A recent AP article tells the story:
The fear among some Democrats is that if voters nominate anyone other than Chris Gabrieli, a former venture capitalist with millions in the bank, the candidate will be so cash-strapped that [Republican Kerry] Healey will steamroll him during the seven-week general election campaign….
Contrast [Healey’s personal wealth] with Democrat Deval Patrick, who has consistently led in primary polls. This past week, he started TV advertising on behalf of his gubernatorial campaign, but his budget will be limited to about $2.5 million over five weeks….
Compare that, also, with the third Democratic candidate, Attorney General Tom Reilly, who has been trading second and third place with Gabrieli in polls. He has been advertising since July 17, but he’s planning to exhaust the $4.4 million he had in the bank during his primary campaign….
The Massachusetts Democratic Party itself has taken a lesson from 2002, when its gubernatorial nominee, Shannon O’Brien, didn’t have any money left to advertise in the days immediately after she won the primary.
The party has supplemented its traditional campaign committee, this year known as Victory ’06, with five regional coordinators who have been building a field organization to assist that of the nominee.
In addition, it has banked $400,000 so the nominee will have advertising money immediately after primary day, Sept. 19. It also plans to raise money immediately after that.
Whoever wins the Democratic primary will need to hit the ground running on Sept. 20, since Kerry Healey can be expected to blanket the airwaves with her basically limitless bank account once the general election is in sight. So: are you maxed out to your candidate? Are you waiting to donate to anyone until the primary is over?
Don’t worry – and don’t wait. As the AP article describes, the state party has set up an effort called Mass. Victory ’06, which is designed to avoid the financial problems that Shannon O’Brien had in 2002 after she won the primary. The idea, according to state party spokeswoman Cyndi Roy, “is to be able to fill that gap between Sept. 20 and 10 days after the primary, by which time the candidate should be able to hold fundraisers for himself.” (Of course, the fundraising effort will continue throughout the general election season – there’s already fundraiser planned for October featuring Bill Clinton, and no doubt there’s more to come.)
How does this work? First, money. You can donate now to Mass. Victory ’06, secure in the knowledge that your donation will be used to help the Democratic nominee win in November. So you can do it all – you can donate to your candidate’s campaign, and you can also help whoever wins the primary when he will most need that help. And, since these donations go to the party rather to a particular candidate’s campaign, the dollar limits are MUCH higher: for an individual, the limit to the state party is $10,000* (as opposed to $500 if you’re donating directly to a candidate).
Second, organization. Even if Gabrieli wins the primary and money therefore isn’t a major issue, the party can still be very helpful to him. What Gabrieli lacks is a well-established field organization. A big part of Mass. Victory ’06 is to put a field organization in place, which can be activated immediately after the primary. As Roy says, “the way to look at Victory ’06 is it’s a campaign without a candidate, and on Sept. 20, we’ll have that candidate.” To that end, Mass. Victory ’06 has already hired five regional coordinators to build a field operation, and has paid staff in place in each of the state’s congressional districts. They are recruiting precinct captains and volunteers, organizing cookouts and house parties, and setting up canvasses and phone banks, all in preparation for Sept. 20.
So, to grossly oversimplify, if Patrick or Reilly wins, the party will be there with money to keep him on the air. If Gabrieli wins, the party will be there with field organization to help him on the ground. Either way, the party can step in to supplement what will inevitably be a depleted campaign operation on Sept. 20, and help it get off to a strong start for the general election campaign.
The Mass. Victory ’06 effort is a really good idea. We should support it.
UPDATE: From the comments, an additional note by Cyndi Roy:
Regarding integration with the candidates:
In response to those who raised the question of integration with the gubernatorial campaigns:
Mass Victory ’06 and the state party have been working with each of the three campaigns to determine how best we can come together post-primary. Everything from field to communications to fundraising is being considered and will be done in such a way that maximizes our ability to aid the gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial nominees. To date, we have more than 1,000 precinct captains statewide who are committed to supporting the nominees immediately post-primary and who are doing everything in their power to ensure a Democratic governor is elected November 7. We will continue to work and build a grassroots organization that is dedicated to seeing our nominee beat Kerry Healey on Election Day.(Cyndi Roy, communications director, MDP)
*The contribution limit is actually more complicated than that. An individual can give a max of $5,000 to the state party’s “state account,” and another $10,000 to the party’s “federal account.” However, all online donations are considered “federal,” so if you only give online the limit is $10,000 (you could write an additional check for $5,000). I’m not worrying my pretty little head too much about it.
His slogan: “Vote for me, I have more money than my opponents”
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Sorry but the reason I like Deval has something to do with his slogan “politics of hope over the politics of cynicism” voting for the big money man is a cynical action.
