Tag: Mark Hatfield

The “nightmare” was a Senate Ethics Committee investigation that found Mr Packwood had been sexually harassing subordinates since the 1960s. Republicans remain devoted to President Donald Trump, who has been recorded boasting about sexual assault and whom at least 19 women have accused of sexual misconduct. Since Mr Trump’s election, more than 42,000 have. Half the Democrats’ first-time House candidates this year are women, up from 27% in 2016 (and far higher than the Republican share of less than 20%). The 2016 gender gap of 24 points (women supported Hillary Clinton by 13; men went for Mr Trump by 11) was already the largest on record. Women favour Democrats by 21; men favour Republicans by 3. That is not entirely due to sexual harassment, of course. Mr Trump has loudly defended multiple men accused of sexual misconduct, including Mr Moore; Rob Porter, one of his aides accused of spousal abuse; and Bill O’Reilly, who left Fox News amid sexual-harassment claims. Mr Trump has defended Mr Kavanaugh and cast doubt on his accusers. Withdrawing Mr Kavanaugh would mean admitting that historical accusations of sexual assault can be disqualifying, which leads back to the president.

Unfortunately for Bachrach, Joseph Kennedy II—Robert Kennedy’s son—soon entered the race, as well. Kennedy won endorsements from O’Neill, Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, the Boston Herald, and The Boston Globe, and went on to win. In O’Neill’s famous dictum, all politics really was local. Capuano, Kennedy’s successor, was born in Somerville, in the heart of the Eighth (now the Seventh) District. He garnered the endorsements of Boston’s top Democrats. It didn’t matter that Capuano had the stronger Boston accent and Boston lineage. And in 2018, regional identity matters less than it once did and ideological identity matters more. But overall, as the University of Pennsylvania political scientist Dan Hopkins argues in his book The Increasingly United States: How and Why American Political Behavior Nationalized, “the debates in states and even some localities have taken on a national hue.” Party platforms don’t differ much by region anymore. Which helps explain why Democrats in Texas increasingly resemble Democrats in Massachusetts. Ayanna Pressley may not have as strong a Boston accent as Michael Capuano.