WOW! Did anyone else just see that attack ad on channel 5 just now? It accuses Gabrieli wanting to state to invest in stem cell research so that his companies will make money. It ended saying, if you support stem cell research but not polical corruption, don’t vote for Chris Gabrieli. (Paid for by the Healey Committee). (no exact quotes, but that’s the gist of it)
First 100% straight up attack ad of the season. I’m guessing she’s got more of those ready for all the Democrats.
Please share widely!
The basis of the ad is not truthful. In the end, I think this is great for Gabrieli. The charge will be easily debunked based upon what I know of Gabrielis holdings. Also, Healey is a hypocrite on stem cell research. She sat on her hands until this year on the issue – because Mitt is against it – and now all of a sudden supports it in an election year.
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Gabrieli has been a consistent backer of stem cell research and the sciences over the years.
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Some questions:
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Why would Healey enter the fray five days before a Democratic primary and attack one of the three candidates?
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Answer: She must not want to see Gabrieli advance past next Tuesday. She must be seeing internals that I am hearing rumors about (i.e. Gabrieli is beginning to surge the last few days, while he simultaneously runs very strong with moderate/conservative Democrats, Independents, and against her).
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What impact might this have?
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Answer: It will increase interest in politics/the races and hopefully increase turnout next week. Also, it underscores Gabrielis electability argument. Healey sees Gabrieli as the toughest general election candidate and wants to eliminate him now & at worst soften him up for the General Election if/when Chris advances past the primary.
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What will happen next?
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Answer: Just a guess. Look for Gabrieli and his team to aggressively rebut the attack, point out the lies contained in the ad, and leverage the free publicity that Healey will now provide in the form of press attention and activity.
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Bring it on Kerry and the Republicans!! And thank you, thank you, thank you, a million times thank you!! We want more interest and attention as Primary Day nears and you just gave us some free airtime and controversy to leverage the next few days.
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Such ham-handedness can only be good for Gabrielli, especially at this point.
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(And it is unusual, to say the least, to see this sort of thing before the primary.)
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So–why is Healey doing him this great favor just now?
This is virtually unprecedented – at least my memory! 🙂 – that someone would cross party lines and aggressively attack one of three canddiates in the other primary – especially this late with 5 days to go. It’s an interesting choice of strategy and use of resources.
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The ad is not true, but even if it were true that Gabrieli (or even Healey herself or her husband) made money off of investments with companies involved with this research, let me ask this. Is Gabrieli supposed to turn a blind eye to promising science that might make the lives better for all of us at some point? As a the father of a son who was told at 8 1/2 months that his boy might not walk or talk, I could care less how much money anyone makes if they can help my son live a longer, healthier, & more robust life.
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PS My son does walk and talk, but I have no doubt that stem cell research and an open mindedness to the sciences in general will pay dividends and enhance his life – along with the lives of many others. All of us know someone who is sick and needs help.
Don’t you think that, by your own logic, Healey’s choice looks strategic? Your claim, right, is that this helps clearly helps Gabrieli. This prompts the question, why would Healey do something that, any fool can see, will help him? If we assume that Healeay is a clear-eyed, self-maximizing rational actor, then what she’d most want to do before the primary is to at once select her desired opponent and besmirch him at the same time. It would thus make sense for her to build up the electability arguments made by the more beatable of the viable candidates, even while lashing into him. So if you think she’s tampering in the primary, we could conclude, on your account, that this is what she’s done.
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Of course, that Machiavellian analyses makes huge assumptions about Healey’s political discernment (e.g. that she knows how the ad will play, hence has the pinpoint accuracy to launch an attack that, by appearing to “backfire” helps someone in the primary even while setting him up in the general). And I think such assumptions are not merited. In fact, I don’t think she has the ability to assess opponents well at all–that’s why she was, for along time, so fearful of Tom Reilly. My previous paragraph is (mainly) toungue in cheek. But precisely because she’s so ham-handed and undiscerning, I’m not going to let her have the word on who is electable. And I’m willing to bet that Deval Patrick will beat her if he’s the nominee. I’ll make the same bet on behalf of Chris Gabrieli, too. This time we are, finally, well-positioned. So my real message, to Gabrieli fans, is stop insisting that, polls and primary experience to the contrary, he’s the only guy who can take her out.
