Dan Winslow doesn't know me from Adam. We don't have any friends in common. We are not in any of the same clubs.
So when I say that Winslow, the newly elected and soon to be seated state representative from the 9th Norfolk district, (Medfield, Millis, Norfolk, Plainville, Walpole and Wrentham), has his sights set on something bigger than the lower branch of the Massachusetts legislature, I am merely making an educated guess.
I predict Winslow will be a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in 2014.
Of course, I could be wrong about his aspirations for higher office.
But I'm right when I point out that Winslow is not your typical frehsman rep.
For one thing, he's older, at 52, than the average greenhorn lawmaker. And his resume has a decidedly non-rookie tinge.
He's a former district court judge, for example, who gave up a lifetime tenured position on the bench to return to the private practice of law and soon found himself as chief counsel to former Governor Mitt Romney. In 2009, he played a key role in the jaw-dropping U.S. Senate campaign of Scott Brown, who coincidentally started his political life by winning the humble House seat that Winslow will take over in January.
Do you think Winslow wanted that seat to run errands for constituents and to carry water quietly for the growing but still small band of House Republicans?
Not likely.
Dan Winslow thinks the big thoughts and wants to advance some big issues.
For example, he was at the front of a small pack of Republicans at the State House the other day calling for the enactment of a "jobs bill" that would allow Massachusetts residents to claim a $300 deduction on their state income taxes for the first $4,800 in purchaes of merchandise, meals or motor vehicles.
And, just before that event, he made news by publicly declining to accept the per diem travel allowance given to legislators for every day they're in session.
"The voters aren't paid to commute to their jobs," he observed. "Why should legislators be paid to commute to their jobs?"
Dan Winslow is going to shake things up at the State House and have some fun in the process.
He has the smarts and the stature to rattle the halls like a heavyweight.
No one is going to call him a gadfly and pat him on the head at the end of the day.
What the Democrates will be calling him is likely to be unprintable.
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