Describing himself as “the most fiscally conservative and the most socially tolerant candidate in the race,” Daniel Fishman announced late Monday evening that he will seek former Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s seat in the U.S. Senate as a Libertarian candidate in the June 25 special election.
A software engineer from Beverly, Fishman polled an impressive 16,739 votes in a three-way race for Congress last fall, nearly quadrupling eight-term Democrat Rep. John F. Tierney’s relatively narrow margin of victory over Republican challenger Richard R. Tisei, an openly gay former longtime state legislator. It was the closest congressional race in the state.
A large group of citizens in Massachusetts, Fishman stated in a press release announcing his Senate candidacy, are not being represented by the “Democratic machine,” nor by the GOP — a party he delightfully described as “tied to a national platform of social intolerance since 1950.”
The federal government, continued the little-known Libertarian candidate, has become a tool of corporations to protect corporate interests. “Government bailed out the banks, limited BP’s liability and wasted half a billion dollars trying to force the people to accept the government’s choice for solar implementation with financially disastrous results,” he asserted. “The government is not protecting the people from corporations — usually the opposite is true.”
Fishman will now attempt the daunting task of gathering 10,000 valid signatures before April 3 to appear on the state’s June 25 special election ballot. If successful, he will face the winner of the April 30 Democratic primary between heavily-favored Rep. Ed Markey and Stephen F. Lynch, a former ironworker and seven-term congressman from South Boston, and the yet to be determined Republican nominee.
In addition to former Sen. Scott Brown, several other high-profile Republicans recently opted out of the race, including former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and Tagg Romney, Mitt Romney’s oldest son. Former State Senator Richard Tisei — a 26-year veteran of the Massachusetts legislature and one of Fishman’s opponents last November — also recently decided not to run in the special election.
Hoping to fill the party’s void, a handful of other Republicans are reportedly looking closely at the race, including state Rep. Daniel Winslow, a former judge and longtime member of Mitt Romney’s inner circle, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester, private equity financier and ex-Navy Seal Gabriel Gomez and Fox News contributor Keith Ablow.
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