Rep. Brian Golden of Massachusetts has endorsed President Bush for re-election, drawing criticism from local Democratic activists and the state party. Golden cites Bush's leadership as commander-in-chief and confidence in Bush's ability to communicate purpose to troops as reasons for his endorsement. Critics argue Golden's endorsement goes against Democratic principles and will hurt him politically in future elections. Golden states he is standing by his principles even if it brings political difficulties.

1. Rep. Golden Re-Endorses Bush
Leo Champion, Editor
PRIORITY: HEADLINE
USE ATTACHED PHOTO GOLDEN2.JPG
18th
Suffolk Democrat comes under heavy fire from activists, party
State Representative Brian Golden, whose district includes Packard’s Corner, Allston
Village, North Allston, Chestnut Hill and some of the Oak Square/Fanueil area, has shocked local
activists, drawn fire from the state Party and attracted national attention by endorsing President
Bush for re-election against hometown challenger John Kerry. Golden had supported Bush’s
2000 election effort, to the point of going down to Florida as a pro-Republican observer of the
recount there.
“What motivates me is the Commander-in-Chief element,” Golden said. “The
Commander-in-Chief issue is huge to me this time around. It wasn’t a significant consideration in
2000… compared to the end of 2001, the emphasis of the role correspondingly mushroomed in
significance and, just to put it bluntly, I have confidence in President Bush as Commander-in-
Chief and I do not have confidence in Senator Kerry. President Bush can [communicate a clarity
of purpose to the American people and to American troops]; Senator Kerry cannot do that. He’s
proven incapable of doing it so far.”
“I was outraged the first time he did it, so I’m equally if not more outraged now,” said
area activist and local historian Bill Marchione, who represented an Allston-Brighton district on
the Boston school board in the 1980s. “I think for him to endorse a Democrat and to endorse a
President who represents, it seems to me, everything that’s contrary to the principles of the
Democratic Party is rather hypocritical.”
“It’s more a logical continuum of my past support,” said Golden. “I supported Bush in
2000, and I think even though I have a very public record of support for the President in the past,
some may have assumed I would stay out of the Presidential election and/or support the home
state guy, given the different circumstances of 2000. But at the end of the day, the principles that
pushed me in the direction of supporting Bush in 2000 are even stronger this time.”
Golden has had an ongoing relationship with Bush since the early 1990s. In January of
1989 his father, a Newton Police Department narcotics detective (and an Allston activist – Paul
Berkeley’s predecessor as president of the Allston Civic Association), went to Washington DC
for a War on Drugs conference and met the elder President Bush, George W’s father. Shortly
after Golden’s father died in 1990, the President sent a note of condolence; not long after, when
Golden was in Texas as an Army lawyer, he contacted George W. Bush, who had recently been
elected Governor, and they began a correspondence that culminated in their meeting during
Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000.
Rumors have circulated, since Golden’s extremely controversial 2000 endorsement, that
the representative is looking for a Presidential appointment – in particular, as either an assistant
US Attorney or as undersecretary to a cabinet member. These rumors were strongly agreed with
by a high-level state Democratic staffer, but categorically denied by Golden.

