This September, Republican voters have two choices for who will take on either U.S. Senator Ed Markey or U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III in the state’s U.S. Senate race this November.
The GOP primary candidates are Dover attorney Kevin O’Connor and Cambridge scientist Shiva Ayyadurai, who ran as an independent in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race in 2018.
Both have made campaign donations to a Massachusetts Democrat.
O’Connor donated $250 to Markey in 2008, according to campaign finance records. Markey was a member of the U.S House of Representatives at the time.
Ayyadurai donated $2,000 to former Massachusetts U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2003 — the maximum contribution allowed for an individual in that election cycle.
O’Connor explained to New Boston Post by telephone on Tuesday why it happened, what he took from the event where he saw Markey, and why he wouldn’t do it again.
“I was asked by a colleague of mine to donate who swore by him,” O’Connor said. “Like a lot of fund raisers, that’s how you get people to go. I did it. I didn’t know a lot about him at the time. He was unimpressive.
“What I remember from that day is he basically took credit for the entire telecom revolution,” he added. “It was stunningly self-absorbed and reflected like a complete disregard of technology and innovation. If you’ve heard him speak and that’s all you had for information, you’d think the government created the telecom revolution. So not only was it uneventful, it was very disappointing. I was alienated, I would say.”
Ayyadurai could not be reached for comment on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday this week to explain why he donated to Kerry, who was the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in 2004.
However, Ayyadurai’s past public statements indicate that he is no fan of George W. Bush, the Republican incumbent president at the time.
On September 11, 2018, Ayyadurai tweeted, “Today, 9/11, we mourn the victims, their families, & the many Americans who lost their lives, fighting imperialist globalist Wars serving the Deep State of thugs from the Bush’s to Clinton’s. We also mourn the attack on American civil liberties that continue to take place.”
And in an April 2015 tweet, he equated the Bush family with the Clinton family. He wrote, “Be it Bush or Clintons, they all serve the same master — Capital — Let’s stop fooling ourselves.”
In recent times, both GOP Senate candidates have contributed to Republicans.
Ayyadurai donated $2,700 to the Trump Victory PAC in August 2016.
O’Connor donated $2,000 to Republican John Kingston’s U.S. Senate run in 2017 and $2,500 to both the Massachusetts Republican Party and WinRed last year.
