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Herald endorses a Reilly/Goldberg Democratic ticket

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The Herald has announced its choice for Governor in the Democratic primary: Tom Reilly.  MavDem has the details.  My question is this: why is the Herald ed. board, who surely will ultimately back Kerry Healey, endorsing in the Democratic primary?

Good news for Deval Patrick, IMHO.  He certainly wasn’t going to get the Herald’s endorsement, and the fact that Reilly rather than Gabrieli got it makes it that much more likely that Reilly can take back some of those moderate/independent types that might have been moving toward Gabs in recent days.

Anyway, the Herald also endorsed Deb Goldberg for Lt. Gov., citing Goldberg’s public and private sector experience, and “her judgment and maturity that make her an outstanding choice.”

Congrats to both campaigns.

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  1. David,

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    I was completely in agreement with the Herald till I got to the punchline:

    This year’s race for governor isn’t nearly as much about issues as it is about trust, leadership and experience. And there’s only one man running in the Democratic primary who scores high on all three, and that’s …

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    I’m sure you know which name I would have filled in at this point.

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    But, I read on, and got to the justification:

    He is a stalwart supporter of MCAS as a graduation requirement, merit pay for teachers and early childhood education. On taxes, Reilly has heard what voters said in 2000 when they overwhelmingly approved the rollback of the state income tax to 5 percent. ‘‘I feel very strongly about it,” Reilly said. Wow, a leader who believes people mean what they say.

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    and realized that these Republican talking points are what endears him to the Herald, and not to me.

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    What a striking contrast to the eloquent editorial by the Globe, so compellingly presented in your post.

  2. They end the editorial endorsing Deb Goldberg with this quote, “But at the end of the day it’s her judgment and maturity that make her an outstanding choice “

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    And as an example of her judgment and maturity, the Herald reported yesterday this episode.

    • That just proves to me how truly excellent the Herald is at separating their news and editorial departments.  They should get some sort of journalistic integrity award.

  3. that the Reilly endorsements will get the same glowing treatment as Deval’s Globe endorsement?  After all, he may be our nominee.

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    So far, both the Herald and Cape Cod Times endorsement have met with a tepid response from the BMG editors while the Globe’s endorsement was greeted with a big sloppy kiss.

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    Big sloppy kisses for everyone! 🙂

    • numbers of Reilly supporters posting here as Patrick supporters, then, yes, he’ll be “greeted with a big sloppy kiss.”  I don’t believe, though, that there are that many people posting here who support Reilly–a fact, actually, I suspect you appreciate as meaningful to some extent. 

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      You should round up some of your Reilly friends and have them start posting here to help your guy out. 

      • BMG commentors are disproportionately pro-Patrick.  That much is obvious.

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        I was talking about the diary itself.  Patrick’s Globe endorsement was given glowing treatment, which inspired my own diary on Tom Reilly’s Herald endorsment.

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        I was simply suggesting that a promotion of my diary would have been closer to equal treatment.

    • I linked to you, didn’t I?  I couldn’t have done it any better.

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      The CC Times piece didn’t make any sense.  And I liked the Globe’s.  (Surprise!)  This is, after all, still a blog.

      • I appreciate the the link, but a promotion would have been better!

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        Instead, you tee up discussion with this: “My question is this: why is the Herald ed. board, who surely will ultimately back Kerry Healey, endorsing in the Democratic primary?”  (Hello, Parade?  It’s me: rain.)  Calling, Debbie Downer!

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        As for your question, two thoughts:

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      • Perhaps the Herald believes that voters should have a choice between Tom Reilly, Kerry Healey, Christy Mihos, and Grace Ross in the General Election.

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      • I am totally unconvinced that the Herald will ultimately back Healey, especially if Reilly is in the race.

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        Thanks to the Springfield Republican’s endorsement of Tom Reilly, the parade goes on – rain or shine!

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        • Anyone could have seen that one coming a mile away.

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          The paper ran every anti-Patrick article but didn’t print any negative Reilly article — not even the “Killer Coke” incident. Yet they printed the attack on Patrick by Killer Coke.

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          The Republican is far from the most objective paper in the country — anyone who reads it knows that they heavily meddle in local politics, to the point where they actually offered an endorsement to a mayoral council candidate if he agreed to pursue casinos in the city (the Republican owned the land that the casino would have been built on). They of course denied it when the candidate went public with that.

          • Comes after a year of fluff pieces on Reilly and virtual silence on the Patrick candidacy.  Reilly could be indicted for fraud, rape and murder, and the Republican would still glowingly endorse him.  Anyone who has spent any time reading the Republican should immediately lather and rinse repeatedly.  Ever wonder how Springfield got into the trouble it’s in?  A big part of the problem was the lack of reporting on corruption, insider political deals, etc.  A major sport in Springfield is watching the news for the daily indictments (being sought by the feds, not the AG).  Very sad and in need of change.

