William Weld (left) and John Silber
November 6, 1990: It is Election Day, and in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Senator John Kerry wins a 2nd term. The Democrat wins 57.0 percent of the vote, defeating the Republican nominee, Jim Rappaport, who gets 42.9 percent.
Note: Future President John Adams wrote the Constitution of Massachusetts in 1780. He used the term "Commonwealth," because he wanted a word that meant a "republic," and showed that the power belongs to the people; rather than using the word "State," which could mean rule by a monarch. As far as the U.S. federal government is concerned, there is no difference.
Three other States use "Commonwealth of... " rather than "State of... " for their official names. The founders of Pennsylvania and Virginia used the traditional English term "Commonwealth" in their Constitution, to show that the government was founded for the common good, and derived its power from the people, not a king. And Kentucky used the word because it separated from Virginia.
A real estate developer, Rappaport was soon named Chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party. In 2002, he ran for Lieutenant Governor, but lost the Republican Primary. Kerry was re-elected in 1996, 2002 and 2008; was nominated for President in 2004; and served as Secretary of State in President Barack Obama's 2nd term.
Kerry's re-election was never in doubt. More interesting was the election for Governor. The usual party persuasions were flipped: The Democratic nominee was seen as a conservative, and the Republican nominee was thought of as a liberal.
John Silber was born in 1926 in San Antonio, Texas, without a right hand. Unashamed of the deformity, he had his suits tailored to expose the arm. Although his parents were practicing Presbyterians, his father had been born Jewish, in Germany, and lost a sister at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Silber graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, where he met his wife, with whom he had 8 children.
He earned a Ph.D. at Yale University, and a Fulbright Scholarship, allowing him to teach at the University of Bonn, in what was then the capital of West Germany. It was then that he learned of his family's Jewish history.
He became Chairman of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Texas from 1962 to 1967, and then as Dean of UT's College of Arts and Sciences. This meant that he was at the Austin campus when coach Darryl Royal led their football team to the National Championship in 1963 and 1969; but also was there in 1966, when Charles Whitman turned the bell tower of the Main Building into a sniper's nest, killing 17 people before being shot and killed himself.
While at UT, Silber was well known for his support of liberal causes, having founded the Texas society to abolish capital punishment, and being a supporter of civil rights. He was fired in a dispute with Regents Chairman Frank Erwin, for whom UT's sports arena is named.
But in 1971, he was named President of Boston University, and held that post until 2003. He settled the school's messed-up finances, and brought Nobel Prize laureates Saul Bellow and Elie Wiesel onto the BU faculty. But he also feuded with leftist history professor Howard Zinn, and was court-ordered to give Zinn back pay. He was accused of racism in 1986, for suppressing a protest of the apartheid policies of South Africa.
According to a friend of mine who attended BU at the time of the 1990 election, "He also made a name for himself as BU President by enacting increasingly archaic rules relating to dormitory social visits." You might remember the line from the song "Dirty Water" by The Standells, which came out in 1966, and told of various sordid goings-on in Boston: "Frustrated women, have to be in by 12:00. Aw, that's a shame."
In 1990, following his unsuccessful 1988 campaign as the Democratic nominee for President, and the collapse of his economic "Massachusetts Miracle," Michael Dukakis dropped out of the race for a 4th term as Governor. Raymond Flynn, the popular Mayor of Boston, had been considered as a Primary challenger to Dukakis, but he also declined to run. Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Murphy seemed like Dukakis' natural successor, and she was challenged by Silber and Francis Bellotti, a former Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General of the State.
Silber's campaign for the nomination was marked by a series of caustic, "politically incorrect" statements, which came to be called "Silber Shockers." He angered black voters by calling the State a "welfare magnet," and proposed the termination of public benefits for unmarried mothers who have a second child while still on public aid. He said white supremacists, but also Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and feminist leader Gloria Steinem, were "the kind of people I wouldn't appoint as judges."
