Which brings out the very interesting question, where the heck is this race going? There’s no doubt in my mind that Festa would be the strongest DA out of the four we have to choose from, but can the other three spend millions combined and leave Festa as the last candidate standing? Only time will tell.
I was talking to a rep (who has a decent sense of these things) the other day and she told me that her prediction was a horse race between Koutoujian and Leone, with Barrios and Festa out of the way. At this point I’m subscribing to the last man standing theory, especially if Barrios can’t even hold on to the gay vote.
Please share widely!
Geez – he’s the LAST one I’d pick to be a serious contender! It just doesn’t seem like he’s really running – at least the other guys are actually talking about being DA. His web site doesn’t even mention that he’s a candidate. Weird.
Festa and Barrios are everywhere. At least they are both everywhere I go. They are both very dynamic candidates. Personally I can’t believe the other two are serious contenders in this race because I’ve seen no evidence of them. But maybe we travel in different circles.
My experience is the same as Katie’s. As far as I can tell, the other two candidates haven’t really entered the race so far. But there’s still time for them to start seriously running, particularly if they’ve got campaign money.
… and, as a followup to that comment, it turns out Leone has quite a lot of money raised for this campaign, and Festa has very little.
I’m not surprised about Malia’s support for Festa. Mike is well-liked by many of his colleagues, and presumably has a good working relationship with Liz over the years.
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That having been said, Malia doesn’t represent any of Middlesex County, so it’s not as if she adds a whole lot of effective support to the race.
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As for the gay thing, it’s probably no different than what’s been going on with ethnic politics for a long time. Politicians from the same base often end up as rivals based on internal dynamics – “who’s done more for the community” kind of stuff. Solidarity is a very loose concept for politicians.
If I’m not mistaken, one of Festa’s top aids is gay. And I believe Malia and Festa are pretty good friends over the years.
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I think it’s worth noting how phenomenal it is to have two candidates in a race who are so openly friendly to gay issues. And that a gay politician would endorse a nongay one really speaks to that. It also speaks to the likelihood that Barrios never bothered to even ask for Malia’s endorsement. He just assumed it would be there.
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Barrios has a major problem in the halls of the state house, if you ask me. He’s all about himself. Other reps really don’t trust him that much, because he isn’t interested in anything but pushing his own agenda, which is defined by his ambition.
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Barrios is a good progressive, I think. But I’m not even really sure.
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It’s also worth noting that between this endorsement, which may hurt Malia with parts of her gay JP consituency, and the redistricting that moved her into a much more heavily minority district, Liz Malia has some major concerns about whether she can stay in office. She is really a very good state rep (forgiving her past support for Finneran, and her opposition to the Campaign finance reform). It would be a shame to lose her in the state house, but she will face a very tough re-election battle. There’s a woman who I’ve heard is preparing to run, but I don’t know her name and don’t know who she is.
So I’ve read the comments so far. Here is what I’ve been able to glean from it.
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Festa is working the inside game well… at every Democratic event, working the various interest groups, trying to grab some of the progressive base…but doesn’t have two nickels to rub together in a county with 1.5 million people.
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Leone has a bunch of cash (about $350,000)… but no one knows him or sees him. I’m not even sure if he is a Democrat or a Democrat in name only (and for some new info for you guys, his most recent job was working in the US Attorney’s office under Republican Michael Sullivan).
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Koutoujian has no money, doesn’t even have a website, and no one has seen him anywhere.
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Barrios, like Festa, is also working the inside game well… at every Democratic event, working the various interest groups, trying to grab some of the progressive base…but unlike Festa, has over $500,000 in the bank and so isn’t hoping to win the election exclusively by somehow knocking the doors of 1.5 million.
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Umm, I’ll give Festa credit for getting Malia’s endorsement. But at some point, playing even with Barrios on the grass roots side and getting his butt handed to him on the money side isn’t exactly an equation for success. And let’s not forget that Barrios represents Cambridge and Somerville, which, I’ll assume, vote more Democratic than Melrose and Reading (Festa’s base). Until Festa puts together a full campaign (including campaign manager, an actual bank account, etc.), I don’t see Barrios losing any sleep right now.
I thought it was Christmas not April fools!
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You guys are screwing with me about what you think of this race, right?
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I think there are good Democrats running for DA and we should be happy that we have some choices.
