Weld Wins Tight Massachusetts Governor’s Race

Outspoken Democrat John R. Silber late Tuesday night conceded a taut battle for the Massachusetts governorship to Republican William F. Weld.

With 79% of the precincts reporting, Weld had 51% of the vote, with Silber holding 49%. An estimated 75% of registered voters cast ballots in this election, a record for a non-presidential year.

Weld, 45, is a former U.S. attorney who served as an assistant attorney general in the Ronald Reagan Administration. Silber, 63, the outspoken and acerbic president of Boston University, was making his first foray into elective politics.

Weld becomes the first member of his party to be elected governor since 1970 in Massachusetts, where Republicans make up only 17% of registered voters.

Silber led Weld in opinion surveys until the final week of the longest and most expensive gubernatorial campaign in Massachusetts history. While many blanched at remarks that became known as “Silber shockers,” others at first seemed to find Silber’s candor refreshing.

Silber appealed to “the lunch-pail crowd” by presenting himself as “Joe Six-Pack with a Ph.D.,” said political commentator and former talk show host Avi Nelson.

But ultimately, Silber’s brash comments and unpredictability worked against him, Nelson said.

“In the end, people were a little afraid. They were frightened of John Silber, like the guy in the room who was going to throw a bomb,” Nelson said.

Weld espoused a platform that favored abortion rights, was strong on environmental issues and supportive of issues of concern to homosexuals. But he firmly opposed gun control and even suggested that the AK-47, an assault rifle, should be approved as a hunting weapon.

Voters delivered a mixed message in this election, soundly defeating Question 3, the controversial tax rollback initiative that Weld had endorsed.

Jack Flood, a Democratic member of the state Legislature, said Weld benefitted from what has become known here as “the temperament issue,” referring to Silber’s quick temper and often harsh tongue. In the week before the election alone, Silber shouted at two television interviewers and branded Weld both a “son of a bitch” and “an orange-haired WASP.”

“People want rational decisions made in a quiet way,” Flood said. “Silber was too loud.”

A sign in the Election Night crowd at Weld headquarters at the Park Plaza hotel captured that feeling. “Good Night, Dr. Know-It-All,” it read.

Increasingly, the campaign turned into a battle for liberal and female voters. And in the end, according to a CNN exit poll, the candidates ran evenly among both groups.

“The whole race turned on the liberal Democrats,” Nelson said, “people who have never voted for a Republican in their life.”

But those votes did not necessarily come readily. A poll conducted by the Roper organization showed that 44% of voters did not make up their minds about who to vote for until the final days of the campaign--and that 17% did not decide until Election Day itself.