A young liberal senator from Massachusetts General Court started a campaign in October 1993 to dethrone its president. He had been first elected to the office in 1978. William Keating, a Norfolk upstart, stated that it was time to clean the air at the statehouse. Keating stated that the old guard was out of touch and rotten. A new generation was available–and entitled to–to replace the last survivors from Boston’s past era of machine politicians.
His white whale was Billy Bulger. The Senate president was a South Boston native. He had been first elected to the General Court back in 1960. Keating was unfortunate to find out that Bulger was staunchly opposed to corruption and other underhanded dealings in city politics. He was a smart politician and ran a tight ship at the Senate. He was a socially conservative populist, in the old Boston Democrat style. His challenger sat in central on markets and to the left on issues social. In a Senate that was still headed by Billy Bulger, Bill Keating had little opportunity to rise. Bulger didn’t think much of Keating’s mental abilities and didn’t do much to conceal it.
