Reply #1: Let me see.... I'll answer what I know

[MissMillie]

1) I think he was an outsider because he didn't have a lot of experience in public office. He was considerably wealthy, and his opponent John Silber suffered from foot-in-mouth disease. Also, I think Weld was an outsider to the GOP because he was very liberal on social issues (ie gay rights)

2) Silber, I think, was labelled "unstable" much in the way that Howard Dean was. Weld had an amazing amount of wealth from which to finance a campaign.

3) I don't remember much of the specifics of his tenure, except that he tried very hard to balance budgets off the backs of state employees. He was big on privatizing a lot of services, but fortunately he wasn't as successful in this area as he wanted to be.

4) He was pretty popular. His re-election was a piece of cake.

5) He resigned, I think, believing he was going to have a job in the Clinton administration. I think he was even considered as an ambassador to Mexico, but some southern Senator (Helms, I think) put the kybosh to it.

6) He lost to Kerry because even though Weld was liberal on some issues, Kerry was liberal on all issues, and Massachusetts is a liberal state.


That's my take on it.