Ever-astute MASSterList editor Gin Dumcius cut through the fog in his column the other day about the GOP gubernatorial candidates’ efforts to make a dent in Gov. Maura Healey’s comfortable lead.
Noting their swipes at the incumbent over the saga of LaMar Cook, the former Healey aide facing drug trafficking and illegal gun possession charges, Dumcius noted that “the fragmentation of media consumption means scandals come and go quickly. Patterns, vibes and party loyalty matter more, while media influence is overstated.”
Hear that, internet trolls ranting around the clock about “the media”?
No one knows more about public opinion than Dave Paleologos of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, the region’s premier pollster, and he agrees that “public bandwidth can only hold so much. An issue starts at the center of the awareness bandwidth for a day when news drops but then it gets pushed a little further to an edge as something else becomes the center of attention on the next day. After a week, it has dropped off the bandwidth entirely. Think Karen Read.”
No thanks, but point taken.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, few if any voters will remember the sorry Cook affair come November. Unless, that is, the eventual GOP nominee can fit the story into a broader attack on Healey fueled by more timely events this fall.
And what exactly would that be? That the former attorney general has a high tolerance for drug dealers? Tell that to the opioid-peddling corporations she – along with other AGs – forced to fork over $26 billion in a 2021 settlement. That Healey should be fired for incompetence because of a few rotten apples in the barrel of 46,000 executive branch employees? Were that the standard, no governor would ever complete their term.
The GOP focus on Cook is really just a performative appeal to their political base, most of whom didn’t need worm-host Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to tell them to eat more red meat. Until the campaign susses out significant differences between the three Republicans, it’s a can-you-top-this contest to see who can attack Healey most harshly.
After the primary, it will be Etch-A-Sketch time for the winner if he wants to win over independents and others skeptical of the notion that Healey is a far-left stereotype masquerading as a relatively-moderate Democrat. Perhaps economic anxiety and distrust of the Democratic establishment will be potent enough to free the GOP nominee to market themselves as a reasonable, thoughtful, mature alternative.
Easier said than done. “People aren’t going to be focused on just politics in 2026,” observes Paleologos. “Many other events will occupy the public’s bandwidth like the Patriots and NFL playoffs, the Winter Olympics in February, the FIFA World Cup in June/July, America’s 250th Birthday, the return of the Tall Ships to Boston, and of course, the Red Sox in August and September. That’s a lot of competition for a limited amount of bandwidth.”
Not to mention the biggest potential distraction of all. “President Trump, with his relentless explosion of daily controversial comments and actions, has overloaded the capacity of voter bandwidth at an accelerated pace never seen before,” says Paleologos.
We saw what happened when Michelle Wu turned her re-election “challenge” into a referendum on Trump.
Wild guess: Maura Healey, backed by plenty of ad dollars and turbo-charged by the Trump “explosions,” will try to duplicate those results.