One of the problems is the MA congressional delegation has a lot of weak-sauce "moderates" in it. Auchincloss is one of them, but there are worse, like Neal or Lynch or DINO Moulton (my rep, unfortunately). The only people in the delegation who could hold Markey's jock are Clark and Pressley. Clark is in the house leadership as the minority whip, and I don't think she'd give that up to be junior senator. And I don't think Pressley would beat Markey.
Clark has positioned herself well to be Jeffries' successor. She'll have a real shot at being speaker sometime in a decade or so unless Jeffries sticks around for as long as Pelosi did. If so she'd also likely be the second woman to be speaker. Like you I expect her to stick to the house and not run for senate.
Healey has her eyes set elsewhere right now, but I could see her running in 2030 if the seat is open. Pressley and Clark are the only ones I'd prefer over her in that scenario. She's not amazing but she's easily preferable to Auchincloss or Moulton.
I don't know of anything especially egregious in his voting record.
The issue with Moulton is his statements and other actions. He tries to position himself in the "democrats suck" lane. He's in a house seat that he could probably hold down for another 40 years with little risk if he wished — he doesn't need that bullshit to keep enough voters on his side. All he's doing is hurting the party. He also made a pointless attempt to depose Pelosi.
The basic summary I'd make is that Moulton is not a team player and that when we absolutely 100% need someone to be there, we cannot count on him. He will probably be there, but not reliably enough. Especially not reliably enough for a potential senator from one of the bluest states in the country.
Moulton is in it for himself and I have no confidence that we can truly count on him for anything important, especially if he's made it to statewide office. If he's a senator and does something awful when reelection is >2 years away, the electorate will have moved on by election day.
Either way, Moulton represents a D+11 district. We wouldn't exactly be in danger of losing it if say for the sake of the argument another Democratic challenger more liberal than him primaries him out of office.
All true. Also, Moulton was one of the loudest voices in favor of a ballot question a few years back that would have increased charter schools in MA. As a public school teacher, that pissed me off (it mercifully failed).
He also tried to derail Pelosi from becoming speaker in 2018...from the right! His whole thing was Pelosi was too liberal. If you think Nancy "Definition of Centrist" Pelosi is too liberal, just put the R after your name and be done with it.
I’m sure they’re a bunch of candidates who would be better than Auschinscloss
One of the problems is the MA congressional delegation has a lot of weak-sauce "moderates" in it. Auchincloss is one of them, but there are worse, like Neal or Lynch or DINO Moulton (my rep, unfortunately). The only people in the delegation who could hold Markey's jock are Clark and Pressley. Clark is in the house leadership as the minority whip, and I don't think she'd give that up to be junior senator. And I don't think Pressley would beat Markey.
Clark has positioned herself well to be Jeffries' successor. She'll have a real shot at being speaker sometime in a decade or so unless Jeffries sticks around for as long as Pelosi did. If so she'd also likely be the second woman to be speaker. Like you I expect her to stick to the house and not run for senate.
Healey has her eyes set elsewhere right now, but I could see her running in 2030 if the seat is open. Pressley and Clark are the only ones I'd prefer over her in that scenario. She's not amazing but she's easily preferable to Auchincloss or Moulton.
I'm not that familiar with his voting record. What besides his transgender comment makes Moulton a DINO?
I don't know of anything especially egregious in his voting record.
The issue with Moulton is his statements and other actions. He tries to position himself in the "democrats suck" lane. He's in a house seat that he could probably hold down for another 40 years with little risk if he wished — he doesn't need that bullshit to keep enough voters on his side. All he's doing is hurting the party. He also made a pointless attempt to depose Pelosi.
The basic summary I'd make is that Moulton is not a team player and that when we absolutely 100% need someone to be there, we cannot count on him. He will probably be there, but not reliably enough. Especially not reliably enough for a potential senator from one of the bluest states in the country.
Moulton is in it for himself and I have no confidence that we can truly count on him for anything important, especially if he's made it to statewide office. If he's a senator and does something awful when reelection is >2 years away, the electorate will have moved on by election day.
Either way, Moulton represents a D+11 district. We wouldn't exactly be in danger of losing it if say for the sake of the argument another Democratic challenger more liberal than him primaries him out of office.
All true. Also, Moulton was one of the loudest voices in favor of a ballot question a few years back that would have increased charter schools in MA. As a public school teacher, that pissed me off (it mercifully failed).
He also tried to derail Pelosi from becoming speaker in 2018...from the right! His whole thing was Pelosi was too liberal. If you think Nancy "Definition of Centrist" Pelosi is too liberal, just put the R after your name and be done with it.