MA Governor: Tim Cahill

Tim Cahill is the only Independent running for the Massachusetts governor’s race this election. As an independent, he isn’t affiliated with either the Democrat or Republican Party, but it should be noted that he was registered as a Democrat before his change of parties. However, by looking at his website and the views on which he bases his campaign, he seems to lean more towards the Conservative side.
There are a few reasons why Cahill should be chosen as governor over the former two candidates. By only reading his campaign website, Cahill looks like he’s more of a Conservative, whom I tend to mostly agree with. I support his method of how he wants to lower taxes of all kinds. Lowering the taxes will ease the burden on employers, allowing them to expand their business and thus hiring more people. He also seems to understand that sometimes promoting alternative energy, while ‘benefitting’ the environment, can hurt the economy. Finally, I agree with his stance on illegal immigration; if the federal government won’t help with the problem, then the states should try to fix the issue on a smaller scale.
As with all candidates, however, there are reasons why Cahill shouldn’t be voted in as governor. To me, he doesn’t seem like the trustworthiness person. I simply don’t understand how he can change his entire views on certain issues 180 degrees around in, comparatively speaking, only a short amount of time. During the election of Deval Patrick, Cahill himself supported the tax increases and tended to side with the Democrats most of the time. To change into almost a polar opposite just seems fishy to me. There’s speculation that the only reason why he’s running is to attempt to divide the Republican Party base in Massachusetts between Baker and himself so that Patrick is reelected. Considering how he went from supporting higher taxes and Democratic principals to Conservative ones, that assumption doesn’t look like it could be far off. On the issues themselves as displayed on his website, he doesn’t elaborate on healthcare. Like every candidate so far, he claims that he would be able to lower the costs of healthcare, and also like every candidate so far, he doesn’t say how. How he will approach lowering the costs is more important to me than only saying that it’s an important issue to him.
Overall I probably wouldn’t vote for Cahill. At first, when looking at his website, he seemed to me a worthier candidate than Baker if I were able to vote. The main issue that I have is that I find it hard to believe that he believes everything on his website which he claims to stand for. With the public turning away from the Democrats because of their inability to fix the economy, it’s in the candidates’ interest to claim that they aren’t with Obama, but are either more Independent or Republican. I think that Cahill is exactly one of those people, who are only putting out what the people want to hear, not what he stands for. Overall, I support strongly the positions that he claims to have, but I just don’t think he is truly a Conservative-leaning Independent.