1990 Massachusetts gubernatorial election

[soniquemd21921]

I thought Weld getting 70% of the vote in 1994 was remarkable, but this election is truly unique: Democrat Silber carried the reliably "blue-collar" Catholic areas like Fall River, Fitchburg and Holyoke, but Weld actually carried Cambridge, Amherst and Provincetown!

From what I gather, this was sort of a Goldwater/Johnson-type election where the Democratic candidate was too extreme for many so they switched to Weld.

[tpfkaw]

Silber actually ran well to the right of Weld, which wasn't exactly unheard of in MA (see the 1978 gubernatorial and senatorial races, for example).  He won all the yellow-dogs and white working-class SoCon towns, while Weld won all the wealthy or socially-liberal parts of the state (including Cambridge, which is insane*).

*The "People's Republic of Cambridge" makes San Francisco look conservative.  The last three mayors IIRC have all been black lesbians.

[RedSLC]

Indeed. Silber running to Weld's right cost him many normally democratic liberals, many of whom defected to Weld. Cambridge voting for Weld is probably the most obvious proof.

Here's some proof of how far to Weld's right Silber was. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Silber
 (I am aware this has been posted in another thread, BTW.)

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[Bandit3 the Worker]

Why did the Democrats even let Silber run as their candidate?