I decided to talk to him in person after his speech and that gave me an even better impression of him. His experience in business (used to run a healthcare business that took care of 10,000 seniors and employed hundreds of MA residents) and his overall knowledge of healthcare would truly be an asset for Massachusetts right now.
I would not be suprised at all to see Sam perform quite well at the convention in June. What are everyone else’s thoughts about the race?
Please share widely!
He could have some baggage, though. As lame as it may seem, the Republicans will latch onto any little thing to try and bring someone down:
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The Boston Globe
June 23, 2005, Thursday
TESTIMONY DRAWS IRE OF VICTIM’S MOTHER
By Robert Preer, GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
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The mother of murder victim Alexandra Zapp has demanded that Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Sam Kelley stop saying that he and Zapp were engaged to be married.
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In testimony before the Legislature on Tuesday, Kelley cited Zapp in calling for stricter monitoring of sex offenders.
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“I feel an urgency about these issues both from my professional work with abused children and from my personal experience of losing a loved one to a violent sexual predator,” said Kelley, a psychiatrist who works with abused children.
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“My former fiancee Ally Zapp was brutally murdered in July 2002 by a violent, serial sex felon.”
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Yesterday, Andrea Casanova, Zapp’s mother, said that Kelley and her daughter were not engaged. “Sam and Alexandra dated,” Casanova said in a telephone interview yesterday. “They were never, never engaged.”
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Casanova said that at her request, an attorney for the Ally Foundation sent a letter to Kelley asking him to cease the claim.
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The foundation was established by family and friends of Zapp after the murder to promote legislation on sexual violence and public awareness of the issue.
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Reached by telephone late yesterday afternoon, Kelley said he had not seen the attorney’s letter.
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Informed that Zapp’s mother denied the relationship, Kelley said, “Absolutely 100 percent we were engaged,” Kelley said. “The mother knows that. The mother is a Republican. I don’t know what the agenda is.”
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Kelley later said, “I will honor the family’s request, but if I am asked about it, I will not be untruthful.”
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Kelley was a fund-raiser for Senator John Kerry in last year’s presidential campaign and is medical director of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
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He filed campaign papers to run for lieutenant governor in 2006 and is one of three Democratic candidates actively campaigning for the post.
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On July 18, 2002, Zapp was stabbed to death inside the bathroom of a rest stop on Route 24 in Bridgewater. Paul Leahy, who had two dozen convictions for various offenses and had been recently released from prison at the time of Zapp’s slaying, was convicted of the murder. Leahy was working as a cook in the fast-food restaurant at the rest area.
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Kelley said he and Zapp were engaged to be married for about eight months in 1998. He said that she broke off the engagement but that they remained friends.
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Kelley said that at the time of Zapp’s murder, he was dating the woman he would later marry. Kelley and his wife, Maria Infantine-Kelley, live in Cohasset.
Here’s the link to the Globe article.
Wallflower: welcome to the site. BMG has probably the most comprehensive selection of posts and info about the LG candidates out there. Our dear hosts have posted their thoughts on interviews with the candidates (with more coming it appears?), and there are a ton of comments and user posts on them as well. Please dig around, and I think you’ll find that not only is Sam Kelley a substantive candidate, but that Andrea Silbert, Deb Goldberg and Tim Murray are as well. We have a great crop of candidates who will each help certain variations of the ticket (see last para).
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As one who has tried to take snapshots of the race and post those hopefully semi-objective (but tainted with experience from past campaigns) thoughts here, I’ll answer your question in more detail as follows:
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Deb Goldberg has racked up an impressive endorsement list of notable, longstanding Democrats who have led this state, and indeed the nation, for many years. While the effectiveness of her message of being an advocate for MA cities and towns has been dulled somewhat by the entry of Tim Murray into the race (see below), her determination and polished campaign is to be lauded. While rumored to have a personal fortune to contribute to her campaign, she has shown no public signs of tapping that resource. Unless she does so, her fundraising may not allow her to buy enough advertising to prevail.
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Andrea Silbert has come the farthest and seems to have impressed people the most with her combination of a sharp message (of job creation/economic development being the salve for many of the state’s ills) and unparalelled (thus far) fundraising prowess. For an unknown, non-politician candidate, her rise to the top tier can be called nothing less than impressive and evidence of her certain viability. To win she needs to buy as much or more ad time than the others, since this race is likely not going to be won or lost in the field. As her campaign picks up, she may be able to obtain additional political endorsements which her non-political background has kept her from securing this early on.
