Despite disadvantage, Lindstrom lands shots
Republican Senate candidate Beth Lindstrom desperately needed a jolt of energy in her campaign and she got it, firing a flurry of shots at front-runner Geoff Diehl in their first debate showdown on Boston Herald Radio.
Lindstrom was the clear aggressor in the hourlong encounter, trying to paint Diehl as unelectable because of his close ties to President Trump.
But while Diehl got dinged up a little, he survived and should remain the candidate to beat as the race heads toward the Sept. 4 primary.
Diehl was the co-chairman of the 2016 Trump campaign in Massachusetts and for sure that could hobble him in a general election with an electorate that’s overwhelmingly anti-Trump.
But the problem for Lindstrom is she has to win the primary first. And there the Trump connection should help Diehl. The president got more than 300,000 votes in the 2016 Massachusetts primary, and those are the voters most likely to show up at the polls on Sept. 4.
Lindstrom, in fact, was careful not to go on the attack against Trump, even saying she would vote for him for re-election.
The Herald Radio debate was the first and maybe only chance for Lindstrom to stake out differences between her and Diehl, who secured the endorsement of the state Republican Party back in April.
Lindstrom, a small-business owner and the one-time consumer affairs chief for former Gov. Mitt Romney, has been aggressively pushing for months for a debate with Diehl and the other GOP contender, John Kingston.
Diehl was clearly more polished and generally handled the attacks well — with the notable exception of an over-the-top attack on Sen. Elizabeth Warren, saying she’s a “bigger threat” than Russia.
The four-term Beacon Hill lawmaker also came prepared to hit back at Lindstrom, claiming she raised more than 300 new consumer-related fees while she was in the Romney administration.
While Lindstrom tried to portray herself as an outsider who had never run for office, Diehl replied, “I’m thankful she hasn’t been elected because look at what she’s done when she was head of consumer affairs.”
And Kingston tried to portray himself as the real outsider — a businessman who has never run for office before.
But it was the Diehl-Lindstrom scuffle that dominated the debate, and may give her some momentum as the race winds down over the next few weeks.
“I’m not an insider,” Lindstrom said, defending her record at Consumer Affairs and as a political strategist. “I was a citizen activist to help people get elected … I have never been elected to office. That’s a very big difference between someone who’s been up at Beacon Hill for eight years and looking for the next rung on the political ladder.”
Lindstrom needs to stay aggressive over the next few weeks if she has a chance of winning the primary. The question is whether Republican voters — many of whom are Trump supporters — will buy her message.