He urged prioritizing care for children over the elderly and terminally ill, saying, "Shakespeare was right when he said, 'Ripeness is all.' When you've had a long life and you're ripe, then it's time to go." Quoting King Lear might have won him some votes from academics at schools like BU, Boston College, Harvard, Northeastern, Tufts, Amherst, the University of Massachusetts and Springfield College; but it turned off older voters, and did him no favors with working-class voters.
Bellotti's television advertising put him in the lead in the polls in January 1990, and by May, Silber had passed Murphy for 2nd place. At the State's Democratic Convention, Bellotti won the Party's endorsement, but that guaranteed nothing for the Primary. Murphy dropped out, and endorsed Bellotti. But, by this point, Dukakis and Murphy were so unpopular, her endorsement hurt Bellotti, and Silber won the Primary, 53 percent to 43.
The Party coalesced around Silber, as he got the nominations of both Senators, Kerry and Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy; Ted's nephew, Robert F. Kennedy's son, Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II; and Mayor Flynn.
The Republican nomination went to William Weld. Born in 1945 in Smithtown, Long Island, New York, he was the epitome of old money: His father was an investment banker and a descendant of one of the earliest students at what became Harvard University; and his mother was a descendant of William Floyd, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the original members of Congress from the State of New York. Weld could be tone-deaf about his blue-blood status: When asked if his ancestors came to Massachusetts on the Mayflower, he decided to make a joke, and said, "No, but their servants did."
Weld earned undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard, and earned a fellowship to Oxford University, although he failed to gain a Rhodes scholarship from the iconic British school. He married Susan Roosevelt, a great-granddaughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, and they had 5 children.
Weld became legal counsel to the the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on the Judiciary, including during its 1974 impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon. In 1978, he ran for Attorney General of Massachusetts, winning the Republican nomination, but losing to Bellotti.
President Ronald Reagan appointed him the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts in 1981. He won convictions in 109 out of 111 cases, specializing in prosecuting bank fraud. In 1986, he was appointed to be the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division -- an appointment Reagan may have regretted when Weld investigated his immediate boss, Attorney General Edwin Meese, a longtime friend and ally of Reagan's. Weld could not find enough evidence to charge Meese with any crimes, and resigned his post in protest of Meese's ethics.
Weld's liberal stands on social issues made him a viable candidate for Governor, and he easily won the Republican nomination. But despite his promise to cut the taxes that had gotten the State the unfortunate nickname "Taxachusetts," there seemed not to be enough Republican voters in the State to get him over the finish line. A Republican hadn't been elected Governor there since Frank Sargent in 1970. Polls showed Weld anywhere from a "statistical dead heat" (Silber's edge being within the margin of error) to 10 points behind. Liberals switching sides to support Weld, and conservatives doing the same to support Silber, made things unpredictable.
What really turned out to be unpredictable was Silber's mouth. Later in the campaign, he called Weld a "back-stabbing son of a bitch" for resigning to protest Meese's leadership. He followed this comment by going on local television and claiming that the proliferation of working mothers had led to an increase in child neglect.
On October 29, he was interviewed at his house, on WCVB-Channel 5, the ABC affiliate in Boston, by Natalie Jacobson, co-anchor of the evening news with her husband, Chet Curtis. (They were married from 1975 to 2001, and co-anchors from 1982 to 1999.) Silber pushed back on questions about feminism and his earlier remarks on child neglect and abuse. He threatened to end the interview, saying, "If I'm into another one of these 'Silber Shocker' things, then to hell with this damn program, because I don't need that."
It got worse: When Jacobson asked him to reflect on his personal strengths and weaknesses, he snapped, "You find the weakness. I don't have to go around telling you what's wrong with me. The media have manufactured about 16,000 non-existing qualities that are offensive and attributed them all to me. Let them have their field day." The entire interview made Silber look hostile, especially to women, not just to Jacobson.
After the interview, The Boston Globe, New England's largest and most influential newspaper, broke with its tradition, and endorsed a Republican. It may have made the difference: Weld won 1,175,817 votes, or 50.2 percent. Silber won 1,099,878, or 46.9 percent. Weld's margin of victory was 76,000, fairly close.
