Astute Herald columnist Wayne Woodlief writes today that Chris Gabrieli, already making progress in the polls due to his, um, healthy spending on TV ads and glossy mailings, stands to benefit the most from Tom Reilly and Deval Patrick duking it out over Killer Coke. Gabrieli, he says, can remain above the fray, while Reilly has to defend his campaign’s antics and Patrick has to defend his record at Coke.
Well, maybe. Surely this thing hasn’t turned out exactly the way Tom Reilly might have hoped. He was already raising questions about Patrick’s corporate past without Killer Coke’s help, and now he’s forced to waste valuable time defending his campaign’s questionable attempts to prop up the one-man Killer Coke show. Doesn’t strike me as very good for him. Patrick, meanwhile, does end up talking more about the past than he might like, though he may also benefit from having someone attack him from the left, thereby calling into question the silly notion that the only people backing Patrick are members of the “loony left.” Like I said when this story first surfaced, the existence of a “Moonbats against Deval” contingent can’t be entirely a bad thing for Patrick.
So Woodlief is right that Gabrieli can keep talking about whatever he wants while the other two get at least some of their free media consumed by the story. On the other hand, though, the story has generated free media for both Patrick and Reilly, and there’s something to the old adage that any publicity is good publicity. At the end of the day, this probably ends up a wash (unless some true coordination between Reilly’s campaign and Ray Rogers emerges, which as Charley notes is looking less likely, barring some new email drop from Joan Vennochi).
I think that the Killer Coke saga will hurt Reilly more in the primary because he seems duplicitous and petty to Democratic primary voters. But, if Deval is the nominee, it will hurt him in the general election when otherwise less-informed voters say, “Hey, wasn’t he the guy who had some labor issues while working at Coke. Seems shady.” And you can certainly expect Kerry Healey to perpetuate that impression that Deval has more corporate skeletons in the closet than he actually does. So, yeah, it taints both Reilly and Deval, but at different stages (should Deval win the nomination).
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Either way, as far as skeletons and blunders, Gabrieli does seem to be the best candidate for the Dems.
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Reilly has been fully vetted during his AG runs, but continues to make embarrassing political blunders.
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Deval is a great speaker and not prone to blunders, but can be made to appear to have tons of corporate skeletons in the closet.
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However, Gabrieli was fully vetted in 2002 as the Lt. Gov. nominee and no skeletons turned up, so he’s clear in that regard, unlike Deval. And he does not seem prone to political blunders, unlike Reilly. And he has the most money, the most experience with Kerry Healey, debating her in 2002, and is a solid progressive on the issues with ideas and vision to improve the Commonwealth.
Do you really think Kerry Healey is going to play the populist, anti-corporate card? While she’s dumping millions of dollars from her husband’s company into her campaign? Seems doubtful to me.
I mean, that would be funny … Someone would have to out-Rove Rove to do that.
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But you know, Lee Atwater had George HW Bush bash Dukakis for our Dirty Water, after Poppy had spent eight years working for a guy who thought trees caused pollution … so anything could happen.