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Tim Murray made a big splash when he entered the race in December by raising a ton of money and shortly thereafter rolling out a long list of statewide endorsements. Deserved or not, he has to be the presumptive frontrunner at this point. His campaign appears to have the staff necessary to run statewide, and his position as the titular mayor of Worcester should provide him with added credibility the other candidates lack (i.e. people will see “Mayor” on his ads and on the ballot and thus people may think that he’s led before). While his January fundraising was not what one would have expected based on his pedigree, one would expect that he would be able to step it up in the coming months to try and close the gap Silbert has created. His message of being an advocate for cities and towns may be dulled by Goldberg’s, but his current post may trump that of an ex-selectman and give him the edge on this point.
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Sam Kelley has a singular message of “health care” that he’s sticking to. As you said, his strategy should do him well at the convention amongst those delegates who are focused on health care as the preeminent issue, and he should get on the ballot. His fundraising has been lacking though, and unless he intends to prove history wrong and not compete on the airwaves this fall, his message will likley not reach enough voters to carry the day.
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I would be surprised if they all didn’t get on the ballot, and this should be the most interesting of all the Dem primaries this fall. Gender will likley not matter, as primary voters are probably smarter than that. Also, it will be interesting to see if either of the Gov candidates begins to gravitate to any of these folks since each would be an interesting complement to them. (On this point, I think Silbert benefits either and would be a good working partner for each; Murray helps Deval but the white-guy thing hurts him w/ Reilly; Goldberg helps either as well. I’m taking the position that unless Kelley steps up the fundraising, he’s just not viable.)
Incidentally, you can quickly see most of our Lt. Gov. coverage by navigating to the Tags menu (via the box on the left sidebar) and looking for the “LG” tag, which we’ve been using for our Lt. Gov. stories. Clicking on that should bring up most of our coverage of this race.
I concur that field will have little to do with the outcome here. Turnout is being driven by the top of the ticket and the LG candidates will need $ to get TV ads to get name recognition up. This race, in the end, will come down largely to really just three things: name recognition, name recognition, and – oh yeah – name recognition.
Money. Tim Murray and Andrea Silbert have been very impressive with fund-raising, and Deb Goldberg is keeping pace. Like someone said earlier, it will be VERY interesting if Deb decides to throw in some of her own cash to this race. If she does that, she will definitely be hard to beat. She’s got the big-name endorsements, and if she can produce more cash than the others, then the ads will be a-flowin come July and August. But, like I said…this all remains to be seen. They all need their 15% first. As for Sam…unless he has a small fortune nobody knows about, he’s not going to have the resources to build his name up before the primary.
Sarah Cannon Holden-ville. He won’t be leaving Worcester. As for after the convention, I think Goldberg will do what Gabrieli did back in ’02- dump buckets of her own money on the opposition to win the primary. I don’t see Murray raising the kind of dough to stay competitive, and he doesn’t have the deep pockets to do so either. Silbert may be able to raise enough to fight the good fight, but ultimately the LG race is largely about name recognition, which is directly correlated in that race to money.
But that would leave one guy with an Irish last name against two women. It could be John Kerry, Evelyn Murphy, and Lois Pines in the ’82 Lt. Gov. race all over again.
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The shape of the field can make up for some lack of money. And Murray would have two additional advantages that John Kerry lacked: no other male candidates and a geographic base.
…he made up in winning.
If Goldberg has all that political support, surely someone will tell her that having both Murray and Kelley on the ballot makes sense. Same with Silbert. I think both women will remember history and will make sure Kelley gets his 15% on the first ballot by shifting some of their supporters to Kelley. Murray’s goal has to be to win the convention, because if he doesn’t, it looks bad in his hometown. He can’t worry too much about trying to keep Sam off the ballot because he’s gotta focus on winning.
is a tricky business, especially under the new rules that require you yourself to get 15% on the first ballot or you’re gone. If Kelley doesn’t have close to 15% on his own, Goldberg or Silbert needs to instruct literally hundreds of people to vote for someone else on the first ballot. You have to be really sure of your own 15% to play this game. And, of course, if you’re Goldberg or Silbert, you want a quid pro quo: Kelley pledging his delegates to you on the second and subsequent ballots.
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The LG candidates will need very good delegate counts and good discipline to pull off this kind of move.
…I think we’re giving the campaigns way to much credit to think they’d be able to throw some votes to Kelley and still be confidant that they had 20% (ya gotta give yourself a 5 % cushion) on the first ballot.
