STAFF EDIT: Goodbye Galvin

The governor’s race has become quite a spectacle. Secretary of State William Galvin announced his self-removal from the race yesterday, leaving five Democratic candidates to vie for the position. If these candidates think they will be shoe-ins to the office because of the public’s disapproval of acting Gov. Jane Swift, they are sorely mistaken.

In Massachusetts, politics is not black and white. Despite the tendency to have a primarily Democratic representation in the State Legislature, voters are changing their tunes. In many cases, Republican voters and candidates espouse left-wing values, and at times conservatism is more prevalent among the Democrats. Surely, Republican voters felt a political bond with House Speaker Thomas Finneran, and Senate President Thomas Birmingham may too appeal to Republican voters this November.

According to Galvin, however, voters are not as concerned with politics as they have been in the past. Instead, they would rather focus on the Patriots’ trip to the Super Bowl, he has been quoted with saying. With an attitude like that, why would voters have an interest in their leaders? If Galvin has such thoughts about his target audience, his decision to drop out of the race was especially smart. That type of attitude is not what Masachusetts wants from its governor, anyway.

With Galvin out of the picture, the Democratic Party still has five other candidates currently in competition, which could serve to divide the party. The Democrats would be wise to lower that number further if they want to keep party cohesion intact. Candidates, for the sake of the party — and most importantly, the voters — graciously take a bow. Besides, if a certain Massachusetts senator decides to throw his hat in the ring for president in 2004, there may soon be another big race to vie for in the near future.