Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Geoff Diehl Already Prepping For 2022 State Convention

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2021/11/29/republican-gubernatorial-candidate-geoff-diehl-already-prepping-for-2022-state-convention/

By Matt Murphy
State House News Service

Republicans won’t gather for another six months to endorse a candidate for governor, but Republican Geoff Diehl has begun to try to lay the groundwork for that convention when he will most likely be up against a well- organized opponent in either Governor Charlie Baker or Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito.

Diehl, a former state representative, ran statewide for U.S. Senate in 2018, beating Republicans John Kingston and Beth Lindstrom and then losing to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. He also has strong ties to the Republican Party grassroots through his work in 2014 to repeal a gas tax indexing law at the ballot box.

Currently the only declared candidate on the Republican side, Diehl sent out a post-Thanksgiving email message to supporters Friday encouraging them to begin thinking about the MassGOP convention being planned for May 2022.

The Diehl campaign said delegates must be registered as a Republican voter by December 31, 2021 in order to qualify as a voting delegate at the Springfield convention on May 21.

The campaign also encouraged its supporters to join their local Republican Town Committee, some of which are more active than others. Town committees will hold caucuses in February to select delegates to the convention.

Candidates running for statewide office must secure at least 15 percent of voting delegates at the convention to run as a Republican. Diehl considered trying to amend the party’s bylaws last summer to lower that threshold to 10 percent to make it easier for candidates to qualify for the ballot and dispel the notion that MassGOP leadership might try to make it more difficult for Governor Baker at the convention. He ultimately withdrew his proposal before it could be voted on by the state committee.

Baker has been the party’s endorsed nominee for governor the past three cycles, but more recently has had a falling out with the MassGOP as it has veered to the right in its politics and policy during the Trump era and under the leadership of party chairman Jim Lyons.

Recent polling has suggested the governor is also much more popular among Democrats and independents than among voters of his own party, though he has brushed aside questions about whether he would consider running for a third term as an independent.

The governor has not yet said whether he will run again, but is now getting asked almost everywhere he goes. “Like I’ve said, we’ll get you an answer soon on that one,” Baker said at a Hanukkah menorah lighting in Boston on Sunday, November 28, according to The Boston Herald.

If Baker does not run, it is widely expected that Polito, another former Massachusetts House member, would run for governor.

 

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