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Except Murray, I’d be surprised if Goldberg or Silbert have enough solid 1’s to equal to 15%. Murray may have that problem to. I’m sure the three will have plenty of 2’s leaning their way and barring a Tom Reilly-like implosion, the three will get their 15%. But I’d guess that at least 50% of the delegates will be leaners–or undecided–and not solid for anyone. Which gives Sam a chance, if he wows them, he could peal of a few from all three, grab some undecided and get on the ballot.
This is interesting stuff. Without trying to pretend what the strategies of each campaign are, if Murray or any of the other’s goal is to win the convention there certainly is an incentive to go for it on the first ballot. I may be mistaken but I believe if a candidate gets more than 50% on the first ballot there is no need for the second. I also believe it will only be the top two vote getters of the first ballot that make it on the second ballot.
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With that being said, the idea of swinging some of your delegates on the first ballot for those on a second ballot that may or maynot take place is risky. I am unsure of the actual number of delegates but I have heard it is between 5300 and 5400. The numbers are very close, the three lowest vote getters must collectively get more than the 50% to guarantee the second ballot.
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I would hope the goal of all the campaigns is to receive their 15%
This is my fist post to the site, though I’ve been reading it for a couple weeks. Here are some of my thoughts on the LG race, which I have paid some attention to.
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Sam Kelley is a nice guy, I’ve met him, spoken with him, and listened to several of his speeches. I appreaciate his commitment to health care and public policy. However, I think he has little vision for the direction of the state, which is not a statement on his character, but perhaps represents his lack of political experience. As a candidate, I do not think he has much mettle to compete under fire, but he may indeed have something to contribute to Mass. politics in the future.
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Mayor Murray seems to be an appealing candidate, he is articulate and well connected in the central part of the state, but needs to prove himself as a fundraiser and organizer, which he still has a ways to go. He has the advantage of the title mayor, but the actual job description is different than most other mayors in the state. Murray has to demonstrate adeptness at the political game. Busting down Tom Reilly’s door when he found out he wasn’t picked as a running mate did not show political maturity.
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Goldberg has an excellent organization, has done well in fundraising, and holds her own in public speaking, and holds the wild card with her family fortune. Her challenge is to show that she can articulate a message that can attract Democrats and moderates and position herself as the Boston and metro-west candidate more than even the cities and towns candidate.
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I have no real thoughts on Silbert. I have met her, listened to her speeches, and she impressed me more than Kelley, but I never got a sense of why she is running, and what her ambition really is. That being said, I’m sure there is more about her, and as long as she can keep pace with fundraising, she will be a contender, but it will take real organizing experience to get through the convention.
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–MEP
I think that Mayor Murray does need to prove himself with regards to fundraising, but he has February and March to do that. In terms of organization I think his campaign is on the ball – If you check out his website, http://www.timmurray.org you can see a very long list of endorsements, and he has an energetic field operation as we saw at the caucuses.
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I haven’t really seen what the other campaign operations are like, but the Murray Campaign seems to be ready to go full force into the Convention in June.
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I’m hoping to to get in as a Youth Delegate (18-35 yrs old) to see his campaign in action.
I feel like I finally have an “objective” compatriot amongst the partisans here! I’ve felt for a while that this race was going to be a humdinger, with substance all around and not a whole lotta fluff.
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I think your take is pretty much on, and while it differs from perspectives I’ve offered before, I think your analysis particularly of Goldberg vying to be the Boston/MetroWest candidate is nearly spot on. I say nearly because I think her competition for that role is with Silbert – and because Silbert appears to have made some inroads at least amongst progressives I’ve spoken with in those liberal burbs, including Arlington, Belmont, H20town and Cambridge. It seems to me that Silbert is doing pretty well there amongst delegates and one friend said she’d been invited to a delegate meet and greet w/ Silbert. Dem primaries will be won or lost out in those communities, and it doesn’t appear that Murray is going to push there – although he should because relying on Central Mass seems risky. (Incidentally, I don’t know what his appeal there would be, though, because people even living as far out as Groton and Marlborough still think of Boston as their biggest city, even though they may be closer to Worcester. I think you have to get pretty close to Worcester before people think of themselves of living “just outside of Worcester” as opposed to living “outside of Boston.” That dynamic will be an interesting one to watch.) Kelley too is surprising me with how his message seems to be getting noticed (albeit admittedly by my “insider” friends). As I’ve said, I think he’ll get on the ballot, especially given the recent health care bill stuff getting a lot of attention.