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Unfortunately for Festa, I read about Barrios and Koutoujian in the news paper, see Leone on TV reguarly (he was on NECN last night) and didn’t even know Festa till I started reading these blogs in August.
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Barrios is a great legislator. I think he is working hard which is evident by the amount of money that is being raised. Someone said he had over 300K? As a longtime supporter of his, I want him to run for Lt. Governor or stay in the Senate.
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I have to admit the DA race is not for him and that’s why I am with Gerry Leone, but that’s not to say that I don’t like Barrios…this just isn’t his race.
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End the April Fools joke, and treat this race as a job interview. If you do that, there is no question who the next DA will be.
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Happy Holidays.
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Joe
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As the original poster, I encourage people to visit my new blog, http://proginma.blogspot.com/ and see some of what else I have to say
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So I mentioned Leone to someone, just a regular voter in Framingham and she came back with “oh, he’s the shaken baby guy right?” I nodded.
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I don’t know what that means, but I do know that Leone is surely outpacing the other candidates in the amount of money he has been able to raise. But what I think the campaigns are planning to do… namely Barrios, Koutoujian and Leone is a super media blitz in September, which of course is what Silbert and Goldberg and Murray will do in the lg race about that time. So, I figure that whoever runs the most comprehensive field organization will probably take away the nomination.
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It is certainly true that Festa doesn’t have the money to send even one mailer to everyone in the district, he does have some other help in the form of connections, free labor etc. that may help offset his huge fundraising problem — and indeed he doesn’t even have enough money to finance a state rep race in towns like Wellesley and Weston, a race that cost $290,000 for Alice Peich in 2004.
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I’ve been told that he will be ramping up his fundraising this month (see ocpf site in a few days for details) in order to prove that he can raise money. Leone represents one end of the spectrum, Barrios is on the other.
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Leone has no policy making experience, just prosecutorial experience, and a whole lot of it. Barrios has never prosecuted, but is quite politically and policy savvy. Koutoujian and Festa are in the middle — Koutoujian has upwards f 300k (doesnt show on his ocpf website, as most of it is tied up in CDs etc) and Festa a tiny 37k. I think the electorate will go for a balanced candidate, and for that reason Leone may not stand the chance you think he does, and Barrios’ political bully skills wont be enough to convince voters he should be the DA even though he is clearly not qualified.
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WR
As one of the authors of the letter that seemed to have started this thread, I’d like to suggest that Barrios is chasing up the wrong tree. Regardless of his history in the Middlesex DA’s office, his Kerry paradigm lept from Lieutenant Governor to the Senate, and John’s Middlesex service was more a platform than a stepping stone. If Jarrett really wants what common knowledge claims he wants, to convert that Senator’s seat from Beacon Hill to Washington, the route is through the battle of the midgets, the Lieutenant Governor’s race, and he ought to use his money where it has the highest return.
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With his kitty in hand, it seems his only real disincentive is fear of Deval, since a black and brown ticket might be a challenge for God’s faithful Commonwealth. If that’s his fear, he’s more a fool than he’s ever seemed in the past, since the Democrats haven’t had a pair of Democratic candidates since Bellotti lost to Silber. It would be refreshing to have two candidates from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, and, even if Jarrett lost there, he’d have the credibility and critical exposure statewide to win big when or if or whenever Kerry or Teddy retreat to other climes (hell, heaven, the Vineyard or the Cape).
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I, for one, think that Senator Barrios has remarkable capacity for higher office, but an equally remarkable rapacity for egocentric ambition. Exploiting that ambition for both political and Political gain, for himself, for his causes, and for his Party is the best way to earn the credit it takes to lead a statewide ticket. Buying Middlesex as a forum for higher office is, quite literally, a pig in a poke. It may work for its current DA, but this is a very strange year for the Attorney General race in general, and for Coakley in particular.
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I hope that Jarrett invests his kitty in a more appropriate race, where he’ll get plenty of exposure and a fine platform for higher office, without any of the downside risks of cops, cases, and critics that infest his venture into the executive branch. Mike Festa is brilliant at converting the heat of contest into the light of real and substantial controversy, and, making that controversy reveal the true core of compassionate progressivism, so much more real than its Republican simulacrum. Jarrett’s future is too bright to get trapped in the melee of a court system with which he is only familiar as a critic. Let them both fulfill leadership and policy roles for which their skills are most appropriately tuned.