Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Gabrieli is in …

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and he’s already got a slick new website up and running!

Deval Patrick issued a statement on Gabrieli’s announcement that he’s running for Governor: “I welcome Chris to the race.  I look forward to engaging with him on the issues in the weeks ahead.  I know that’s what the people want from the candidates.”

No statement that I’ve seen yet from Tom Reilly, but I’m sure he welcomes Chris to the race as well, just like he welcomed him to the Lieutenant Governor’s race a few weeks back.  Or not.

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  1. I will say for Chris is that he sure has a great looking website. Let’s see how effective it is.

  2. Hey, where’s the beef, a.k.a. content? The site is fluff so far. There’s next to nothing about issues or anything else to give a sense of him.

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    The fullest area is his single-page professional bio.

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    He’s been planning this for many months. Doesn’t he have something to say?

    • Over the course of this campaign, I’ll be laying out specific plans to address the key challenges facing our state.

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      In the meantime, I hope you’ll read these examples below of times where I not only had ideas, but got results for Massachusetts:

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      What kind of crap is that?  Read about the good old days, when I had ideas and got results.  Yay me.

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      Barf.

    • Are you kidding, massmarrier?

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      He’s on day one of the campaign and your complaining that there isn’t a year’s worth of substance?

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      Well, there’s not a year’s worth of substance, YET, but there is PLENTY on the issues and PLENTY to give voters a sense of him, if you actually want to read it and not immediately and summarily dismiss him as a candidate because you’re already committed elsewhere.

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      For instance:

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      Some education policy:
      http://www.gabrieli.org/results/afterschool.jsp

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      Some fresh ideas for investing in MA to create jobs:
      http://www.gabrieli.org/results/pensionfunds.jsp

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      Gabrieli leading the stem cell research fight in MA:
      http://www.gabrieli.org/results/stemcells.jsp

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      And here’s the text of his announcement speech today:
      http://www.gabrieli.org/newsroom/announcement.jsp

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      It contains the following policy ideas, positions, and other key passages (aside from bio stuff):

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      But when I look around today, I see jobs leaving the state. I see people moving elsewhere because they can’t find an affordable place to live. I see the cost of just about everything skyrocketing. And I see too many parents worried the American Dream is fading for their kids. …

      For sixteen years, all we’ve heard is promises. But we still haven’t seen results. We’re 46th in the nation in job creation, we have the highest cost of housing, millions of tax dollars are wasted every year – and yet there’s no accountability to taxpayers. …

      I spent 17 years helping dozens of innovative young businesses grow and succeed. In total, over $1 billion was invested in the economy, and we helped create over 100,000 new jobs. …

      I’ve always been passionate about education, and when I realized our kids spend only 20% of their time in school, I started my own non-profit foundation devoted entirely to expanding after school programs. Thousands of kids now have a place to go after school to learn and be safe. …

      It always bothered me how little Massachusetts pension money we actually invest in our own states. So I brought people together, and working with Treasurer Cahill, we convinced the state to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the local economy – money that’s expanding opportunity and home ownership — and creating jobs in Massachusetts as we speak. …

      When Mitt Romney threatened to veto stem cell research – research that could cure diabetes, Parkinson’s and countless other diseases, I joined with the legislature, academics, doctors and parents to fight back. We defeated Governor Romney’s veto. …

      As governor, I’ll work with both Republicans and Democrats to get things done. I won’t get bogged down in petty political battles. I won’t make empty promises. I won’t shy away from accountability. …

      When it comes to issues of principle, I’m going to give a clear answer. Like gay marriage? I’m for it. Death penalty? I’m against it. Abortion? I’m pro-choice. …

      But when the issue is complicated, I’m not going to give some meaningless, poll-tested answer that gets us no closer to solving the problem.

      Like on jobs, you need more than a pledge to personally recruit jobs.

      You need specific ideas, like getting big pension funds and university endowments to invest in the local economy.

      Like investing in technologies most likely to create jobs in the 21st century, such as stem cell research and renewable energy.

      It’s the same on education. It’s a complicated issue. Blaming teachers doesn’t get us anywhere. And anyone who claims you can just throw money at the problem doesn’t get it. You need concrete ideas, like expanding learning time, and encouraging enrichment through after-school programs.

      Like making college tuition more affordable by making college savings tax deductible.

      Like creating magnet science and technology high schools for our most promising students.

      Ideas like these may not make the biggest headlines, but they’ll get big results.

      Does this give you a clearer idea of Chris and his positions?

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      I’ll tell you this.  I’m gonna support in the general election whoever wins the primary and gets the Democratic nomination.  But I’ve noticed this: I ask Deval supporters, “Why Deval?”  They tell me, “A great American Dream success story and tremendous charisma.”  And then I ask “What original policy idea of Deval’s are you most excited about?”  And they stare at me blankly.  Meanwhile, Chris Gabrieli is a walking, talking public policy think tank.

      • How about being the only candidate to support Cape Wind and investing heavily in renewable energy, for starters.

        • afertig – Cape Wind did a whole bunch of work and Deval came along and said, “Yeah, I’m for that.”  That’s great.  But that’s a policy POSITION, not an original policy IDEA.

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          Health Care for All and MassPIRG and Cape Wind and a bunch of other organizations put together a bunch of great ideas and Deval came along and said “Yeah, I’m for those.”

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          That’s great and it’s important to know where he stands.  But he hasn’t had much in the way of ANY original ideas.

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          Gabrieli is a bona fide policy wonk.  He can come up with solutions to the problems we haven’t thought of or encountered yet.  Deval and others will probably have to rely entirely on others.  Of course, any good elected official has advisers and relies on a plethora of sources for advice.  But Gabrieli also has original, creative ideas.  I haven’t seen that from Deval.  A tremendous speaker, Deval is, but, so far, it’s others words…

      • Gabs on the issues sounds like a parrot of Deval and Andrea Silbert… only without the charisma of either of them. (And, yes, I do think that charisma is an important trait for a public official in a leadership position.)

