Then, the next day, a full day in Springfield, including a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Western Mass campaign HQ, with TV cameras, photographer, and reporters all over the place.
In all, over the past two days, my candidate attended at least four public events, and several other invitation-only get-togethers, another TV interview in Pittsfield, and so on. Yet, no sign of Killer Coke. Is he gone?
btw, there were 300+ people at each of the forums I mentioned, and from the reaction of the audiences and the random comments I heard afterwards, Deval pretty much owned the place at each event. Of course, I admit to a little bias there, but I (wearing my neon lime-green campaign t-shirt) had several people come up to me and ask what they could do to help the campaign. Actually, they insisted that I get in touch with them to let them know when and where we are doing canvassing and other campaign activities. I really can’t remember a candidacy that has generated so much excitement.
At the Great Barrington forum, I was a little concerned at first. When Deval was speaking, the audience was silent. He threw out his usual assortment of applause lines, but no response. Then, I realized, as I looked around, people were spellbound. They didn’t want to interrupt him because they wanted to savor his every word.
So, we have a lot of work to do over the next 33 days to motivate people to get to the polls, but I have a good feeling. In fact, let me make a bold prediction: I believe that Mr. Patrick will receive not just a plurality, but a majority of the vote in Berkshire County. There! now that I’ve said that publicly, I’ll have to work like hell to help make it happen!
And, I’ll make another bold prediction. Mr. Galvin is just plain wrong when he says, according to the Springfield Republican, that voter turnout will be low.
Secretary of State William F. Galvin, who was at the clambake, said he expected voter turnout will be lower in this year’s primary than in 2002 when only about 18 percent of registered voters went to the polls in Hampden County.
I don’t think he’s right about Hampden County and I certainly don’t think that could be said about Berkshire County.
Mr. Rogers of killer coke fame is meeting with Reilly to consider running with him as a write in candidate for Lt Governor.
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Reilly/Gabrelli? No! Reilly/St. Fleur? No!
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Reilly/Rogers–that’s the ticket
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Is the Patrick campaign spiking the Kool-Aid with THC for the hippies out in Berkshire Co.?
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Is the Patrick campaign spiking the Kool-Aid with THC for the hippies out in Berkshire Co.?
Perhaps you didn’t read my post very carefully. This was not a Patrick campaign event, but a forum sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce. You probably have one of those left-wing groups in your area, too.
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Your candidate didn’t bother to show up, so it’s hard to say how the audience would have reacted to him. He did send a surrogate, as noted in the Beagle article, who seemed not to know too much about your guy’s position on just about anything. He declined the opportunity for a 15-minute opening statement and “took a pass” on most of the questions during the Q+A.
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I think it’s a shame that your “support” for your candidate consists of rather juvenile name-calling. Hardly likely to win people over to your cause, imho.
Galvin does this all the time, and it’s really annoying. What possible good does it serve to make predictions like this? How about getting off your kiester instead and working like hell to increase turnout? How about showing some public enthusiasm for the political process. Grrrrr.
Per Globe, August 18, 2006:
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“In interviews this week, Rogers insisted that he has not had conversations with officials working for Patrick’s rivals….He said he is personally [my emphasis added] paying the $800 to $1000 cost [of the flyers].”
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The Patrick/Reilly/Killercoke menage a trois is a red herring that gave Mr. Rogers the best publicity he could have found. Time will tell, but I contend that this is Mr. Rogers client Move along, there’s no corporate contribution or coordination offense here.
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Mr. Rogers aims for population centers and concentrations of colleges and universities. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him turn up in Amherst. But the Berkshires?! Cows don’t drink coke. And people? Have we tamed the frontiers that far west yet?
The condescending attitude you people from the eastern part of the state (yes, Sturbridge is in the east when you’re sitting at Exit 1 of the Pike) so often display really pisses people off around here.
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Yeah, we only have 1/8 of the state’s population, but we vote if motivated. And Deval Patrick is the only candidate in this race to have spent serious time out here, sometimes being the only candidate to show up at events where all candidates were invited.
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He has been to parades and picnics and editorial board meetings and countless other events, and people know who he is. We’ve hardly seen the others, who seem to rely on TV ads instead of personal appearances.
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So, ignore an eighth of the state’s population at your own peril, I say.
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And Gary, this rant is not directed at you. I know you agree that Mr. Patrick is the best candidate.
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As for your assertion that
are you suggesting that Springfield does not count? One would have thought the presence of TV cameras would be worth something to him!
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Could you please supply a link to the Globe interview? I missed that. Given Joan V’s column on the leaked Reilly campaign emails, how believable is that? You don’t think he might have been coached, do you? Or are you saying that the Reilly campaign emails were some sort of spoof? It strains credulity to say that he is acting alone here.
The above quote was from today’s (8/18) print edition. I just copied/typed the excerpt that I quoted above. Sure, I believe it quite likely that he was ‘educated’ to the fact that Corporate giving to campaigns is illegal in Mass and he quickly remembered that he was personally undertaking this campaign, not his corporation.
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Mr. Rodgers is, in my opinion, an activist for labour movements who saw an opportunity for publicity for his cause by involving Mr. Patrick.
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Mr. Patrick’s opposition saw Mr. Rodgers’ activities as an opportunity and made some careful overtures to him via e-mail.
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As to my speculation to Killercoke’s money sponsors, just look at the killercoke website. Mr. Rodger’s clients are unions and students and student unions, not politicians. He’s not acting alone; he’s working for some unions.
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Mr. Patrick got caught in the killercoke blowback because he was simply at the wrong company at the wrong time.
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All IMHO.
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believe otherwise… ?
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That’s the simplest explanation for Killercoke, and the simplest explanation is usually the right one. I’m sure David will make me eat these words if the investigation turns out otherwise.
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And, to your last point, there really are people living west of Sturbridge!?
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đŸ™‚
Home of the world largest elementary school, Burgess. ;^
I enjoy stopping at the Sturbridge (well, okay, Charlemont) rest area on my trips to Boston via the Pike, because it means I’m almost there [seriously — it’s about 90 minutes into my 2-hour trip].
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Also, I appreciate your invocation of Occam’s Razor, but I don’t think you can use it if you ignore some of the facts of the case.
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Not to mention the AG’s confession that “the campaign” had been involved.
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How do you fold all of that into your defense of Mr. Rogers?