U.S. Rep.
During a sunny-day tour of two areas on the Vineyard that have been hit hard by coastal erosion in the past year, Cong. William Keating encouraged a small group of public officials Thursday to press for federal funds for repairs — although he had no sunny promises about the outcome.
On the morning that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced that Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan will be his running mate, Martha’s Vineyard Democrats focused on a more local political decision as they heard from the two candidates they will choose between in the congressional primary on Sept. 6.
Martha’s Vineyard will be part of a new 9th congressional district under a redistricting plan announced this week.
Shortly after the plan was unveiled by legislative leaders, Rep. William Keating released a statement saying he will change his residency from Quincy to the Cape so he can run in the new district.
The completion of the first 100 days has become an important milestone in the career of a politician. For freshman Cong. William Keating, it has seemed more like 1,000 days, with geopolitical, domestic and even nuclear crises coming in quick succession. For the past two weeks Mr. Keating has been catching his breath, meeting with constituents from Edgartown to Quincy, but on Sunday he was reminded that the world doesn’t wait.
There are some positive aspects to being a new Democratic congressman after an election which saw a Republican landslide. Yesterday the new representative for the Vineyard, William Keating, enumerated a few.
For one, he said it does not take long to get to know your fellow freshmen party members.
“There are only nine of us,” he said yesterday, the day after he was sworn in.
“That’s the lowest number since 1915. So it just makes sense the nine of us would become close very quickly. And we have,” he said, adding:
The difference between a politician and a statesmen, someone once observed, is that a politician’s time horizon extends only as far as the next election.
So it was in statesman mode that Cong. William Delahunt arrived at the Gazette office last weekend, for perhaps a last editorial board discussion with the newspaper. He will not be a politician anymore after the election. But he will leave, unlike most of the Democrats who (the polls tell us) will be out after this election, at the time of his own choosing.
