First off, Andrea is much more personable than I had remembered her being when I saw her speak at events. I took that as meaning that she’s warming up on the stump as the campaign goes on. Going up against two seasoned pols, that will only help her. She worked the room very well and appeared to have some experienced hands guiding her. She wasn’t afraid to just say hi to folks, something I hadn’t seen as much of previously, but something politicians obviously need to be comfortable with.
My other impression is that her campaign is much more organized than I had thought. I have seen all the $ she has raised, but I’d heard some rumblings of not being there on the field front. I can report that those concerns are unfounded. Even at a fundraiser, there were campaign people trolling the crowd, getting commitments from people to volunteer, gather signatures, work the convention, do local outreach. The campaign clearly had a plan that they were probably not just using at that event, but use everywhere. I also heard (anecdotally of course and it was a partisan crowd…) that they’re getting a solid delegate reception and commitments. I think Andrea still has an uphill climb if she wants to win the convention given that she’s the outsider, but the organization I saw last night put to rest any concerns about her campaign being ready for the major leagues. The staff (or volunteers? I am not sure.) she has put together know their stuff and appeared, last night at least, to be executing.
That all being said, I left the event with the lingering feeling I’ve had all along about her chances: going up against a sitting mayor, she really will have to keep plugging away at the $ and political ends of things to win. As a verteran of campaigns from past cycles, I know, though, that all of the political support in the world does not a successful campaign make.
In terms of Andrea’s positions that she talked about in her remarks, I think her politics and positions are pretty mainstream and her message of job creation being the solution to many of our state’s problems, which I thought was a bit hard to get when I first heard it, has been distilled enough that voters will be able to “get it.” If she packages it right, people are smart enough to see that saying you’ll be an advocate for cities and towns is fine, but stimulating job creation is more important. I think if Silbert gets out that message effectively, she has a chance to get voters to see her as the candidate they should choose because she’s thinking more holistically than the others whose messages are too narrow. (Or at least that’s what she’ll be arguing – I think local issues and health care are pretty darn important and perhaps SHOULD be the dominant theme of a Dem campaign.)
I will continue to monitor and comment on things as I have done and, as I said, I hope to attend a Murray, Goldberg and Kelley event so that I can report on those too!
