Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
2019 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Galdieri, Christopher J., author.
Title: Stranger in a strange state : the politics of carpetbagging from Robert Kennedy to Scott Brown / Christopher J. Galdieri.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018027701 | ISBN 9781438474038 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438474045 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Political campaignsUnited States. | Political candidatesUnited States. | ElectionsUnited States.
Classification: LCC JK2281 .G35 2019 | DDC 324.70973dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018027701
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For Kate and Veronica and Alexander
Acknowledgments
W hen Scott Brown decided to run for the Senate in New Hampshire, I thought there was probably an academic paper to be written about carpetbagging. As I started thinking about the project, I quickly realized there was enough going on to justify a book, not just about Brown, but also about his fellow carpetbaggers and the unusual enterprise of carpetbagging. This is an imperfect attempt to thank everyone who helped me turn that initial idea into the physical or electronic book you hold in your hands.
My colleagues at Saint Anselm College have provided me with encouragement and support at every step of the way, from reading my proposal to critiquing chapter drafts to telling me to stop worrying and turn in the manuscript. Particular thanks are due to my fellow faculty in the Politics Department, including Erik Cleven, Christine Gustafson, Anne Holthoefer, Peter Josephson, Dale Kuehne, and Jennifer Lucas, as well as Tauna Starbuck Sisco of the Sociology Department and countless others who listened to me talk about this project at lunch and during pub nights. I also received helpful early feedback on this project from colleagues at a New Faculty Forum research colloquium.
Chris Chapp kindly shared his own book proposal with me, so I could see what a book proposal looked like before I wrote one. Petrice Flowers and Carrie Booth Walling also gave helpful proposal advice. Bethany Albertson and Shirin Deylami were very patient with me as I talked about this project with them in the lobby of the Hilton at the 2014 meeting of the American Political Science Association, as was Andrew Rehfeld when I cornered him in the lobby of the Marriot to pick his brain about representation and constituency. Maurice Cunningham and Kevin Parsneau provided useful comments after a presentation at the American Elections Conference at Saint Anselm College in 2015. Libby Sharrow gave me excellent advice on conducting archival research, and I should have done a better job following it. Abigail Malangone and the archival staff at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum helped me navigate the records of Robert Kennedys 1964 campaign. Melinda Malik and the interlibrary loan desk at Geisel Library tracked down every single article and book I needed for this project, no matter how obscure. Katie Brandt Gott and Maria Rosales critiqued a chapter I was having a particularly difficult time drafting, and Dante Scala provided helpful feedback on other chapters. Adam Sexton shared some of his personal recollections of the 2014 New Hampshire Senate campaign. Barbara Carvalho shared Marist Colleges polling on the carpetbagger question in New York in 2000. Steve Wrinn helped demystify academic publishing for me. Encounters with Dahlia Lithwick, Celeste Ng, and John Scalzi provided encouragement at times when I needed it. My Facebook friends supportive and snarky comments on my daily word count announcements likewise helped keep me writing. Melissa Proulx unlocked the mystery of .eps files for me. And special mention must be made of Madison Mangels, who went through the manuscript with a keen eye and four different colors of Post-it notes to flag any statements that needed clarification or correction. If any such errors remain, the fault is mine, not hers.
Thanks are also due to the political reporters whose accounts of these campaigns were very crucial to my research. Journalism is often called the first draft of history, and I hope Ive done justice to their coverage.
Throughout the conception, writing, and editing of this project, I often took myself to the True Brew Caf at Gibsons Bookstore in Concord, New Hampshire, to do my work. Thanks to the staff there for giving an itinerant scholar a table, wifi, and an electrical outlet, even when I was working on a nonfiction book during National Novel Writing Month. Support your local independent bookstores.
Additional thanks are due to the deans office at Saint Anselm College, the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, and the Department of Politics at Saint Anselm College for their generous financial support.
Further thanks to the State University of New York Press; my editor there, Michael Rinella, who knew exactly when to ask for updates and was very generous with my interpretations of deadlines; and to SUNYs production and editorial staff. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful recommendations about improving the manuscript.
Thanks as well to Dr. John Disceaux and Bill Potts; to Bernadette Fox; to Gordon Cole and Dougie Jones and Margaret Lanterman; and to Yorkie and Kelly; as well as to Tracyanne Campbell, Gavin Dunbar, Carey Lander, Kenny McKeeve, and Lee Thomson; and to Colin Hay, Robert Earl Keen, Jens Lekman, Lyle Lovett, Nick Offerman, and Gwenno Mererid Saunders.
Finally, thanks to my parents, James and Donna Galdieri, for instilling in me a lifelong love of politics. And thanks to my wife, the formidable Katherine Alexandra Eads Galdieri, and our daughter, the amazing Veronica Rose Eads Galdieri, for living with me during what turned out to be a years-long gestation process. A final thank you goes to our son, Alexander Christopher Eads Galdieri, who had the good sense to arrive after the manuscript was completed.
Chapter 1
Dont Be a Stranger
N ovember 4, 2014, was a very good night to be a Republican. When the votes were tallied, Republicans had picked up 9 seats in the United States Senate and won control of that body for the first time in a decade. Incumbent Democrats lost in Arkansas, Alaska, Colorado, North Carolina, and, after a December runoff, Louisiana, while Republicans swept the seats opened up by the retirements of longtime incumbent Democrats in Iowa, Montana, West Virginia, and South Dakota. In the House of Representatives, Republicans expanded their majority to 247 seats, the partys largest since just after World War II. Controversial Republican governors in Florida, Kansas, Maine, and Wisconsin won second terms in the face of fierce opposition, and, in state after state, Republicans won or tightened their control of state legislatures. Republicans even won governors races in Democratic-leaning states like Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland. It was the sort of triumphant night that a political party is lucky to enjoy once every decade so, when the political stars align just right, and every close race breaks in the same direction. While many Democrats had hoped that they could use sophisticated voter mobilization and targeting techniques to win enough close races to hold onto a bare Senate majority, those hopes were dashed. Election night 2014 was a night when Republicans simply could not loseexcept in New Hampshire.
