The plagiarizing prosecutor? So said the Boston Globe last week about Michael Sullivan, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and a former U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts. Sullivan reportedly lifted website material from fellow Republican Richard Tisei, a failed Congressional candidate in 2012.

Similar revelations of plagiarism haunted Berkshire Democrat Andrea Nuciforo’s failed congressional race last year (see “Tailored Message, Stolen Message?” Aug. 10, 2012). For Sullivan, whose office investigated and prosecuted rampant public corruption in Springfield from 2005 to 2007, the question isn’t who screwed up. That much appears to be clear: Sullivan’s campaign manager Paul Moore also ran Tisei’s campaign and admits using some of the same policy boilerplate for Sullivan that he’d used for Tisei. What isn’t clear is why Sullivan thinks Moore and his stale ideas will help him gain any traction this time around.•