Heading into final stretch, Markey-Kennedy race looks to be a dead heat

[brooklynite]

Boston Globe

John Walsh started hearing from the naysayers soon after he signed on to be Senator Edward J. Markey’s campaign manager for his reelection bid last summer. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III was already too far ahead in the polls. Markey wouldn’t be able to match Kennedy’s fund-raising juggernaut. Labor would consolidate behind the upstart with the famous last name. Markey would crumple and drop out of the race.

But projections are perilous in politics. With 21 days before the Sept. 1 primary, Markey has not dropped out, but rather clawed his way back from a double-digit deficit against Kennedy to essentially a dead heat, according to the latest polling and analysts watching the race.

The Markey and Kennedy campaigns both acknowledge the race is close, and in a sign of the uncertainty of the contest — for which widely accessible mail-in voting is already underway — the campaign has turned sharply negative ahead of a televised debate Tuesday evening.

The Kennedy campaign over the weekend released an online-only ad, which mocks Markey’s first TV ad focused on his Malden roots, blasting the senator for hurting union workers in his hometown by “selling them out to giant telecom corporations.” At the same time, a pro-Kennedy super PAC went up on the air with a negative spot about how Markey has missed numerous votes during the pandemic-induced economic crisis.

[JI7]

1. Kennedy started sounding entitled

I hope Markey wins.

[dem4decades]

2. Podcast Lovett or Leave it spoke to both of them. Kennedy came off as overly ambitious. Markey was

funny and relaxed. And made a good case for himself.

[karynnj]

4. That was the take away from the podcast I had too

I think the order Kennedy interviewed first, then Markey also helped even though they were independently done.

I thought Kennedy cane off very poorly when he knocked Markey because his cap and trade did not pass the Senate. Waxman and Markey did get it through the House. He did not back down even when it pointed out to him that it would be fairer to blame the Senate or even Obama. Markey's list of important bills he was sponsor of is impressive and he is unambiguously the more liberal choice.

It bothered me that Kennedy made the point that he had a higher lifetime League of conservation voting score than Markey. Comparing lifetime records when one has a few years of voting and the other decades is an apples to oranges comparison. There are good reasons Markey got their endorsement.

Before listening, I really liked both men. Markey for accomplishments and for being consistently there on climate change long before it was popular, at least back to the 1992 Rio Conference. I had seen Kennedy speak at an election eve event in Barnstable in 2008 where he and John Kerry went because Ted Kennedy, who came every election there, couldn't so he asked Kerry and his grand nephew. It was fun and we were so filled with hope.

[BlueMTexpat]

3. Fingers crossed for Markey here!

[NewJeffCT]

5. Markey is the progressive in the race

Not sure why Kennedy is even challenging him here.