Veteran political columnist Wayne Woodlief weighs in on the Lt. Governor primary in today’s Herald. The column “Andrea get’s an A for energy, ideas” is very good for Andrea Silbert, but also provides a fair assessment of each candidate’s strengths & weaknesses.
Here’s the closing:
…So who may break from the pack?
A seasoned Democratic pro sees it this way: If its decided on the basis of money (for last-month TV ads, brochures and the like), Deb wins. If its decided on organization, Tims in. But if its on attractiveness and stick-to-itiveness, Andrea is it.
Please share widely!
From the column:
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Of course they’re non-committal. This concern has been bandied about for months now – is any Governor really going to turn over an issue as big as jobs & economic development to the LG? Now, no one has ever accused Silbert of being a shrinking violet, so one can expect her to advocate for that role (which is the basis of her entire campaign) quite vigorously. Anyone see risk that if she does so unsuccessfully, she winds up marginalizing herself on day 2 of the new administration?
As a supporter, I think it’s great that Andrea is passionate about the strenghts she brings to the ticket. Also, I think given her background on Wall St and with CWE, she has more than enough experience in working with others to achieve common goals. It seems a little simplistic to think that she would “take her toys and go home” if the Gov. didn’t defer to her on this issue.
on Wall Street for a year or two before she went to Brazil.
The risk is that by pushing too hard for something she can’t reasonably expect to get, she ends up being shut out. The Governor has complete control over what the LG gets to do. Any LG who’s not willing to accept the role the Gov wants to give ends up with nothing. Ask Evelyn Murphy.
She knows what her job as Lt Gov will be and she will accept it and work with the Gov in whatever role is appropriate. Accepting or not accepting what the gov designates to her is not an issue. Given her energy, smarts and ability to succeed, she will most likely excell at whatever is thrown her way.
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What Woodlief pointed out today is what all the candidates at the top of the ticket already know. Andrea is a job creation expert. She has strong working relationships with all three from her days at CWE and they already know the value she brings. Thus, there is no reason to believe they would not take advantage of this vast amount of knowledge and know-how.
you’re sort of missing my point. Look, her whole purpose for running is to be the jobs & economic development czar. She says it over and over again. Is it realistic? That’s my question.
its realistic that she will help shape policy in this area.
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Let’s turn this around for a minute. What does Tim or Deb bring? Municipal experience? IS the gov going to let them be the face to local cities and towns? Maybe. Maybe not. If they don’t get this role, will they be isolated from the administration? Probably not.
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Look, the bottom line is this. Vote for and elect smart people based on their ideas and what they bring to the table. We shouldn’t worry about the inside baseball that may or may not occur in a future administration of one of three candidates, who may or may not beat one of two other candidates.
Stop worrying about Andrea’s role in the next Administration. She brings a terrific economic perspective to the table and will be a great asset to the next Governor. I don’t understand why you think it’s such a horrible thing for her to want to add value and focus to the Administration. If the next Gov chooses to limit her role, we all lose out on her expertise… but don’t cry for her, she’s a big girl and will do just fine.
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After watching Romney ignore Kerry Healey for the last 4 years, seeing the next Dem Gov empower his LG to actually work hard on something would be refreshing.
Oh, right. ‘Cuz there’s so much else to think about in the LG race….
Assuming that Andrea Silbert expects to play the role of job and economic development tsar and she is running on that expectation, I think the next Governor will have to take notice if she wins. Why wouldn’t he, especially given her past experience? Isn’t that what we would want from the Governor?
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The role is very limited under the Massachusetts Constitution. It ALL depends on the dynamics between her and the Governor. She may be passionate. Lt. Gov. Ev Murphy was passionate too. But Ev really lost the trust of the Governor on one of his out of state trips when she tried to make headlines for her own Governor’s race. Another example, look at Governor Ed King and Lt. Governor Tommy O’Neill. And Tom’s dad Tip was The Speaker in DC!
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Of all the candidates, and I’ve talked to Silbert and Goldberg in person and have talked to people that know Murray very well, of all of them, I think Silbert has the most potential to become window dressing.
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This is because of the simple fact she seems the least likey to defer to the governor, and seems entitled to have the role she wants. That is not the right way to approach this. You have to be able to build trust. And when you walk in the halls of power you have to understand deferrence. Frankly, Silbert demonstates she doesn’t understand how to work with power. To work with power you work for power. She seems to think she’ll have some powerbase due to her office. The power, virtually all of it resides with the Governor. It also helps to have demonstrated political skills. I’m not talking about raising money either. I’m talking the kind of skills that gets you elected mayor or selectman.
