Last Democratic governor to fold 'em

The last Democrat to willingly leave the governor’s office is Foster Furcolo, elected in 1956, though he ultimately didn't get what he wanted in the end: to be a U.S. Senator.

Foster Furcolo: Governor from 1957 to 1961Furcolo had a storied past in Massachusetts politics, constantly on the move from one office to the next. His first congressional campaign against Republican U.S. Rep. Charles Clason in 1946 was run by future Democratic national chairman Larry O’Brien, and though they didn’t win that one, he came back to defeat the first Rhodes Scholar to become a congressman in 1948. After being named state Treasurer in 1952, he made an unsuccessful pass at Leverett Saltonstall’s U.S. Senate seat in 1954.

He then ran for governor and won in 1956, and again in 1958. His trouble with the Democratically controlled legislature led him to forgo re-election and take on Saltonstall for a second time. Yet he didn’t get past the Democratic primary – adding insult to injury by losing the nod to Mayor William J. O’Connor of Springfield, the city that launched his political career.

Though there was a seat being vacated that year by President-elect John Kennedy, Furcolo had no real say in the appointment he was charged with making. The two never got along, with Furcolo even blaming his narrow 1954 Senate loss on Kennedy’s refusal of a television endorsement. Out of a small sense of modesty, he pushed for Attorney General Eddy McCormack while shilling for himself.

He sent Benjamin Smith to Washington to act as a seat-warmer for until Ted Kennedy turned the required 30 years of age. Furcolo never sought elected office again.

Endicott “Chub” Peabody, Michael Dukakis, Edward King, and Michael Dukakis (again) all lost campaigns for re-election.