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That said Mass Victory 06 does seem like a good idea.
jconway – Just because Gabrieli has the most money doesn’t mean that money is all Gabrieli is about. And thinking that Gabrieli is “only money” is a demonstration of the politics of cynicism that you claim to oppose!
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Gabrieli has spent the last several years building up companies, creating jobs, working to improve education in the Commonwealth, and fighting for increased tech development and stem cell research. Further, he was fully vetted as our nominee for Lt. Gov. in 2002 where he pretty much wasted Kerry Healey in their debate, while Deval has really not been fully vetted and can still have corporate skeletons in the closet (or at least be made by Healey and the GOP spin machine to seem as such).
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Gabrieli has a ton to offer, even if he isn’t your preferred candidate – so referring to him solely as the “money candidate” is, well, pretty cynical. (And, yes, it certainly doesn’t hurt that Gabrieli has the most money and routinely has the largest margin of victory over Healey of any Democrat in the polls, while Deval continues to have the smallest margin of victory over Healey.)
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(Further, the “politics of hope” that Deval is touting isn’t too far removed from the “politics of slogans”. Deval thinks that hope along will create jobs and improve housing and health care. He doesn’t get that more jobs and better housing and health care actually creates hope.)
Assuming you meant “alone” and not “along,” please show me where in Deval’s platform it says that hope alone will fix everything. Sorry to single you out, as I think the GP post was just as off-topic in what’s supposed to be a discussion of unity after the primary, but two wrongs don’t make a right.
Look, I’m as much of a Deval guy as the next, but there’s no reason to slam Gabrieli in this thread.
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This blog has been plagued with this kind of gratuitous sniping on all sides and it doesn’t make the Victory ’06 effort any easier if we’re all jerks to each other.
I’m probably overanalyzing this, but what happens to the Victory 06 field leadership should Patrick win? Having too much money in the event of a Gabrieli victory isn’t a problem, and having more volunteers to work for any candidate is always great, but wouldn’t this also create a duplicate field leadership structure? In other words, on September 20th, many precincts across the state could suddenly find themselves with two captains. Same goes for the congressional and regional coordinators. Sometimes having co-leaders can be beneficial, but it can also lead to a lack of coordination or even infighting.
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Merging two organizations can be a difficult and time-consuming task, and there’s no time to lose between September and November. Patrick’s field team is doing an incredible job, and I wouldn’t want anything to slow them down. Anyone have an idea as to how this issue might be addressed?
Part of my concern is what happened when Sharon O’Brien won the primary — her campaign staff was replaced by the Mass . Dem. “brain trust”. She lost a lot of the spontaneity and se;f-honesty that won her the primary, and was again on display during her concession. When the Mass. Dems took over, they turned the campaign into your typical consultancy never-stand-out routine.
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Does Victory 06 also mean the winning candidate had to accept the Mass Dem preferred “experts” or have they learned there lessons about letting the people who won the primary go on to win the general?
can make a candidate do anything he doesn’t want to do. Did O’Brien actually replace her campaign staff? Or did she just stop listening to them and listening to the state party instead?
After the primary, the state party and its coordinated campaign were placed at the O’Brien campaign’s disposal.
The top staff (manager) remained in place, but the secondary level (field manager, media, etc.) was replaced. And while they didn’t make her do anything, at the very least there was a lot of pressure from the state party to let the “experts” handle it.
Under state election law, can a party coordinate more freely with its nominee’s committee than, say, Killer Coke can coordinate with the Reilly campaign? (Snark alert, but a serious question.)
In response to those who raised the question of integration with the gubernatorial campaigns:
Mass Victory ’06 and the state party have been working with each of the three campaigns to determine how best we can come together post-primary. Everything from field to communications to fundraising is being considered and will be done in such a way that maximizes our ability to aid the gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial nominees. To date, we have more than 1,000 precinct captains statewide who are committed to supporting the nominees immediately post-primary and who are doing everything in their power to ensure a Democratic governor is elected November 7. We will continue to work and build a grassroots organization that is dedicated to seeing our nominee beat Kerry Healey on Election Day.(Cyndi Roy, communications director, MDP)
Thanks for the clarification, Cyndi!
I have to imagine that there are a lot of activist-types sitting on the sidelines, waiting for one of the candidates to break free of the pack, so that you actually can guess for whom you’re likely to be donating and canvassing. That’s a tough nut to crack when you’ve got a genuinely big-tent party with a tradition of fratricide … to mix metaphors.
Is there any info out about this Clinton Fundraiser? Or is it still in the planning phase?
All I know is that it’s scheduled for October. I don’t have an exact date – don’t know if it’s been publicly announced.