Rep. Mike Festa (D-Melrose) will announce tomorrow (Wednesday) that he is endorsing Gerry Leone for Middlesex County District Attorney, according to a source close to the Leone campaign. The source reports that Festa’s announcement is set for 3:00 pm on the steps of the State House.
Festa was a candidate for Middlesex DA before leaving the race in mid-February, and he had picked up support from progressive legislators and citizens. Leone’s opponent, Jarrett Barrios, has the backing of some progressives, but Festa’s endorsement of Leone seems likely to burnish Leone’s credentials with as-yet uncommitted progressives. Some Festa backers had already announced that they would back Leone after Festa withdrew from the race; Festa’s formal endorsement of Leone seems likely to accelerate that trend, and therefore doesn’t seem like good news for Barrios.
After interviewing Leone, I wrote that I thought there was a lot more to Leone than just his undeniably impressive resume as a prosecutor. It would appear that Mike Festa thinks so too. I’ll be interested to see what Festa has to say tomorrow afternoon.
UPDATE: The Leone campaign has just put out a media advisory confirming the event for 3 pm in front of the State House.
If someone was doing me the favor of endorsing my candidacy and they went through the trouble of setting up a press conference to announce that decision — I think, out of respect and appreciation for that endorsement that I would tell my people to keep their mouths shut until the announcement was made.
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Not that it matters now, but Festa told me this at the DLP rally on Saturday and I told him I wouldn’t blog about it out of respect for him.
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Not the end of the world for sure, but for a candidate with Leone’s reputation of being such a by-the-book guy, it’s just sloppy and undisciplined.
it’s one thing to publicly disclose something like this four days before it happens; quite another the evening before. I have no knowledge of the conversations that went on between the Festa and Leone camps (do you?), but I seriously doubt that this happened without Festa’s OK. Of course, I could be wrong.
David, I understand your point about the timing, I don’t necessarily agree with it for the reasons I stated before.
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I know it’s all hindsight now, but why do you doubt that this happened without Festa’s OK? What would be the point of having a pressie about this, if word was purposefully going to get out about the announcement beforehand? If that were the case, I think it would make more sense if Festa’s people leaked it, not Leone’s. Just sayin’.
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I had a 3 minute conversation with Festa about this on Saturday, but basically it came down to him supporting someone who he felt had the prosecutorial experience and someone who understands how the office runs.
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Leone has some work to do in terms of getting his views out to the public. His website is not exactly helping him. He comes across a very tough law and order guy, and you want that in a DA, but I think people also want a DA who is about prevention, human rights issues, etc. all the stuff that somedem mentioned. You don’t get much of a sense of that from Leone’s website, or from his stump speech. Not that I’ve seen anyway.
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Barrios has the progressive cred, but not the prosecutorial cred. I think Barrios tends to appeal to younger self-identified progressive voters, but when you get outside a certain demographic group (in other words, talk to older folks) they tend to support Leone because of the law and order stuff.
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My observations are based on what I see out here in No. Central Mass. Voters tend to be more conservative out here.
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It would be perfect if we could just take the best of both candidates and put ’em together.
I have no knowledge of how this all got worked out, but obviously you have to put out advance notice of these things at some point or no one will show up. Exactly when they put it out, and to whom, is a subject about which I know very little. But from what I’ve observed, it’s common practice to leak (anonymously) a significant announcement the day before it’s actually made. That way you get two days of coverage instead of one.
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I agree with you that Leone’s website is not very helpful. In my writeup of our conversation with him, I tried to make the point that there really is a lot more to the guy than just locking up bad guys. That said, prosecuting cases is a major and indispensable part of the job.
But I think your wrong about Leone he has proven himself time and again in the courtroom and he might be a good candidate for the AG’s job one day, but for now, he is a good replacement for Martha Coakley who has done a fine job as DA and is now running for AG. As for his opponent, Barrios is nothing more than a politician who is seeking what he thinks is just another political office. The DA’s office isn’t JUST any office and I am not convinced that Barrios could even win over a courtroom let alone the voters of Middlesex County for this one especially since he has never argued a case. So ask yourself, who would you rather have as the DA. Someone with a proven record who knows how to communicate like Gerry Leone, or someone who has never argued a case and speaks out of both sides of his mouth politically like Barrios?
