So. Earlier today (as noted by our own daclerk and somedem), the Globe told us (via an unnamed “Democratic strategist … who is familiar with the talks”) that Tom Reilly was planning a press conference at 10 a.m. Monday at which he would unveil his brand-new running mate: Shannon O’Brien’s running mate! (That is, Chris Gabrieli.)
But now, only a few hours later, we hear (and so did framinghamdem) that Gabrieli has emailed the AP to tell them that he’s not running for Lieutenant Governor after all. I guess we can cancel that podium for the press conference. Or maybe Reilly wasn’t going to use one this time either.
Anyway, I think we can confidently state that January is a month that Tom Reilly and his campaign staff would like to forget. The month started out with the nightmarish “call to Conte” hitting the front pages, and with Reilly and his staff fanning the flames at every turn rather than putting out the fire. And then, just when Reilly’s day job of being Attorney General gave him a little bit of good news with the Ameriquest settlement, suddenly he has this utterly embarrassing Gabrieli business, where his staffers are relaying the substance of supposedly secret talks to the Globe, to the point of giving out the date and time of the press conference, only to see the whole thing fall apart. If I were Tom Reilly, heads would be rolling over at campaign HQ.
What about Deval Patrick? I have not heard a peep about who he is leaning towards of the 4 announced… I know it’s silly to even think that Gabrieli would jump to the Patrick camp, but that would add a significant boost to Patrick’s coffers & give him “insider” credibility right when Patrick needs it. It would give Gabrieli some progressive credibility too. But I would hate to see Gabrieli’s name on the ticket, and Patrick would lose some of the righteous spark that his campaign thrives on.
Patrick has no intention of picking a running mate. If he were going to do so, I’d rather see him do it months ago. He can’t afford to alienate any of the announced candidates or their constituencies (small as they probably are).
If you are one of the 4 candidates that has been driving this state from North Adams to Provincetown, I can’t imagine having terribly warm and fuzzy feelings about Reilly’s thinking. Then again if you are Tom Reilly, you probably don’t need the news in the paper that Tim Murray expressed his own displeasure at you about this.
If I were Deval or one of the LG candidates, I would keep my mouth shut about this whole debacle, and let the system take care of itself. Sure there’s probably a lot of bitterness in each of the camps, but for all the people who sat back and let things pan out, it makes them look very level-headed and professional. Only Goldberg and Kelley did not immediately react to this whole “rumor” business, which I view as very professional and intelligent (wait until you see the men standing together making the announcement before saying anything). Kudos to their campaign staffers for knowing better. As for Reilly, he is going have to watch very carefully the things he says from now on, for fear of looking like a flip-flopping, wishy-washy democratic candidate (though it’s probably too late for that).
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Kerry Healey must be doing backflips right now.
Caro, the fact that people had been told that it was going to happen means it wasn’t a rumor. You don’t get that kind of fury without it, and you don’t get the Globe writing a story yesterday afternoon without it having been in the cards. Gabrieli changed his mind at the last minute, and thank god he came to his senses and did so because it saves the Party a lot of angst and now we can let these LG candidates fight ti out as they were going to do all along.
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Murray got unplanned attention by barging into Reilly’s office, but any news is good news. Silbert got kudos for not pissing anyone off with her statement, and, from the people I spoke with in my town this weekend in advance of the caucuses, got noticed a lot more. Goldberg and Kelley missed out by not taking advantage of the fact that there was finally attention being paid to the race.
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I thought Silbert looked a little silly for “welcoming” Gabrieli into a race that he hadn’t entered yet and ultimately decided to stay out of. And, although it was coincidence, the fact that Goldberg’s kickoff event coincided with the Gabrieli rumors resulted in her getting quite a lot of press and big photos in the Globe, so I thought she made out all right.
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I certainly agree with the prevailing view that Patrick has done the right thing by doing nothing. He doesn’t stand to gain anything by teaming up with one of the existing candidates, nor by anointing some new candidate as his “running mate.” All the candidates are good, and any of them would make a fine ticket with him.
Ok, rumor wasn’t the right word…but the point was that it is smart to keep from doing anything until the word is official. I’m guessing the Parick, Goldberg and Kelley camps were thinking “let’s just keep doing our thing until Tom and Chris actually get up on stage hand in hand” Patrick got press by default, because of the speculation of his next move. Goldberg got press from her kickoff event and the suspected repercussions from this whole debacle. So, now we’re back at square one and the only person with REAL political backlash is Reilly. It’s only January, and this race is heating up fast…
Reilly is really the only one who comes out of this having moved backwards. EVERYONE else moved forward and improved their lot.
So by that measure, almost anything Reilly does to get his name in the newspapers is to his benefit. The fact that everyone has been running around like a chicken with its head cut off over the mere possible announcement of a running rate confirms that Reilly is the frontrunner. That is the only conclusion, I suspect, most voters will take away from the news coverage for the month of January, if they even remember January at all come election day.