Cross posted on my blog.
There appears to be more strategy then I originally thought regarding the public financing. The lieutenant governor race actually has a huge role in the strength or weakness of our ticket on the day after the primary. See if you can follow along because it gets a little loopy.
I didn’t realize that the LG candidates also face the quesiton of public financing. As is likely to occur Murray and Silbert will most likely opt in to the public financing. However Goldberg is like Gabrieli in that she has a ton of personal wealth to draw on. If all three of the LG candidates opt in the spending limit for the LG race will be $750,000. Goldberg spent more than that on the run up to the convention so it is likely that she will not want to restrain herself to that amount in the primary(especially with over a million dollars in the bank right now). Here is the rub. If Goldberg opts out and ultimately wins the primary she will cost the Democratic ticket $750,000. How? Well Reilly and Patrick are likely to opt in to the financing system but we all know that Gabrieli will not. If either Patrick or Reilly win the primary (we know Gabrieli won’t) and they get put on the ticket with Goldberg then the ticket is not entitled to more public financing because the LG candidate did not take the public money. This loss, as I said, would be to the tune of $750,000. Can we afford this loss?
So for those of you who aren’t decided in the LG race ask yourself if strategically we can afford Goldberg? To the Goldberg campaign I ask you this: if you opt out of public financing will you publicly pledge that should you win the primary you will write a check to the ticket you are on for $750,000?