I don’t know how to read Festa’s reported endorsement — that’ll have to play itself out. But I do know from just being a progressive around Massachusetts for a while that Senator Barrios is the proven progressive in the race.
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You all know this but he led the fight for gay marriage, he was front and center during the janitors union drive, he’s pushing for a larger buffer zone around reproductive health clinics, and his anti-gang plan just netted $2million in grants for youth leadership and community-based programs. All those things I got from his website or from just knowing his work.
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Now, I wouldn’t say people should support Barrios out of hand just for those reasons but if actions count better than words than I’m concerned about Leone. I know Leone has said a lot of things but I want to be clearer about his background…his job for the US Attorney’s office was to be the anti-terrorism coordinator enforce the Patriot Act, which if I remember had its fair share of problems (the Act’s provisions that is).
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Anyway, interesting move by Festa. I wonder what his motivations are/were…
Maybe his motivations were just that he thinks Leone would be a better DA.
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Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Sco, you’re certainly right. To be clear I like Festa — I didn’t mean anything slanderous by putting the statement out there. Just a question.
Sco, you’re certainly right. To be clear I like Festa — I didn’t mean anything slanderous by putting the statement out there. Just a question.
You’re Bill Clinton. ba-ching!
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Thank you, I’ll be here all week. đŸ˜›
That joke would be much funnier, if soapblox would have placed it where I wanted.
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No respect, I tell ya!
“You all know this but he led the fight for gay marriage, he was front and center during the janitors union drive, he’s pushing for a larger buffer zone around reproductive health clinics, and his anti-gang plan just netted $2million in grants for youth leadership and community-based programs. All those things I got from his website or from just knowing his work.”
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But none of these issues matter for a DA who simply must enforce the current law rather than make it, hence Reilly enforced the 1918 in state marriage clause and Leone enforced provisions of the Patriot Act. What matters in the race is who would make a better DA. Barrios says he is running to get to the root causes of crime and fix them, thats great for a State Senator, but its something a DA cant do. Leone is running to prosecute the offenders and secure justice for victims families. A DA can do that.
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I am still undecided, as a Cambridge resident I am a big Barrios fan, Im just not sure if he is running for the right office (Id rather he stay in the Senate or run for LG)
barrios should stay in senate; he has no prosecutorial experience whatsover. if he ran for LG, then even Muffy & Jackboot would beat the democratic ticket. barrios needs to move because no alliances in legislature, all puff & smoke, needs new office to continue jumping, if he stays still the ineffectiveness and puffery becomes clearer.
I disagree jconway. It’s not as simple as that. Scott Harshbarger was a great DA and he did a lot more than lock up bad guys. Coakley is doing a lot on reaching out to people about drug abuse and oxy, so she won’t have to prosecute them. Clearly there’s a lot more to the job than prosecuting if the focus is there.
Festa is supporting Leone because they are both mainstream Democrats that fit comfortably under the progressive label. Happily, Festa has stopped saying that Leone is pro-death penalty. That was an unfortunate and inaccurate message he was spreading when he was in the race. I am a progressive who is happy to say Leone has earned my vote. How? I start with the resume that is second to none. There is no subsititute for on-the-ground experience working at every level of the criminal justice system. Leone was worked with kids in every city and town in Middlesex to keep them out of the system. He has tried cases at all levels. He has hired supervised lawyers at each stop along the way during his career. I respect Senator Barrios as a legislator, but this progressive does not owe anyone a vote.
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Also, as a Democrat, I feel we need to send a message that competence and experience are as important as ideology. What kind of message does it send to the majority independents of Massachusetts if we fail to nominate a person with Leone’s qualifications?
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I look at it this way. If you had to hire a lawyer to represent you personnaly, how would you decide? You’d look at experience, past results, and perhaps reputation among peers. Leone wins on all these points. This job requires a seasoned, progressive trial lawyer and manager. Only one caididate fits the description. Bravo to Mike Festa for pointing out that candidate is Gerry Leone.
I agree with you. Leone has FAR FAR more qualifications than Barrios does. Festa is making the right choice by endorsing him. I was somewhat undecided about the DA’s race a few months ago but no I am certain that Leone is the person for the job. He will continue what Coakley has tried so hard to do in reaching out to people in MA and making sure that people who are breaking the law get the punishment they deserve. I wish we had more people like Leone in the State House who could get things done. Thats the other thing, Barrios really hasn’t gotten much done and I don’t think he would as DA.