Keller @ Large: Massachusetts Voters' Message - Change Can't Wait
BOSTON (CBS) - Barely two-in-ten of us bothered to vote in Tuesday's party primaries, so I hope the rest of you are content with the choices we made. And even though a small minority of us went to the polls, you're still talking about tens of thousands of voters speaking out, far more than any poll, so it's well worth taking a moment to reflect on the message those voters sent.
Check: Primary Election Results
For starters, the much-touted wave of generational change within the Democratic Party was for real. Ten-term incumbent Mike Capuano didn't do anything wrong, really. He just got older, and ran afoul of a motivated core of voter dissatisfaction with the lack of fresh air in local politics.
Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley couldn't match Capuano's experience or endorsements, but she had some things he didn't - a new face, and a different set of experiences as a woman of color. She put her best foot forward in this race, and was rewarded.
Another Boston City Councilor, Josh Zakim, will have to regroup after losing his effort to unseat longtime incumbent Secretary of State Bill Galvin. Not enough voters were persuaded that Galvin had done as poor a job as Zakim claimed, and Zakim did little to educate them on his own accomplishments. The baby boomers will have to give way at some point, but just being younger isn't enough, or at least it wasn't for Zakim.
But when you put the Pressley upset together with the defeat of a couple of veteran members of the House leadership on Beacon Hill, the chant at Pressley headquarters Tuesday night may be prescient - "change can't wait."
Please share your analysis of the results with me, via email at keller@wbztv.com, or use Twitter, @kelleratlarge.