Shrewsbury GOP mailing called a ‘poke in the eye’

May 27-- May 27--SHREWSBURY -- A rift between the state Republican Party apparatus and the Baker-Polito administration made itself felt in last month's town election here, political observers say.

In the campaign for Shrewsbury Housing Authority, the state GOP subsidized a mailing on behalf of Brenda Brown, a political newcomer who was one of three candidates for a seat on the board.

While municipal elections in Shrewsbury are non-partisan, Ms. Brown is a Republican.

However, so is the incumbent Housing Authority chairman Ms. Brown was challenging. Paul Campaniello's re-election campaign for a third five-year term was backed by Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and state Rep. Hannah Kane, both Shrewsbury Republicans.

In getting involved in the Housing Authority campaign, the state GOP was backing a challenge to a local Republican incumbent, endorsed by the Republican lieutenant governor, in the lieutenant governor's own backyard.

Mr. Campaniello ended up winning re-election handily, taking 52 percent of the vote in the May 7 election. Ms. Brown finished far back, in third place in the three-candidate field. Mr. Campaniello received 1,955 votes, to 1,283 for Beth Shea Bryant, and 542 for Ms. Brown.

That the Massachusetts GOP should have taken a side in an election in the lieutenant governor's hometown, against the lieutenant governor's candidate, suggests to some observers that a rift is growing between a Trumpified state party apparatus and the administration of Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who has wide bipartisan support in blue Massachusetts, but is seen as too liberal by his party's hard right.

"It was a highly unusual situation, highly, highly unorthodox," says Mr. Campaniello, who describes himself as a "very typical Bill Weld-Charlie Baker Republican," and says he had the backing of all the town's selectmen and all but one Democratic colleague on Housing Authority in addition to the endorsements from Lt. Gov. Polito and state Rep. Kane.

"It was a poke in the eye, no doubt about that," he said. "There's a schism in the party and I fell victim to it."

The state party apparatus seems to be setting itself up in resistance to the "people and ideas of the Baker Administration," said Ed Lyons, a pro-Baker Republican activist and political writer from Swampscott.

"This shows they're being more aggressive," Mr. Lyons said.

Gov. Baker of Swampscott, a centrist Republican in predominantly Democratic Massachusetts, is the nation's most popular governor, with an approval rating of 72 percent, according to Morning Consult. Asked during a debate last year to describe Mr. Trump, Gov. Baker referred to the president as "outrageous, disgraceful and a divider."

In his own Republican party, Mr. Baker has faced criticism from the right. In the state GOP primary last fall, challenger Scott Lively, an anti-gay minister who called Donald Trump "God's man in the White House," and Baker a "RINO," or "Republican in Name Only," received 35 percent of the vote.

Former Andover state Rep. Jim Lyons, another Trump loyalist targeted by Democrats in the past for his conservative views on abortion and transgender rights, took over the chairmanship of the Massachusetts Republican Party this year and has brought a populist right tone to the job.

Recent press releases from the state party have decried dangerous illegal immigrants, the "infanticide" that would result from expanded abortion rights legislation, and the perceived anti-Semitism of pro-Palestinian U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.

A Massachusettts GOP email sent out by Mr. Lyons this past week encouraged Republicans to run for office, with the pitch: "Have you had enough of the Radical Left's nonsense?"

In Shrewsbury, Ms. Brown, a real-estate agent whose Facebook cover photo in August 2016 was a panoramic portrait of Trump with the slogan, "I Am Your Voice," threw her hat in the Housing Authority ring.

Mr. Campaniello said Ms. Brown had asked the state party for support as a conservative Republican in the race.

A mailing on her behalf went out prior to the May 7 election bearing the stamp of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee, 85 Merrimac St., Suite 400, Boston.

"It's not a race the state party typically would get involved in," said Mindy McKenzie, chair of the Shrewsbury Republican Town Committee and a Republican State Committeewoman.

She said she was surprised the state party's bulk mail rate markings, or indicia, had been used on the mailing. Ms. McKenzie said she had never met Ms. Brown, and that the state party's activity on Ms. Brown's behalf had not been called to her attention as local party chair.

She questioned the expenditure of state resources on unseating a sitting Republican to replace him with another Republican at the local level.

"I honestly don't know if it's a slap in the face," Ms. McKenzie said. "I know it's a waste of money."

Mr. Campaniello said a mailing of this sort costs about $3,000. He said no line item was included in her expenses filed so far at Town Hall.

It is unclear if this was an in-kind donation from state party. Town clerk's office says final end-of-campaign financial reports for the May 7 election have yet to be submitted.

Ms. Brown did not return phone messages seeking comment.

The communications director for the Massachusetts Republican Party, Evan Lips, did not acknowledge phone and email messages requesting comment.

The Baker-Polito press office also did not respond to a request for comment.

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