Just in from Boston Mayor Tom Menino: his statement explaining why he is backing Elizabeth Warren. This is from a Warren campaign email reporting what happened at today’s rally in Roslindale.
“Like many voters, I wanted to get to know Elizabeth Warren. You know how I made up my mind about this election? I thought to myself. What if I wasn’t the Mayor. What if I was just a guy from Hyde Park who had a job with the city. Whose wife was an accountant and worried about their retirement savings. What if I was any guy who wondered how his two kids would send his six grandkids to college. And whether they would have good jobs on the other end. If I wasn’t the Mayor, who would speak up in Washington on my behalf? I thought to myself, if I was any guy from Hyde Park, Elizabeth would have my back, and so I have hers,” said Mayor Menino.
Great statement. Really, it’s about as good an up-summing of this race as I’ve yet seen.
Which direction is the crowd moving. They must need leaders, therefore, I must lead them. Too late to matter in my opinion.
What if I woke up and I weren’t mayor, what if I were just some uber-rich guy waking up in my Upper East Side townhouse with lots of income I didn’t want to pay taxes on.
Her guy: Massachusetts working stiff.
His guy: New York billionaire.
I’ll take her guy.
Terrific event today. Great energy.
The real question about Mayor Menino was not whether he would support Elizabeth, but whether he would work hard for her.
Today, Tom Metnino made it crystal clear. He will actively work to make sure tha Elizabeth is our next Senator. He didn’t just mail in his speech. He gave it publicly and enthusiastically.
Mayor Menino is “all in”. Today was another great day for Elizabeth!
I was there as well and it was a great event. It also worked really well with the timing coming off her first debate performance (which I think is why they waited. She is really hitting her stride (Although I think she should be hammering Brown about Romney more, maybe something like “He voted lock-step with Governor Romney when he was on Beacon Hill, he’d vote lock-step with President Romney if they both win and that’s not what Massachusetts needs” or something like that.
And judging from my friends who work for Mayor Menino, they have already got their orders to start hanging signs and working the phones etc. Mayor Meninio is all in and I think he can really make a difference.
and completely agree. Good crowd, good energy, particularly from Warren herself. Menino explained himself well enough and was indeed all in.
It was a terrific high-energy event, great attendance, diverse, everything you would want. All this was also true of her event at BU last Saturday with Deval Patrick and Michael Capuano.
The momentum in this campaign is high and her very good debate is only contributing to it. And Brown’s mantra(s) of heritage and now the asbestos case is only making him look sad and desperate.
On a lighter note, Joe Battenfeld in the Boston Herald wrote a story about Brown’s presidential prospects. Headline: Prez Scott Brown? He’s got Mass. appeal.
For some reason though, I can’t seem to find any coverage of the actual endorsement event.
it was good to hear the mayor relate.
I respect the fact that Menino has a good working relationship with Brown, as the Mayor he needs it to get services for Boston, etc. That said as a Democrat who has a great pro-union and pro-working class record he needs to go where his heart is and that is Warren. I do think the thought was, if she was not competitive, its not worth spending the political capital, but the convention and the debates have given her momentum and a bounce and it makes sense for him to put his chips on the table now.
Daley practiced this art as well, he didn’t endorse Obama, Duckworth or Giannoulius until late in their campaigns since he had a great working relationship with Mark Kirk, Henry Hyde and Peter Fitzgerald (also he’s a big fan/friend of Da Coach and had to wait for him to drop out), but I think we all knew he would be with the Democrats from day one, he just wanted to wait until the end to avoid a years worth of hammering a colleague. Notice the Hizzoner’s statements for Warren have been all positive and say little about bashing Brown.
but I’d love to wake up one morning and discover that Menino was no longer mayor of Boston.