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Thanks for your post!
MEP, I forgot to mention this in my prior post before I submitted it:
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You said you didn’t know why Silbert is running. I others may think that after they hear SIlbert for the first or second time (I know I did). But then it came to me.
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I thought about it and realized this: she’s the only one articulating a gubernatorial message (i.e. big themes and ideas) in the LG race. She’s the only one making the blatant argument: hey, I’m running because I’ll be a heartbeat away and because we had 2 LG’s step up in the 1990’s and we need people ready for primetime and I’m ready. Her platform seems to be much more of one who is looking at being a statewide leader than the others. Murray and Goldberg are the local-issue candidates, Kelley is the single-issue candidate who coul;d be running for just about any office, but Silbert seems to me to be the one talking most about “statewide” themes: job creation and economic development is the key to helping cities and towns and is the key to providing more resources for health care. She’s saying “yeah, the others are making really great points, but my message is the one that lets you do those other things.”
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I know some may say that I sound partisan for Silbert here (I’m not and haven’t made up my mind yet, although I’ll admit that, like MEP said and I have said, her campaign has been impressive in that she’s catapulted from obscurity to top tier in a short amount of time), but here’s my point: I’m not sure if that’s a strategy that will win the LG’s race. People are already getting inspired with big ideas by Deval and Reilly (uhhh… sure). Deval is appealing to people’s hopes and dreams. Reilly just put out an education platform today. They’re the ones we expect to hear big ideas from.
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People think of LG candidates as “closer” to the public in some sense, and Murray’s and Goldberg’s argument that they want to be the local voice in the corner office is appealing. Silbert’s not putting out any of the same “platform” statements that Deval and Reilly are putting out (probably not something an LG campaign should be spending its time on either when the real concern should be $$, delegates and signatures – a big enough hurdle as it is).
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I guess my point is this: which TV ads will be more effective in the fall? Ones that say “I will fight for cities and towns.” or “I will fight to create jobs and grow the economy which will help local aid and healthcare.”
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If I knew the answer I wouldn’t be sitting here in my home office paying bills and doing my own taxes…
about the message for governor. I felt that way since the first tiem I heard her.
Thoughtful post! I am teetering between supporting Kelley and Silbert. Out in Western Mass, Kelley has shown up a couple times…I haven’t seen the others. At one event, Silbert sent a representative, Murray sent his brother. Goldberg emailed that she couldn’t attend. Silbert’s representative did a fine job, and her candidacy impressed me (for the reasons people cite here).
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Kelley talked about jobs (yes, and healthcare), and he talked about alternative ways for towns and cities to raise revenue (as well as what the state should be doing). I think his master’s degree was in environmental biology.
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An Andover straw poll has him in a significant lead (52%, Silbert 34%).
Golberg has experience in Brookline however Tim Murray has a true base for his campaign. Mass voters are serious about getting the Dems back to office so I feel like experience and ideas will be the ticket to sucess not money. Dems will learn from the mistakes of the past. The front runner is Murray and it looks like it will remain that way unless the LG race does a complete 360 but don’t count on that the Murray camp is better organized than any other campaign in the race.
The only time I heard Sam Kelley speak, I was extremely bored. I watched the Chet Curtis report on NECN, and felt that Kelley’s comments were lackluster and slightly scripted. He was spitting out the same old cries about health care, which was fine, but didn’t acknowledge the remarks of the other candidates…
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For example, candidates would respond to what other candidates said, but disagree and move on. Sam Kelley continuously disregarded the things that the other candidates were saying and kept hammering down health care issues… It is important for all of these candidates to UNDERSTAND what the other candidates are looking to do, but not necessarily agree. I felt as though Sam Kelley didn’t understand a lot of what was going on during this group interview, making him look incredulous in general. This is all just my opinion, and this truly is the only time I heard him talk.
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I also wanted to post this link because I think it shows who the front runners in this race are. Tim Murray was articulate and interesting, he even cracked a joke or two. He seems the most down to earth to me; the other candidates seem boring and don’t seem to have the experience needed to win this race!
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( http://www.boston.com/news/necn/Shows/chet/ ) and then scroll to the 2/13/06 “MA Democrats for lieutenant governor on NECN” segment.