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And that is evident in her continuing to dictate the role she wants. I don’t hear any qualifing statements either like, “I am willing to do whatever the new Governor asks me to do. Whatever. Of course I would be interested in several areas in particular, but that of course will be up to the Governor.”
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Whoa, first off I’m guessing in the new administration, any plans are going to be “The Governor’s” plans not the “Lt. Governor’s” plans. In fact here is the job and the portfolio in state government to accomplish what she’s interested in…
Do you actually think that any candidate for any office is going to consistently say “I am going to be a deferrer, I am going to do whatever I’m told”?
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C’mon, RenMan, wake up and smell the campaign bacon. You know as well as any of us regular posters here that this is about projecting an air of authority, an air of being ready to step into the Corner Office in a heartbeat. LG Campaigns are implicitly about being ready to lead, and I’d argue that any of the 3 candidates this year are at this point better equipped than even Ms. Healey to step into that role.
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Bottom line: on September 20th at the Unity Breakfast, Andrea Silbert is going to be talking about why Deval Patrick/Chris Gabrieli/Tom Reilly is best equipped to lead this state’s job creation efforts. She’s not going to be talking about how she is best equipped to jumpstart economic development, but she’ll be talking about how the Dems are best equipped.
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And I think any of the 3 would rue the day they tried to margianlize any of the 3, because there’s enough work to get done.
I don’t expect anyone to say that, “they’ll be a deferrer”, but I expect the smart ones to understand it. I really don’t think she does understand it… Even worse for her, she thinks she’s in a position to do something about it.
Please. 18 months on the campaign trail and she doesn’t understand? Poppycock.
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When she says she wants to be a true partner to the Governor, helping to lead economic development efforts (as I’ve heard her say at events), doesn’t that tell you anything?
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All three want to win, and all three know that they’ll be second fiddle very quickly after the primary.
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End of discussion.
I think it is, on paper, and look what Dick Cheney has done with that position. How’d that happen?
All three wnat some kind of disignated role–Tim and Deb and clamoring just as loudly. How come I don’t see you making the same point when the other candidates?
no Governor wants to be the liaison between the state and the municipalities, which is clearly how Murray is styling his campaign, and Goldberg to a lesser extent. Every Governor wants to lead the charge on jobs and economic development – no Gov will cede that to anyone.
Well, if DG and TM are merely gunning for #2, I guess then I want someone who wants to be a leader from the get-go. I don’t want a lapdog that is going to lie in wait for 4 or 8 or 12 years waiting for a shot at glory. I want someone who wants to dig in.
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The memory of Dukakis “freezing out” his LG Murphy is irrelevant now. Women as a constituency have become too important for Democrats to risk doing that again. If a Dem ticket with Silbert on it wins in November, the winning governor would be idiotic not to at least include her as a key component of his economic development team. And having seen her in person more than a few times, I can tell you she would gladly toil in obscurity if that accomplished her mission.
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Andrea is speaking truth to power in this race: she wants to grow the pool of revenue for our state so that we have more money to invest in our pressing social issues. If we instead choose to elect an advocate for cities and towns, we are going to have to accept that other programs will have to be cut in order to increase local aid. An exception to that would be if we choose to spend more on lottery advertising and try to grow lottery revenues – a socially risky proposition to say the least.
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So let’s not make the fiscally irrational choice that satiates our needs now. Let’s be fiscally prudent and grow the pool of revenues that come in from wages, because those are far more sustainable than the temporary blip in state revenue that’s come in this year from corporate income tax spikes which isn’t more than a chance occurreance that isn’t likely to repeat itself year after year.
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Lastly, everyone who is “afraid” of Silbert needs to get over your Anti-Silbert biases. It’s time she get the respect she deserves for her bold positions. As Wayne Woodlief wrote, she’s proven she belongs, as her financial and political support has demonstrated. I fear her gender is getting in the way of her earning the respect she deserves and if she were a “he”, we’d be all crowing about how bold and visionary her positions are.
