Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker just barely kept his Tea Party rival Mark Fisher off the September primary ballot. Party delegates voted on the matter at the State Republican convention this weekend — but the battle could go to the courts.
Mark Fisher needed 15 percent. He got 14.765 percent — a matter of about six votes.
It was so close that the ballot counting lasted until after the convention adjourned. Party officials went backstage into a tally room. Delegates and onlookers huddled over their phones and computers, calculating the vote themselves.
“14.99,” one attendee said. "Did you get 14.99? Do they round up?”
Charlie Baker delivered a speech accepting the party’s endorsement and came down to talk to reporters. At that point, he still didn’t know whether he’d face Fisher in a September primary.
“I’m not going to speculate on hypotheticals at this point, and it’s up to the committee to make those decisions,” Baker said.
There were 64 ballots turned in that were blank. Fisher says he got conflicting messages about whether those would be counted toward the total.
“There was nothing in the rules about that, either, and we heard two different stories yesterday and today,” Fisher said.
An aide to the fisher campaign says they intend to contact the Office of Campaign and Political Finance and also plan to ask the Secretary of State to conduct an investigation. After that, perhaps a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Republican Party.
“I’m a little surprised it’s as close as it is," said Mo Cunningham, a political science professor at Boston University, who attended the convention. He said heading into the party meeting it didn’t look like Fisher would meet the 15 percent threshold. “I would have thought the Baker folks would have locked it down a little bit better.”
It’s not for lack of trying.
"Charlie’s been very active within the party structure,"
said Lance May, co-chair of the Baker campaign in Central Massachusetts. "And from 2010, he’s been building his team. Building his campaign structure around that effort to run again. And if it meant helping a mayor, or working with a former or current legislator, that’s what his goal was, to develop that base."
Baker got 82 percent of the vote on Saturday, an overwhelming majority.
But there’s a growing schism in the Massachusetts GOP between the party establishment and a group of conservatives which feels marginalized.
In one sign of the split, Republicans adopted a socially conservative platform last month that is anti-gay marriage and anti-abortion. A candidate for U.S. Congress, Richard Tisei, boycotted the convention in protest.
Charlie Baker, who is also socially moderate, avoided any mention of these issues or the party platform in his speech.
“Are you tired of one party rule on Beacon Hill?" he asked the crowd. "Are you tired of the status quo that reeks of mediocrity?"
Fisher, in his speech, addressed the social issues head-on.
“I stand for the unborn child," Fisher said. "I stand for the unborn child because every instance of abortion is tragic.”
Deb Flanagan, a delegate from Pembroke, said she liked both candidates but was drawn to Fisher.
“I want to see someone stand up, speak louder, be angrier, because of what’s going on in this state,” she said.
But Flanagan is not representative of most Republicans in the state, according to Cunningham. Cunningham says even if Fisher does make the primary ballot, Baker would handily defeat him.
“Baker goes into a much larger electorate," Cunningham said. "More moderate voters. I don’t think it’s a big deal for Baker over all. He has other things to worry about than Fisher.”
But clearly, Baker would rather be focusing all of his efforts on November rather than worrying — even the slightest bit — about an internal Republican squabble or a primary in September.