2. “There’s no truth to those rumors,” Golden said. “They were kicked around a lot when I
endorsed Bush in 2000, but I’m not an assistant US Attorney now.”
Golden grew up in North Allston, going to Boston Latin School and then Harvard
College. After an unsuccessful first run for state representative in the early 1990s, he studied law
at the College of William and Mary and served a four-year term in the US Army’s Judge
Advocate General branch. In 1998 he won a five-way primary for state representative. He holds
the rank of major in the Army reserves, and since election has been on two deployments: to
Europe: as a legal advisor to NATO command, and to a similar job in Bosnia-Herzegovnia.
Shortly before leaving for his six-month Bosnia deployment in December 2001 – “as I
was getting on the plane,” Golden says – he learned that Dave Friedman, a party activist, was
challenging him for the Democratic nomination. In what one long-term resident described as “one
of the most intense local primaries in living memory” Friedman, backed by State Democratic
chair Philip Johnston, spent $100,000 – twice as much as Golden – and lost by 304 votes to the
conservative Democrat. Another liberal challenger, Paul Felker, received 237 votes.
Friedman said during his campaign that one of his main reasons for running against
Golden was Golden’s endorsement of Bush. Many local Democrats who had supported Friedman
said that they did so primarily because of Golden’s endorsement of Bush.
Friedman, now the general counsel to Senate President Travaglini’s office, was
unavailable for comment on Golden’s 2004 endorsement. Another Travaglini aide said that he
had gone on a leave of absence through November to work on John Kerry’s campaign.
“I think this is going to get him another challenger in 2006, definitely,” said an Allston
activist who requested her name be withheld. “He’s let down a lot of his constituents, people who
thought that he’d learned from his mistake in 2000 and his primary in 2002. I don’t know if
people are going to be so forgiving of him in 2006.”
“He seems to me to be pretty far-moved from the likes of a Steven Tolman or a Kevin
Honan,” Marchione agreed. “He’s not really in step with what the majority in this district wants. I
think it’s going to spell political difficulties for him in future.”
Another activist – who also requested anonymity; both said that they were involved with
programs that they feared might be cut if they criticized a state representative – agreed with
Marchione, saying that in 2002 Golden had arguably been saved by last-minute endorsements
from other Boston legislators including mayor Thomas Menino.
“And I don’t think they’ll be so forgiving next election,” he said.
“I assume there will be political consequences,” Golden said. “I assume there will be a
race in 2006 and that I will spend a lot of time counteracting negative attacks, just as I did in
2002. I came into office in 1998 after a really hard-fought primary. I was lucky to be re-elected in
2000, had really serious opposition in 2002 and was re-nominated. A couple of years after I got
out of college I’d run in 1990. Contentious elections aren’t unexpected in my political life and I
accept them as a price of standing on principle and doing what I think is right even when it’s not
easy.”
A high-level state Democratic staffer said that Golden’s endorsing the President would
not make a difference in the general election, pointing out that Kerry was assured of winning

3. Massachusetts. The staffer pointed out that state representative really wasn’t a very important
position, on the national scale.
Nevertheless, Golden’s actions have gained him national attention. A number of
conservative blogs have mentioned him, and Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund began an
entry in his Political Diary with “A Democratic state legislator in John Kerry’s backyard has
endorsed George W. Bush. Brian Golden… says he supports Mr. Bush for his leadership in the
war on terror and his education reform efforts.”
“He’s [endorsing Bush] out of principle,” said Allston neighborhood activist Joe
Mulligan, a former Golden staffer. “He’s a very thoughtful guy, and there’s a lot of depth to his
worldview. I think he has a greater worldview than many people based on his experiences, having
been in Bosnia with the peacekeeping forces and having been in the military during a time of war.
He’s had the opportunity to travel and meet a lot of people. I think that gives him a more national
perspective on things.”
“He’s a Republican masquerading as a Democrat,” said state Democratic Party
communications director Jane Lane. “It’s not surprising – he did it in 2000. I think it’ll make
absolutely no difference on the election… Bush’s hometown newspaper in Crawford, Texas
endorsed John Kerry, and I think that makes a much greater impact than Golden’s endorsing
Bush.”
In addition to having served two overseas tours with the Army Reserves – to which he is
the only member of the Massachusetts legislature to belong – Golden has seen disaster first-hand.
Shortly after the September 11 attacks, he went down to New York City as a volunteer worker
and spent time at Ground Zero.
“This is a great job,” Golden said. “I’ve loved this job, I’ve loved the six years I’ve been
in it so far. I appreciate the people who have sent me back for three terms and have now just re-
nominated me for a fourth term as a Democrat, but it’s a job worth doing only on your own terms.
If you start discarding your sense of right and wrong for the pure purpose of holding office
without regard for the things you care deepest about, then [re-elections] start becoming hollow
victories. I’m thrilled to be able to do this job, but only so long as I can speak about the things I
truly care about.”