For the past twelve years Massachusetts voters have balanced a Democratically controlled state legislature by electing Republican governors. Since Governor William Weld's popular ideology of social liberalism and fiscal conservatism debuted in 1991, however, the state budget has nearly doubled. With Acting Governor Jane Swift opting not to seek election after a historic but halting tenure, the focus of the GOP is on electing an "outsider" to "clean up the mess on Beacon Hill."

The next governor will face a series of problems, the most pressing of which is the state's current budget crisis. Already hundreds of millions of dollars have been cut from health and human-service programs. The ever-escalating cost of the "Big Dig" [the massive highway construction effort under downtown Boston] is another ongoing issue as the state tries to complete the largest public works project in American history. The state's high-stakes standardized testing of public school students is yet another contentious issue.

This year, Mitt Romney, a venture capitalist and former president of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee, is embroiled in a testy campaign with State Treasurer Shannon O'Brien for the open governor's seat. The two have battled back and forth in a high-profile campaign that has gained national attention, with President George W. Bush, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain fundraising for Romney, while former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have done the same for O'Brien.

Three other gubernatorial candidates have fought their way onto the ballot this year. Libertarian Carla Howell, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and Independent Barbara Johnson lost their court challenges seeking to participate in televised debates, but were eventually included in two debates at Romney's insistence. Those debates fully reflect the state's curious mix of puritanical conservatism and a cradle-to-grave liberalism.

Massachusetts' political heritage can clearly been seen its current political dynamic. The state's collective ideology is divided into equal parts colonial Yankee rigidity, Kennedy Family idealism, blue-collar conservatism and intellectual progressiveness.

When the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth in 1620, they brought with them a set of beliefs that would make the Massachusetts Bay Colony a cradle of democracy. A religious rigidity was coupled with a rugged individualism and strong emphasis on education. Those attributes turned into the seeds of a Yankee culture that would dominate the region until the 1840s. But as the great potato famine swept across Ireland, Irish Catholics immigrated to Boston en masse, gradually changing the political landscape.

The next 100 years would feature a political culture clash between the Yankee elite and working-class Irish Democrats. The colonials had traditionally been skeptical of newcomers, and their Yankee brethren years later were no different toward the Irish. Ironically, more recent waves of immigrants have found newly entrenched groups equally unwelcoming - a hard-line provincial attitude toward outsiders that is counter-intuitive to the city's liberal leanings.

Progressive doctrine, however, has generally led the way in Massachusetts - especially since the second half of the 20th century when, according to the Almanac of American Politics, Massachusetts "had the most liberal governance and national politics of any state in the country. Its Democratic percentage in presidential contests from 1968-88 was 53 percent, just slightly second to Rhode Island and well ahead of every other state."

Massachusetts voted 61 - 38 percent for Bill Clinton in 1996, his biggest margin in the nation. In 2000 it voted 60 - 33 percent for Al Gore, his largest margin except for, again, Rhode Island. Only 32 of 351 Massachusetts cities and towns voted for George W. Bush. Meanwhile, 7 percent of the state cast ballots for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, one of his highest percentages nationwide.

The corner office of the State House has traditionally been kinder to Republicans, with the GOP holding the governor's seat for the past three terms. Officials who have held statewide office in Massachusetts have a habit of trying to use it as a launching pad for larger political ambitions. Weld and his successor Gov. Paul Cellucci both prematurely left office when nominated for ambassadorships. Sen. John F. Kennedy, Gov. Michael Dukakis, Sen. Edward Kennedy, and Sen. Paul Tsongas all attempted runs for the Oval Office from the Bay State. Sen. John Kerry is expected to add himself to the list in 2004.

Since the days Oliver Wendell Holmes called Boston the "hub of the universe," Massachusetts has maintained a leadership role in the public policy arena. The state has long been in the forefront of educational issues: In 1635 settlers built the first American public secondary school, and in 1636 established the first American college, now Harvard University.

Boston still boasts a strong educational culture, housing over two-dozen major colleges and universities in the immediate area. The academic world and the political world often intersect: Boston's neighbor across the Charles River, sometimes referred to as the "People's Republic of Cambridge," is home to both Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others.

Massachusetts has also led the way on many social issues. Much of the Abolitionist movement before the Civil War was based in Boston. A century later during the civil rights movement, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan spent significant parts of their lives in greater Boston.

The tradition of politics in Massachusetts, while perhaps not as freewheeling as in the past, continues to be a trademark of day-to-day life in the Commonwealth.

-By Matthew Pruitt, WGBH-TV, Boston
Sources: The Almanac of American Politics; current news reports.