"This is shaping up to be like 2010 all over again for Republicans," he added, referencing the historic comeback then-GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown pulled off against then-Attorney General Martha Coakley after the latter held double-digit polling leads a little over a week ahead of that January's special election. "The similarities and parallels are impossible to ignore."
Like Coakley, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Maura Healey is also a sitting attorney general, while Republican Geoff Diehl, like Brown, has been all but dismissed by left-leaning pollsters and pundits alike.
The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune reports that "the governor's race has focused mostly on pocketbook issues such as the impact of inflation, and rising energy costs and taxes."
Lyons said he believes the economy will be the issue generating the most voter turnout, and pointed to data buried inside an early-September Emerson College showing that for the overwhelming amount of Massachusetts, their top concern is the state of the economy. Meanwhile, results posted Monday morning from a Siena University/New York Times poll show that economic concerns continue to grow for a large majority of Americans.
"This race is wide open, and Geoff can absolutely pull this off as more and more voters come to grips with how bad the Democrats' economic agenda has been for their bank accounts," Lyons said. "One-party rule will bury Massachusetts, just like it's doing to the rest of America as a result of what's happening in Washington, D.C."