She’s itching to run against Gabrielli and this is how she helps him.
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She’s afraid of running against Gabrielli and this is how she hurts him (not very skilfully, though).
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She’s running this now so that when she runs her much “better” (i.e. more-effective) negative ad against Patrick this weekend it won’t be so obvious that she is trying to affect the primary result.
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Whatever. No doubt Healey’s people have a theory about who they would prefer to run against. Maybe it is Gabrielli. Maybe (as the Gabriellians never tire of telling us) it is Patrick. Maybe Reilly.
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What I have to say about that is this, whatever Healy believes.
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Maybe she’s wrong.
I have a different take on this:
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The consultancies of both the Gabbers and Healey campaigns want to give MA another millionaire’s media duel. Voters who have checked in will check out with gleeful abandon, once again giving us the status quo.
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It’s logical to ask why the Heaey consultants are setting this precendent prior to the primary. Seems they want Gabbers to be the opponent, just like they wanted John Kerry. Someone who will play by the trusted playbook and not deviate. I hope many people have learned the lessons.
And Deval thought he was being criticized by Reilly and Gabs in the Primary!
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Let this be a lesson to all who think that Deval will be able to ride his grass-roots support through the General Election. If Kerry Healey will lie about Gabs and stem cells imagine what the GOP will say about Deval’s failure to pay his taxes, or his defense of cop-killers!
“Did you hear what I said??????” You could just feel the frustration. Politics and debating requires “cool demeanor & behavior. Getting touchy doesn’t cut it.
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I’m having trouble understanding why a candidate in first place would feel so sensitive to “comparatives” on issues. Then to call it dirty politics and say “what does that say about your character?” How about welcome to the “real” political world? You need a thick skin in this business, because they are going to give it to you left and right.
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Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey is going to have a field day pushing Deval’s buttons. How could such a successful man feel so insecure?
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Is there enough time to fix this in the 7 1/2 weeks until the General Election? Is it just a matter of time before the novice explodes?
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Lastly, are you really going to defend this, or just deny it happened? Everybody is talking about it.
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At least Gabs didn’t lose it in either debate. That’s the kind of behavior we need.
want to see Gabrieli win the primary, there is NO way she can win with him as the dem nominee. There is legitimate debate on her squeking by Patrick or Reilly but no way she can beat Gabrieli
And as for the substance of your comments, I thought the interchanges with Reilly on his misrepresentations conveyed frustration with pig-headedness in a pretty good way. I’m not spinning on that. And I won’t claim that Patrick was on his game all night: I don’t think last night was one of P’s stronger performances. For instance, I’ll concede that his question to the other two was a real mistake, one they both took advantage of. But taking in the debate as a whole, he more or less held serve (if I can switch sports metaphors), and, in any comparative assessment, you have to take in the broader patterns and larger context of the campaign. In that larger context, I don’t think that there’s a serious counter-argument to the claim that DP is the most adept politician, warmest presence, and most charismatic speaker that we have in this field or, for that matter, that we’ve had in many an election in this state. You’re a serious and thoughtful commentator, so you may make good arguments as to why you think CG would be the better governor. You can argue, too, about why he’s (even) more electable, based on his position on taxes, his putative centrism, etc.–although I think those arguments ignore too many important things, they’re not crazy, and, though we’ll never know (can’t run them two elections to compare) you could, despite my claims be right. But to dimiss DP on style and political presence is just plain silly.
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P.S. As I’ve already agreed, the “negative campaigning” question was, as a debate tactic, a misstep. For the purposes of discussion on BMG, however, where we are well-informed and follow things closely, I’d say this to you: Deval’s characterization of the stuff coming out of the two other campaigns was accurate, even though tactically off. Using Republican wedge issues is NOT what I want Democratic candidates to do. I still think Chris is basically a decent guy who’d be a good governor, but his targeting immigrant children, his demonizing of the party’s activists (people like us) and his untenable promises that he can lower all kinds of taxes soon while taking care of our social needs have lowered him in my opinion.
the globe states
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Come on, she has her own pollsters and I bet they are more accurate than SHN or CBS, I’ll bet her internal numbers are scaring the blond out of her at a KH CG matchup.