Outgoing Cape Cod county commissioner Ron Beaty is interested in running for lieutenant governor.
Beaty announced over the weekend that he is interested in serving as an unofficial running mate for former state representative Geoff Diehl if Diehl runs for governor.
The state’s current governor, Charlie Baker, hasn’t announced yet whether he plans to seek a third term. Baker is a Republican, but as a fiscal moderate and social liberal he may draw a more conservative challenger in the GOP primary if he runs.
Beaty told New Boston Post that he is interested in challenging the state’s current lieutenant governor, Karyn Polito, if she runs for lieutenant governor again.
“I am presently strongly exploring a possible 2022 Republican candidacy for Lt. Governor of Massachusetts against current Lt. Governor Karyn Polito,” he wrote. “If Geoff Diehl should eventually decide to run for Governor, it would be an honor to be a part of his team as well.”
As a pro-life and pro-gun Republican, Beaty would present a more conservative alternative to Polito, whom some consider a moderate. Polito supports legal abortion and has an “F” rating from the Gun Owners’ Action League.
If Beaty runs and Polito seeks a third term, it would be the first time that Polito has had a primary challenger in her political career. She did not have one when she unsuccessfully ran for the Massachusetts Senate in the Second Worcester District in 1998, nor did she have one in her five terms as a state representative in the 11th Worcester District, her unsuccessful run for state treasurer in 2010, or either of her lieutenant governor bids in 2014 and 2018.
Beaty won his seat as a Barnstable County Commissioner in 2016 running as a pro-Trump Republican, but lost his re-election bid this time around with the two Democrats he ran against teaming up and campaigning against him. Democrats Mark Forest and Sheila Lyons supported one another’s campaigns and even had signs made that both of their names on them. Lyons got 68,301 votes (34 percent) while Forest got 66,593 (33.1 percent) and Beaty came in third with 54,010 votes (26.9 percent), as New Boston Post reported last month.
In addition to running for county commissioner twice, Beaty has run for public office a few other times.
In 1990, he ran in the 2nd Barnstable district’s Democratic primary for state representative as what he recently described as an Ed King Democrat, after the conservative governor of Massachusetts of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Beaty was the Republican nominee for Massachusetts Senate in the Cape and Islands district in 2014, earning 37.1 percent in the general election of the vote after winning the primary race. Then in 2016, he ran for the GOP state committeeman seat in the same district, finishing second in a three-way race to Fran Manzelli. Beaty got 24 percent of the vote while Manzelli got 59.2 percent. Then in 2018, he primaried Republican state representative Randy Hunt in the Fifth Barnstable District. Beaty got 20.6 percent of the vote and Hunt got 79.3 percent.
Beaty’s most successful race was his 2016 bid for county commissioner when he finished second out of four candidates, earning a seat. He got 43,059 votes out of the 137,912 ballots cast, helping him narrowly defeat Democrat Mark Forest (42,156) to earn the job. Democrat Mary Pat Flynn (65,614 votes) was the top vote-getter in the race.
As of Monday morning, Beaty had not filed a change of purpose for his campaign account with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
During his re-election bid this year, Beaty exhausted most of the money in his campaign account. He spent $10,400.31 on his campaign from July 1, 2020, to November 30, 2020. At the end of November, the account had $46.69 remaining. Conversely, Polito had $1,780,172.50 in her account.
The press office for Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker and lieutenant governor Karyn Polito could not be reached for comment on Monday.
