My onw personal thoughts are these:
1 There are rumors that AG Tom Reilly is courting Gabrielli as a possible runing mate for the money Chris can contribute.
2. Tim Murray hears of this and confronts Reilly ( actually a clear sign Mr. Murray has the leadership we need and so desperately desire)_.
3. Tom Reilly lies to ALL of the LG candidates, no other take issue ( I wonder why) .
4. Gabrielli says no to Reilly ( here is some time for conjecture, I believe it may have concerned the amount of MONEY Gabrielli has to “kick” in).
5. Tom Reilly announces that there is more than one way to pick a LG.
6. Tom Reilly sets up (he must of been reeling after the gabrilli DIS and says quick find me a woma n running mate,. not Ill do it and ill make her black and poor, it doenst matter if she is Hatiaan or african American no one will notice the difference) I mean, picks Marie St Fleur ( who in my opinion is more than qualified) as a running mate( meaning someone who can attract the female and “black” vote) without a complete discussion of her background. I mean think of it he if he had know that and said despite her struggles I am confident she can make the best LG….. I would have bought it.
7. the proverbial Shit hits the fan….St Fluear drops out and Reilly admits he demanded it. Women and Hatiaans should be appauled as well as anyone who has been delinquent in their taxes or student loans (including your truly) … damn it I am appauled.
8. (here is when it get good) Tom reilly announces he is politics is not his strong suit, and that may have been a quote. COMEON, courting Gabrielli was not a political move? hiding it wasnt political? Picking poor(literally) sweet innocent Marie wasn;t political? Getting busted with your hand in the political COOKIE JAR wasn;t political? Lying to the voters and saying you’re lacking political suavity is not political?
9. tom Reilly says he wants only 15% of the delegates to get on the ballot. ( you know you are toast and see **)
10. Tom Reilly gets smoked9 and I really mean SMOKED) at the caucuses.
11. Baby Reilly ( Toms daughter) gets shut out at he “home” town ( I thought he lived in Belmont.
So my careful analysis is this. Tom Reilly is a careful calculating RECKLESS politician who is very political and had his political “trila baloon” blow up on his face and is trying to say he is not political.
It is not his fault he has been listening to and watching his president, George W. Bush for 5, FIVE years. Of course it is not his fault,running a campaign is HARD WORD, I mean it is really hard work. Tom is going to spin this like an alterboy on a…..never mind that was in poor taste, and a low blow to the AG and I apologiz, seriosluy I apologize. I have the deepest regret for all thos boys that will never have closure because of………statute of limitations. Im thinking Bill Oreilly might endores of AG any day now….
Back to my careful anaylsis…. we have a choice now a careful politician who is not admiting his political prowness or a true public servant……………(sigh) Democrats who do we want?
I’m not sure if your analysis of the LG candidates’ conduct is correct.
<
p>
First, if you couldn’t tell that Silbert and Goldberg were steamed by getting jerked around by Reilly, go back and look at the release Silbert put out “welcoming” Gabrieli and the terse “no comment” Goldberg’s camp issued throughout. Silbert may have acted prematurely with that release, but it got her in the news without looking bad, and Goldberg missed an opportunity to get more exposure when she didn’t comment on the St. Fleur situation. As for Murray, anyone who knows how it all went down knows that Tim went barging into Reilly’s office complaining that Reilly broke his word to him. That’s either leadership or a fragile ego, I’m not sure which. The fact that Murray had to then rewrite history by saying that he was “invited” by Reilly to discuss the issue sums up how he and his still-learning campaign team handled the media things. They got their act together, though, and got some decent press as the days wore on.
<
p>
The bottom line is this: nothing has changed from 2 weeks ago except that Patrick is stronger, Reilly is weaker and the 3 top-tier LG candidates all have a legitimate shot. If Murray picks up the $$, he wins. If Silbert builds her $ lead and grows a field organization, she wins. If Goldberg’s local message can trump Murray’s and she picks it up on the $ front, she can come from behind and pull it off. All three scenarios, at this very early stage, are feasible.
