Sunday, October 3, 2010

Gov. Patrick, Lt. Gov. Tisei?

Maybe I'm missing something here. But if memory serves, voters vote for candidates for governor and lieutenant governor separately. This usually doesn't matter.

Here's a hypothetical. The race for governor comes down to a very close margin, but Deval Patrick is re-elected. However, a number of voters nevertheless choose Cahill, say about 5%. These voters see Loscocco's name still on the ballot, but as they know that Loscocco withdrew from the race because he's a rat, they vote for the Republican candidate, Richard Tisei. Those additional votes overcome Governor Patrick's margin of victory, and our next governor has a Republican LG.

I know that in some places (Arizona under Governor Napolitano springs to mind) managed with a mixed-party executive. Would our Commonwealth? How do you think that would work out?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quilt - that isn't true anymore.

After Frank Bellotti was Lt. Gov. for John Volpe, and it didn't work out well, they changed the law so the Gov/Lt Gov run as a ticket, like Pres/Vice Pres.

Quriltai said...

Thanks...wasn't sure on that point.