STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, OCT. 21, 2016.....In three days, Massachusetts voters will begin casting their ballots for president - and a whole host of other contests - in the state's first foray into early voting.
And in a little over two weeks, the circus that has been the 2016 election will come to an end, and with it the daily possibility that Gov. Charlie Baker will be asked about the latest words to cross Donald Trump's lips.
That, of course, counts on the big assumption that current national polling trends hold between now and Nov. 8. The latest WBUR/MassINC poll had Democrat Hillary Clinton leading the GOP's Trump by 25 points in Massachusetts. And that was before the final debate during which Trump refused to say he would accept the results of the Nov. 8 election, a position a Baker spokeswoman said the governor finds "irresponsible."
Rep. Geoff Diehl, one of Trump's most vocal Bay State surrogates, fanned the nominee's "rigged election" rhetoric by invoking former Everett Rep. Stephen "Stat" Smith, who went to jail for absentee voter fraud, but not for anything close to the type of widespread irregularities that could swing a national, or even statewide, election.
But like the King Tides that flooded piers this week when the ocean bowl could no longer hold the water, a post-election Trump void is bound to be filled, and in Massachusetts that could look something like a retired Red Sox star who appears bent on making sure he's famous for more than a bloody sock.
Curt Schilling, a bombastic conservative dubbed this week by Attorney General Maura Healey as TrumpLite, stoked the 2018 fires this week in a Rhode Island radio interview where he said he has decided to challenge for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's Senate seat in two years, assuming his wife Shonda says it's OK.
Given Schilling's penchant for the provocative, Warren-versus-Schilling could be a microcosm of Clinton-versus-Trump all over again, but some Bay State Democrats seem to be relishing the thought of it. "Bring it on," Healey posted to Twitter.