Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll thinks and acts big. She won a fifth term in November, putting her on track to mark 20 years in office in 2026. Driscoll rounded off 2021 with the announcement by state officials that a major offshore wind-energy project will include converting 42 acres of undeveloped land in Salem into the project’s “marshalling yard.”
Driscoll has reportedly joined a crowd of Democrats contemplating candidacies for lieutenant governor this year. The implication overshadowing their thinking is that Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and U.S. Secretary of Labor and former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh are likely candidates for governor, leaving only the lieutenant governorship in contention.
We urge Driscoll to reject this thinking and set her sights on a 2022 run for governor.
She is the most exciting politician on the North Shore and the most adept. She has steered Salem through the COVID-19 pandemic with a mix of steely-eyed leadership and careful attention to a widely-diverse chorus of viewpoints, offering perspectives on how best to serve city residents, Salem State University students, and the thousands of tourists who flock to the city.
Driscoll has the proven leadership, governing experience, and energy to make a run for governor and to galvanize voter enthusiasm.
Political naysayers will crack open the history books and point out that a Massachusetts mayor hasn’t gone on to the governor’s office since Maurice J. Tobin. Mayor of Boston from 1938-1944, Tobin served as governor from 1945-1947.
But serving as lieutenant governor has been a political dead end for all but a few Massachusetts politicians.
Two lieutenant governors in the last 120 years left the job in the rear-view mirror to ascend to higher office: former U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and former President Calvin Coolidge.
Former lieutenant governors Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift became governors when the men who held the job (in Swift’s case, Cellucci) left office before their terms ended. Massachusetts even went without a lieutenant governor from 2013-2015 after former Worcester Mayor Tim Murray resigned from the number-two job.
Driscoll doesn’t need to waste her time thinking about a run for lieutenant governor. With Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito joining Gov. Charlie Baker on Dec. 1 in announcing their decision to not seek another term in 2022, the threat of incumbent candidacy is off the table.
Republicans will not muster a credibly-electable candidate to seek the governorship this year, no matter what Republican aspirant Geoff Diehl says to the contrary. The opportunity is ripe for Driscoll to think big and act boldly.
We like her style and we like her chances as a 2022 Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts.
