The Barnstable Patriot (“An Independent Voice Since 1830”) carries a well-written and glowing editorial By Richard Elrick in support of Deval Patrick.
Here’s how it ends:
Deval Patrick understands that one of his greatest challenges to winning the Democratic primary in September and the general election in November will be to convince voters they donât have to elect a Republican governor to balance the Democratic state legislature. Patrick believes that rather than the issue being one of Republicans versus Democrats, what people really want is a balance between insiders and outsiders.
From the beginning of this race for governor, Patrick has shown himself to be the outsider best equipped to bring a different view of politics to the people. While Reilly and Gabrieli have been spending money on television commercials trying to convince the partyâs insider hierarchy to support them, Deval Patrick is crossing the state, connecting with people on a personal level. His grassroots base is substantial and growing daily. To date, he has nearly 12,000 donors and 4,000 volunteers throughout the Commonwealth who have answered his call to re-engage in the political process.
While this is clearly good for our democracy, only time will tell whether a grass roots campaign can actually win the big one against candidates with more money and more insider support.
I am a fan of Patrick’s in general (I swear!), but he would be my third choice for the nomination. So can I pick a couple of nits?
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“Deval Patrick understands that one of his greatest challenges to winning the Democratic primary in September and the general election in November will be to convince voters they donât have to elect a Republican governor to balance the Democratic state legislature.”
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Surely the more centrist Democrats, the ones willing to curtail taxes, for instance, have a better chance of making this case?
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“While Reilly and Gabrieli have been spending money on television commercials trying to convince the partyâs insider hierarchy to support them…”
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TV commercials are for the general electorate, not for the insiders. Indirectly, I suppose, the popularity gained from commercials can be used to convince the party that the candidate is viable.
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It’s a fallocy that people want the tax rollback, now that they’ve seen their property taxes go up up up and their school/local funding go down down down. People just want their money spent WISEly. If a candidate can convince the voters they will be responsible with taxpayer money, they’ll get the moderates to vote for them easily. I believe Patrick has that capacity, given enough penetration into the electorate via media and ads and pure, unadulterated person-to-person campaigning (the old fashioned way!).
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And RE insider ads – Gabrielli ran his recent ads exclusively for the insiders – the delegate who will gather on June 2/3. He had no other reason to run them.
in regards to Patrick being the “liberal” of the bunch…unfortunately he’s painted that way by the media and his opponants (well at least Reilly). But he’s also from corporate America. Most of his proposals are not really liberal in the traditional sense…they are just common sense.
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If he can outwit the CW being spread about him, he certainly has the background to appeal to moderates and yes, even conservatives! (Hell, George Anthes, a local Republican talk show host, reportedly likes him, and he HATES me!)
Let’s start with this erroneous fact: “While Reilly and Gabrieli have been spending money on television commercials. . .”
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Raise your hand if you have seen or even heard a Tom Reilly commercial? Anyone? No? That’s because anybody who is actually following this race knows that Chris Gabrieli, Christy Mihos, and Deval Patrick (albeit web-buys) are the only candidates who have spent a nickel on advertisments. In Gabrieli’s case, more than 40,000 nickels actually. There are plenty of reasons to support any of our candidates, but this mistake suggests that Mr. Elrick isn’t exactly an astute student of this campaign.
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Factual error aside, I completely disagree with Mr. Elrick’s thesis. Deval Patrick, the most liberal candidate among the Democrats, will have an extraordinarily difficult time convincing the electorate that he will be an effective “check and balance” on the Democratic legislature when it comes to pocketbook issues. I wish Patrick had not made himself vulnerable to this argument, but it is true. Independent voters will be far less interested in Patrick’s “grassroots” network than his position on the tax rollback.
40 MILLION nickels – not 40k
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🙂
Above.
MaverickDem sez:
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“Independent voters will be far less interested in Patrick’s ‘grassroots’ network than his position on the tax rollback.”
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Actually, Patrick’s position makes the most sense. Once homeowners recognize the connection between local aid and their property taxes, they’ll see that the income tax spreads the burden among more payers with higher incomes.
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In any event, it doesn’t make sense at all to cut back revenues when cities and towns are going under.