Gee, Jord. You were bored. Jord was bored. But that Tim Murray, boy, he was just electric, huh. Electric Tim! Wow, you’ve got us all excited now. Everybody is boring and not qualified, but not that not-quite-a-Mayor-Murray!
fieldguy, but seriously why dont you just tell Jord not to express how he feels. Just tell him some of your mushy posts about your girl, Andrea, the savior of the commonwealth; you remember that right?
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Fieldguy said “Supporting a candidate like Andrea, I believe, tells more people like Andrea that there is a place for them in politics and elected office. We need more of those folks and offices and fewer professional politicians.”
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So Jord keep it real dude…… keep it real
Everyone has their own observations! If its difficult for you to formuate your own I am sorry!
Hey, you’re bored. I’m sold. Sign me up for “Mayor” Murray. I don’t need to have it explained why the City Manager has a cabinet that reports to him including fire, public works and police and the “Mayor” doesn’t. He’s just so exciting and fresh and new, as you say.
As a student getting my Masters in Public Administration, I have learned that most cities and towns have a city manager at this point. But, that in no way undercuts the importance of the Mayors position in the community to settle contracts & agreements, work with the people as well as businesses to best help a community to progress. The City Manager and the Mayor need to and often work together in all aspects. The Mayor is an publically elected official, elected for his/her political skills in working with all types of people, including both public and private entities. The City/Town Manager is hired by the City/Town Council, which is chaired by the Mayor. AKA – The Mayor has the power with his/her council to fire the city manager.
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Maybe you shouldn’t talk about things you don’t know . .
I am not a graduate student – just a voter for 30 years – so I guess I don’t qualify in your book. But, not all mayors are created alike.
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This may be news to you, but I think most voters will think of a mayor as actually being the manager of a city, not the leading city council vote earner.
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Tim’s popularity in Worcester is without question. His political skills are proven. Just because he shake hands with the best of them and win elections doesn’t make up for the fact that he, repeat, not managing the city as a Mayor Menino is. To not be clear about that while running for LG is simply hoping people will think he does.
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Why not just be honest and have your candidate say,
“The City Manager and the Mayor need to and often work together in all aspects. To be clear, as Mayor, I am a publically elected official, elected for my political skills in working with all types of people. The City/Town Manager is hired by the City/Town Council, which is chaired by the Mayor. Now, I can fire him, but he runs the city day to day. I chair the elected group that oversees him, but I am not a manager.”
Whenever I have heard Mayor Murray speak he talks about community building and revitalizing the city, and work with people to improve relations between all levels of government. I have never heard him say, “I write the budget every year.” The point is he doesn’t have to say what he doesn’t do, because it is what he DOES DO that matters. And he definitely has done alot.
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Why don’t you tell me exactly what Silbert, Kelley or Goldberg for that matter do on a daily basis?
Here’s what Tim does on a daily basis: Run for Lt. Governor. Now, remind me, when in his campaign for re-election in 2005 did he tell the voters of Worcester, “Hey, don’t really want this job, but can’t admit that my ambition is to run for LG, and I don’t want to do that without the title of “Mayor.” C’mon there, PF. You are an MPA student, so you’re up on how the world works: You know Tim doesn’t dedicate full-time to Worcester b/c he’s running for LG. You know it doesn’t matter to Worcester b/c being Mayor there is not a full-time job. Conveniently, there’s a city manager to take care of city business.
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Here’s what Andrea Silbert does on a daily basis: run for Lt. Governor. Here’s what she didn’t do: ask for and receive one job from voters with the full intention of not completing her term because she was going to be running full time for another elected position. In fact, she built and ran a service organization, left it to plan her next step, chose to run for LG and is actually doing it. Does ego and ambition figure into her decision – absolutely. It does with anyone who runs for office. But, a professional politician with a clear sense of electoral entitlement? Definitely not.
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Here’s what Deb does all day: Run for Lt. Governor, let the earth revolve around her and figure what trust fund to raid for her campaign costs.
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Here’s what Sam Kelley does all day: Run for Lt. Governor, talk about health care.
clairvoyant?
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Your stumping for Silbert verges on pathetic.
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Is it immoral, unehtical, illegal for him to do this or is the only problem that is inconvenient for your candidate?
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BTW are you her field guy? whose field guy have you been?
Sam kelley is very ambitous to say the least however it doesn’t seem like his ambition is taking him as far as he would like. Every month of his campaign seems to be another episode of survivor, how long can he really keep this up. We need a candidate who has valid experience and unfortunately for Kelley thats something he lacks.