Weld won the Counties of Franklin, Barnstable (Cape Cod), Hampshire, Worcester (including the City of the same name), Middlesex (including Cambridge, Lexington and Concord), Essex (the North Shore), Norfolk (including Brookline and Foxborough), Plymouth (the South Shore) and Nantucket (made up entirely of the island of the same name).
Silber won Suffolk (most of which is Boston), Berkshire (including Pittsfield), Hampshire (including Springfield), Bristol (including New Bedford and Fall River) and Dukes (Martha's Vineyard).
Silber never ran for office again. But he continued to court controversy, especially when canceled the BU football program after the 1997 season. He stepped down in 2003, and died in 2012, at the age of 86.
Weld was re-elected in 1994. Thinking he was the only Republican who could beat Senator Kerry in 1996, he ran against him, but lost, 52 percent to 44. Apparently, Massachusetts voters had decided they liked having Kerry (and Ted Kennedy) in the Senate, and liked having Weld as Governor, and chose to keep each man in his current office.
In 1997, President Bill Clinton crossed party lines to appoint Weld to be U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. He resigned as Governor, but his nomination was torpedoed by Senator Jesse Helms, due to Weld's disloyalty to Meese (and, by association, disloyalty to Reagan), and also for his pro-choice stance on abortion, which should have been absolutely irrelevant to the post he was seeking.
Weld's Lieutenant Governor, Paul Cellucci, became Governor, and won a term in his own right in 1998. He resigned in 2001, when President George W. Bush appointed him to be U.S. Ambassador to Canada. Helms made no objection to this. Cellucci's Lieutenant Governor, Jane Swift, became the 1st female Governor of Massachusetts.
But the State's Republicans never trusted her, and recruited businessman Mitt Romney, son of a former Governor of Michigan and the man Ted Kennedy beat for re-election to the Senate in 1994, and she dropped out. Romney won, making it 4 straight gubernatorial elections that the Republicans had won. Romney declined to run for re-election, and Democrat Deval Patrick won in 2006 and 2010. Republican Charlie Baker won in 2014 and 2018, and Democrat Maura Healey won in 2022.
In 2002, Bill and Susan Weld divorced. The following year, Weld married Leslie Marshall, a journalist and a former daughter-in-law of Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. It must have been true love, because, by that point, he certainly didn't need more connections.
Weld moved back to New York State, and ran for Governor in 2006, but lost the Republican Primary. In 2016, he left the Republican Party to become the Libertarian Party's nominee for Vice President, under former Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico. In 2020, he challenged Donald Trump in the Republican Primaries, but won just 1 Delegate. He endorsed Joe Biden, who beat Trump. As of November 6, 2022, Weld is a lobbyist for ML Strategies.
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November 6, 1990 was a Tuesday. In another notable election on this day, Jesse Helms was re-elected to the U.S. Senate in North Carolina. Already an icon of religious conservatism, the Republican defeated the Democratic nominee, Mayor Harvey Gantt of Charlotte. Gantt's loss was blamed on the fact that the State's most popular resident, basketball star Michael Jordan, refused to endorse him, saying, "Republicans buy sneakers, too." I have a separate entry for that event.
Also on that day, German soccer star André Schürrle and Saturday Night Live performer Bowen Yang were born.
Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 11 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Dallas Mavericks, 96-91 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Charlotte Hornets, 113-105 at the Charlotte Coliseum.
* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Orlando Magic, 102-95 at the Orlando Arena.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Miami Heat, 106-94 at the Miami Arena.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 98-96 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls, 110-108 at the Chicago Stadium. Jordan scored 33.
* The Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets, 145-135 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.) Kevin Smith scored 35 for the Rockets.
* The Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 130-109 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 125-123 in overtime at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Sacramento Kings, 102-85 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Detroit Pistons, 100-92 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
And there were 7 games in the NHL:
* The New York Islanders beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.
* The Washington Capitals beat the Quebec Nordiques, 4-1 at the Colisée de Québec.
* The Chicago Blackhawks and the Hartford Whalers played to a tie, 1-1 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Calgary Flames, 6-5 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 at the St. Louis Arena.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.
* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3 at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.
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