I think Andrea may be on to something: Issue a press release welcoming your competitor, and watch him/her drop out of the race withing 24 hours. At this rate she should welcome Murray, Goldberg and Kelley and enjoy the smooth sailing!
<
p>
In all seriousness, though, I’m willing to give Reilly a little more credit in his choice of St. Fleur, flawed as it was (in so many ways). I believe that their prior professional relationship did weigh heavily in his choice. I don’t think it was simply a case of “Get me some random black woman, and I’ll make her my running mate.”
<
p>
That being said, there’s a gray area between wanting to work with a “known quantity” and outright cronyism (doing favors for Menino, et al, or whatever). The St. Fleur choice — regardless of the vetting/money issues, the “annointing” of a running mate, and the double-crossing of the other Lt. Gov. candidates — is in this gray area. One has to be somewhat skeptical, however, seeing how connected to the Democratic machine Reilly really is. If St. Fleur wasn’t a “political” choice (on however many levels) I don’t know what would be.
<
p>
It also begs the question as to what sort of politician Reilly really is. His comfort zone seems to comprise a select group of individuals; he seems unwilling or unable to trust or involve “outsiders”. (Why else circumvent the democratic process by hand-picking a running mate?)
<
p>
This may not be enitirely fair, but this pattern reminds me only too much of the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Tim, I really donât mean to trivialize Rep St. Fleurâs qualifications. I am in agreement she is more than qualified. I am challenging Reillyâs process or lack thereof. He was pressed for time, pressed to choose and he started with a short list, a very short list. If he truly desired St Fleur everything could have been brought out into the open, framed in a way voters could identify with, and taken care of. Had this been done correctly I am sure our caucuses would have gone quite differently. As far as Silbert inviting Gabrielli to the party, what other option did she haveâ¦â¦â¦seriously.
<
p> As far as Murray being organized my head is spinning, but then again I did follow the Worcester County Sheriffâs race and have to admit they have their act together out there. I seriously doubt Murray has a fragile ego, to me a fragile ego would have gone crying to the media instead going head on with the AG. Which I have to admit makes me chuckle. In my humble opinion this LG race is going to be great; especially without interference from the candidates for governor. I wonder what Chris will be saying to Chet Curtis tonight, any ideas?
There is no doubt in my mind that Reilly had the worst week ever. It’ll be interesting to watch and see if he can maintain his support and name credibility as we get closer to the Convention in June. Deval Patrick was smart enough to stay quiet and come out with a well organized caucus plan that brought him not only great press, but the delegate votes to give him better credibility.
<
p>
As for the LG race, I don’t remember seeing anyone in the press but Murray & Goldberg (after the St. Fleur endorsement debacle). Murray got press for taking a stand on behalf of the people of MA and the LG candidates by confronting Reilly for going back on his word to let the LG candidates vy for the nomination on their own without an early GOV/LG ticket. He was the first to insist that the decision should be left to the delegates and voters. Leftisright, was correct to say that this was “a clear sign Mr. Murray has the leadership we need and so desperately desire.” In addition to this strong statement of leadership, Murray’s campaign obviously has the organization to back that up, as evidenced by the amount of Murray volunteers that attended caucuses across the state. The Murray campaign had over 400 caucuses covered, from cities like Springfield, Worcester & Boston to towns like N. Attleboro, Beverly and Newton. Democrats are quickly seeing that Tim Murray is the person the Democratic Party needs on the ticket to take back the corner office in November.
What was reported as a second-hand rumor from inside the Murray campaign is now something you report as a fact…that Murray’s campaign covered 400 caususes last weekend. What evidence do you present to back that up? There was no Murray presence at my caucus, nor in Somerville which has a huge amount of delegates up for grabs.
<
p>
I’m sorry to be calling you on this, but field operations are often full of hot air and all eviedence so far suggests this claim is flat out not true. As I stated in a previous post, I’m sure the Murray campaign covered more caucus locations than Silbert and Goldberg. But why strecth the truth?