Hill has NEVER been a working class area. As long as my hometown has been around, it has ALWAYS been a bastion for the elite. We call them Boston Brahmins, wealthy English American Republicans who dominated the city until the Irish population came and in turn dominated until recent years.
Yeah, I didn't want to make my comment too long but I was pretty sure that Beacon Hill and Back Bay have never been working class areas. I know Back Bay was originally developed to attract more upper-middle class residents to the city for tax purposes.
Nowadays, if there's a business opening a location that appeals to that middle class and especially upper middle class demographic (e.g. Patagonia) it's almost always in one of: Back Bay, Harvard Square, or Seaport. Or, very frequently, multiple of those locations. Case in point: Patagonia has a store in Harvard Square and another in Back Bay.
I did say it was traditionally quite socially conservative. I didn't say anything about working-class people, a phrase that has been hijacked in the U.S. not to mean anything about working!
Lynch hasn't ever been at risk of losing re-election. The GOP has failed so hard trying to even run candidates to challenge Lynch that he ended up essentially winning re-election in 2018 and 2020 with no real opponents.
We'll have to see how this plays out come the Democratic Primary next year. Providing Lynch survives the primary, he won't be at risk of losing re-election.