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        Why bother?

        • Tim – Where exactly is Gabrieli parroting Deval and Silbert?

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          Cuz, as I mentioned in a previous comment, Deval is just parroting other non-profits and hasn’t had much of an original idea himself.

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          Is it that Gabrieli, like Deval (and 50%+ of the state) supports gay marriage and opposes the death penalty and supports abortion rights?  Did Deval invent these positions?

          • It is to laugh. I hope all that passion goes to electing a Dem.

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            No, 100 times no.

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            I’m not getting into spitting contests. I just see it very differently.

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            This guy may have only announced today, but he’s been planning this for close to a year. He clearly paid well for a nice infrastructure to his site. Content is still D level.

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            He’s coming in veeeeery late. So he needs to arrive fully formed, offer complete programs, and provide some extremely compelling reasons for delegates to switch loyalties. He hasn’t done it. The content of the site is mediocre to low, depending on where you go.

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            He needs, as Tony Soprano might say, to come heavy.

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            If he brings the same attitude to governing as he does to campaigning, we’d be hosed and the elephants would live under the golden dome for another decade.

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            Gabrieli has a lot of experience in marketing himself and his VC deals. He also sees what the other guys have on their sites. He needs to do better.

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            First day? Horsefeathers! If he doesn’t have more muscle than that, coming in this late, it’s disappointing at best.

  3. But it’s a pain to download. Come on guys, hire people who know how to optimize for web already. Those poor grandmothers with dialup…

    • So is this what Deval supporters are gonna criticize Gabrieli for?  His website took too long to load. (FYI: It loads in a fraction of a second for me – maybe it’s your computer.)

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      It’s pretty striking to me that Deval supporters just bash, bash, bash.  Deval welcomes Gabrieli to the race.  Why not you?

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      Why not say, “Hey, I’m not gonna support him, but maybe he’ll bring some new ideas to the race that will benefit whoever the Democratic nominee will be; and maybe he will bring in supporters that might have otherwise sat out the race altogether, supporters that will also benefit whoever the Democratic nominee will be.”

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      Same problem I had with Dean supporters in 2004.  Both Deval and Dean are terrific guys, but many (not all, but many) of their supporters are ruthless.

      • I’m a Deval Patrick supporter and I’m not bashing Gabrieli today (though I am pissed off at his deciding not to run, waiting ’til after the caucuses, then deciding to jump in).  And I rated your comment earlier, where you gave useful links and quotes about Gabrieli, as a 4 (excellent).  But this comment is just dumb, IMO.  She’s not “bashing Gabrieli”, she’s commenting on the web site, which other people have commented on.  Someone complimented it.  She has a criticism of it.  Don’t be so defensive.  Keep up the good comments (like the one I referred to) and lay off this silliness.

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        P.S. I, took, dislike the technology the Gabrieli web site used.  JSP, ugh.  And I, too, think it looks good.  And I was able to find some useful information about Gabrieli’s positions the first time I looked.  So I pretty much agree with all three commenters who’ve chimed in about the web site so far.

  4. I doubt it, given his and the Dems’ experiences this year.  But I wouldn’t be surprised if he tacitly supports one of them.

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    Who would be his best bet?

  5. It was the dullest robo call I ever got.  Hey…ahhh…I’m running for Governor…ahh…if you have any questions, call the campaign office.  Wow, this guy makes a rehearsed call seem like he’s a stuttering dullard.

    • Im not sure if I received the robo call because I am a delegate or because I signed his papers. If it is because I signed his papers and he only needed 500 i would think hed take the time to make a personal call……but then again that is me, i’d personally call the people that allowed me to get into this race.

  6. Okay, so the campaign is heating up. Deval and Reilly are going to have a little more competition. Big deal. In the end, the person who has the best positions, most charisma and appeals to the most people in this state during the primary are going to win. It’s not about personal stories, it’s not about who has the most money… it’s about being right for the state.

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    In the end, one of these three candidates is going to win the primary. It will become bitter, but it serves the point of no one to become hostile over this issue. It’s integral that we remain as unified as a progressive base as humanly possible. One of these candidates are going to win and we’re going to need that candidate to win the general election for the sake of Massachusett’s future.

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    We all have our favorite candidates, but it serves no purpose to troll boards and fight divide ourselves over this issue. Each side will lose if that’s the case.

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    I’m going to continue to support Deval Patrick. As an exceptionally informed voter who is dedicated to the campaign, I’d appreciate supporters of other candidates to not belittle the knowledge of Deval Patrick supporters. As a fellow Deval Patrick supporter, I’d appreciate it if others would openly welcome Gabrieli to the campaign, even if he’s coming in late in the game. Like I said, it serves no interest to resort to trolling. Let’s debate ideas and positions, nothing else will help the Democratic Party in the long run.

  7. Maybe Gabrieli is a big thinker, but hasn’t he had enough time to come up with a position on the major political issue of the day – the health care legislation?  Maybe Deval is just taking Health Care for All’s position, but at least he is taking a position on this issue.  Is Gabrieli waiting to see which way the wind blows before he’ll tell us what he thinks?  It’s not just Gabrieli – but Mihos, Reilly, and Healey have all yet to take a position on the major issue of the day.  I just can’t believe that.  Only Deval Patrick has told us clearly where he stands – and, by the way, he supported the House legislation when the House and Senate were at odds.  Maybe Chris needs to spring big bucks for another think tank, on health care this time, so we can find out how he is going to save us.

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