Don’t be going all gender bias on us now. No one’s “afraid” of Silbert, and no one disrespecting her “bold” positions. Furthermore, there’s nothing unimportant or lapdoggish (lapdoggy?) about the liaison to cities and towns role – it’s actually a really good idea to elevate the profile of that job, IMHO. Haven’t all the Govs been talking about the burden on cities and towns, property taxes, etc.? Just trying to think practically. I know you’re totally pro-Silbert. I’m still undecided, and so is about 90% of the state, and the more you call them sexist for not seeing how obvious the right choice is, the more of a disservice you do your candidate.
So why shouldn’t the issue of economic development be pushed to the fore by someone other than the Gov. candidates? Why isn’t why isn’t that worthy of elevating? I suppose it will be anyway. But the Gov. candidates’ messages are necessarily more complex, so “jobs” seems to me like a good choice. Given Deb’s evolving position on economic development (i.e. it’s a more central theme for her these days) and given her expenditures on polling, it seems that she sees that this issue is an important one over cities and towns.
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Plus, as others have said here many times: what the heck do we elect state reps and senators for if not to serve, in part, as liaisons to the cities and towns they represent? Also, isn’t the Treasurer a cities and towns guy too relative to lottery money? Cities and towns have enough representation as it is and they’re still getting shafted. Having another voice for them won’t solve the problem because it will only mean they need to take money from other valuable programs.
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Growing the pie is the fair, liberal, Democratic, progressive and correct answer.
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As far as sexism goes, we have too long of a history of that in this state to deny, and it’s ignoring that truth that has led us to our embarrassing statewide and national record of electing women. One of the hopes I have from Deb’s spending her money and Andrea raising more than anyone else in her race is that perhaps they can finally shut the Old Boy network up and reform it to accord women in Massachusetts politics the respect they deserve.
And raise you one Therese Murray. Even if Goldberg or Silbert becomes lieutenant governor, Murray will remain the most powerful woman in the state (in reality, if not on an org. chart).
If a Dem wins, I bet she’d decamp for a plum position in the executive branch. Secy of Econ. Affairs, or something like that.
I actually did not perceive the comment about gender bias as “going all gender bias on us now.” I think the comment was an accurate observation of a little bit of what may be happening in the Lieutenant Governor’s race. I was actually told by a female delegate at the Democratic State Convention that she liked Andrea Silbert but was voting for Tim Murray because she did not think the Democrats would win the Governor’s race if Andrea Silbert and Deval Patrick were on the same ticket. Granted, this is anecdotal evidence, but we need to stop being so dismissive of the effect of gender in Massachusetts politics. I grew up here, but I have lived in the Midwest and in the South. I think it is still tougher here in Massachusetts for women in politics (as well as in the professions) than in those other places I have lived. It saddens me because it is one of the reasons I may move away again. The Massachusetts Democratic Party needs to pay more attention to it and the rest of need to stop acting like it does not exist.
How much fun would it be if each and every dog decided they wanted to be the leader? You’d go nowhere fast while getting completely exasperated.
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If I want to lead my school, I can apply for a principalship. If Andrea Silbert wants to be a leader, she can run for governor. The fact that she has chosen to run for lieutenant governor means that she is accepting the parameters of that role.
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If what you’re saying is true, then she’s just not that interested in the job. Speaking as a Silbert supporter, why should I vote for someone who doesn’t really want the job?
The governor will be more likely to speak with and take advice from an LG who has a track record of getting things done. Someone they look at and admire for there ideas before they knew them. Would you take advice from a stupid parent, no. Would you take advice from a friend you barely know who has alot of respect from his peers,yes. The MA Governor is under alot off pressure, if he can lose some of that pressure by getting some help, why not.
Mayor Murray has without a doubt the best record of getting things done. It’s no that Silbert has not done a decent job in building a network with her nonprofit business.
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p> And we all know that Goldberg has done everything ,just ask her and she will tell you how hard she worked growing up and then fighting for the little people. Let’s get a non millionaire in office , one who understands the basic values of how hard it is to keep local and state government moving forward.
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Murray is a team player who has worked with all levels of government, and has seen first hand how important it is to work together. Murray is one who can use his experience as Mayor of the second largest city in the state to assist the next Governor in setting his agenda.
A lot of what has happened in Worcester over the most recent years was the result of many years of hard work by a lot of people, not just Tim Murray. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
You right to say alot that is being developed now was started prior to Murray being Mayor. But he was on the City Council prior to his six years as Mayor. Also I stated that he is a team player who has listen and can work with anyone. His abiltiy to get proven results and his track record is something Goldy and Silbert do not have.We need someone who can go to work right away and Tim Murray knows how to this.