Or 150 extra teachers to provide smaller classrooms and more personal attention to students who are behind grade level.
Or 150 extra nurses to provide health care.
Or 150 social workers to help sort out the problems of children who suffer from neglect or abuse.
Or 150 therapists to help rehabilitate the lives of meth and oxycontin addicts in our state.
Tell us more about your lucky number, Chris Gabrieli.
Please share widely!
So spend away Chris. Speech away Deval. Connect away Tom. Just beat Healey. It doesn’t have to pretty — just beat her. To beat her, you have to beat each other. No prob.
<
p>
Because we all want to win in November, right? Right?
There are many reasons to deplore where this kind of money-driven politics might take this race, the party, and the Commonwealth.
<
p>
However, the idea that the money could be better spent by the City of Boston or other public entity isn’t one of them.
<
p>
It’s his money to spend. If the spending does harm, that merits criticism. But arguing that the spending does insufficient good–that is a game that could be played profitlessly with many choices that people make.
feeding orphans in Somalia. The money wasted on the Big Dig could have been spent better too – and no one’s in jail yet. Come to think of it, the money I spent on Christmas presents last year could have been better spent on providing adaptive technology for disabled people.
<
p>
If you think for a second that I’m going to go DaVinci Code on this issue and take to wearing a hair shirt and self mutilating because my candidate picked a great big numbah for his spending cap – you’ve got the wrong girl.
<
p>
So, what exactly is your point with this? Is Chris’ money not his own to spend, and what connection does his money have to do with any of the public, taxpayer funded services that you’ve listed?
was that for all the talk of Chris Gabrieli being a policy wonk, for as much as there is talk of how much he has already helped Massachusetts residents, he could be using his private money for public good.
<
p>
In 1998, Chris spent around $5 million to run for Congress and lost. He didn’t even come in second. In 2002 he spent another huge sum and lost again. Now he’s nearly spent $3 million dollars on his campaign for governor, which he may or may not win. In that time period, from 1998 to 2006, Chris Gabrieli has done many things to help this state through his private sector and non-profit work, as many Gabrieli supporters say. It seems to me that because he’s been so successful, as he says, at creating jobs and stimulating interest in stem-cell research, that $15 million limit is probably best used not on a failing campaign, but rather on actually “getting results.”
was that for all the talk of Chris Gabrieli being a policy wonk, for as much as there is talk of how much he has already helped Massachusetts residents, he could be using his private money for public good.
<
p>
In 1998, Chris spent around $5 million to run for Congress and lost. He didn’t even come in second. In 2002 he spent another huge sum and lost again. Now he’s nearly spent $3 million dollars on his campaign for governor, which he may or may not win. In that time period, from 1998 to 2006, Chris Gabrieli has done many things to help this state through his private sector and non-profit work, as many Gabrieli supporters say. It seems to me that because he’s been so successful, as he says, at creating jobs and stimulating interest in stem-cell research, that $15 million limit is probably best used not on a failing campaign, but rather on actually “getting results.”
Sure, Gabrieli didn’t get the meaningless convention endorsement, but that doesn’t make his campaign a failing one!
<
p>
I’d take a look at the polls again, then ask for your to reassess that comment.
Well, he’s had practically limitless spending before on a Congressional race and still lost, and then paired with Shannon unfortunately lost again. As for those polls, the only poll that counts is in November. I’m not suggesting that he’s running a failing campaign right now, I’m just saying that he does need to get results, as he’s so fond of talking about.
Patrick’s a great lawyer but never ran for or held elected office prior to this run, Reilly’s a great prosecutor but never held an elected executive post outside of the legal realm, Healey has yet to fully step out of Romney’s shadow (and, prior to running for LG in ’02, lost her bid for state rep- her only other campaign) and Mihos is, well, Mihos.
<
p>
Every candidate in this race is untested as a gubernatorial candidate, if untested as a candidate at all. I admit that Patrick has had success in building a grassroots effort and Reilly is an exceptional fundraiser, but the hating on Gabrieli is aggravating. We lose, fail, or make mistakes to grow stronger and learn from them. Time will tell if Gabrieli is a better candidate for his earlier losses. I firmly believe he is.
and he could pay $15.36 million to Jon Keller to stuff cheez whiz up his nostrils, for all I care–actually I would rather Gabrieli did that.
<
p>
It’s an order of magnitude larger than what the other Dems will spend. And that immense total of money made me think about how screwed up our campaign finance system is. Something bothers me about seeing that much money go TV stations who broadcast on the public’s airwaves, in the process of the people choosing their governor.
<
p>
It’s possible that Gabrieli could win by spending like a demon. Nobody doubts he’s willing to defeat Healey. But in the long run, Democrats need to find a way to win without spending more than Republicans. Because they are the party of the rich, and most of the time, they will have more money.
<
p>
Talk about a good cause!