    • the Patrick supporters should throw in little tongue too!  Are you kidding me?  Reilly and the Herald are like peanut butter and jelly, tax and spend, the Cap’t and Tenniel.  I can’t imagine any self-lovin’, god-fearin’, stem-cell savin’ Primary Dem voter who isn’t flipping to page 42 of the free-after-3 Boston Herald and finding out who to sock it in for on Election Day. 
      I’m with you MavDem, how could these BMG elites not share the love.  And those lily-livered, Devalistanis don’t know when to cheer. 

      • and anything else! These ‘Devalistanis’ will bend over backwards for their cute little boy-toy just as long as he keeps showing the world that, yes, a man can be proud to be a rich New England ‘liberal’ who doesn’t know the first thing about the working class. You, too, can send your kids to private school and still pretend to be in touch with the world.

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        Mmm mm! Blue as he is(n’t) black- that’s just the way we like ’em!

    • The Globe editorial gets nice long excerpts on the front page because it endorses the “right” candidate.  Talk about sloppy kisses.

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      But rather than extend same treatment to the Herald, who endorsed the “wrong” person, we get no excerpts, and a slavering eagerness to dismiss the endorsement.  The fact that the Herald regularly outsells the Globe in Massachusetts, and targets those voters we need to win, is of no import.

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      How will Democrats ever win a general election, if we decide that we give up on the Herald’s endorsement or the votes of the people who read the Herald?  This Deval purism is unfortunate enough when it isolates elements of the Democratic Party, but to purposely give up on and exclude swing voters is foolish.  We’re looking at another disappointed ballroom this Election Day.

      • Back when I was a local coordinator for Reich, I was very pleased when the Herald wrote an over the top editorial endorsing him.  The Reich campaign made as much of it as it could.  I’m sure you all, and the Reilly campaign, will do the same.  But a few days later, when  the Globe endorsed O’Brien, all of us in the Reich camp were not only disappointed but well aware of the obvious reality that O’Brien won the more important prize.  I admitted it then, while on the losing end, and I happily proclaim it now, while on the winning end.  So I’d find it odd to see BMG or anyone else give the two endorsements equal weight.

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        Furthermore, I gave a little whoop of delight when BMG informed me that the Herald had backed Reilly.  Sure, I’d have whooped louder if they’d endorsed Partick, but there was no way they were going to do that.  Given that they weren’t going to back my guy, I’m delighted to see they went with the weaker of his opponents.  Gabrieli’s shutout in the major endorsements is terrific news for Deval. 

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        One last thing on these endorsements.  Neither outcome was foreordained.  Despite a grumpy BMG comment or two to the contrary, many reasonable and informed people considered it quite possible, even probable, that the Globe would back Gabrieli.  And while Reilly’s mobilization of class resentment in the service of conservative politics is right out of the Herald playbook, that endorsement had to be in jeopardy in recent days.  Given–sorry–Reilly’s immensely self-destructive performance in the debate, it also seemed possible that the paper would dump him, making a strategic flip to the Gabs.  Out of the four possible outcomes a realist might have predicted, then, the Patrick campaign gets the 2 best.  Not a bad 3 days for us!

        • One could argue that Gabs somehow comes out ahead in the Boston paper endorsement game (although it would require a bit of the proverbial “shell game” for even a wonk like Gabs to pull it off): His two primary opponents are endorsed by Boston’s “extreme left” and “extreme right” papers. Gabs then positions himself by saying, “See, I’m the guy in the middle, and therefore the one who’s most electable.”

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          Now, I’m a huge Deval supporter and wouldn’t buy this arugment for a moment — nor do I think that Gabs isn’t disappointed not to get the Glob endorsement in particular — but I’m just saying that I could see this sort of Gabs spin control coming from, say, 6 miles offshore.

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          Just a thought….

          • That would have to be the spin.  (What else canthey say?  But almost everyone would know that’s grasping at straws. 

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            Think of it this way:  One campaign mission is to win major newspaper endorsements.  Who–to coin a phrase–“Got results” on this front?  Bad 3 days for the Gabs.

        • I admit that in the halls of “serious” discourse, the Herald is frowned upon for its lurid photos and short words.  And I freely admit that I would much rather read the Globe and that I’ve been known to tell my students that the Herald isn’t a real newspaper.

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          But we’re not talking about activist bloggers and the Gang of 500.  You have a larger local readership for the Herald, and I would wage that amongst those readers there is a greater respect for their favorite rag’s choice.  In terms of influencing votes in Massachusetts — not for serious, enjoyable reasons, but the real hard data, I’d say the Herald was a bigger voice.

        • Did BMG gave the Globe endorsement more attention because it’s a ‘bigger prize’ or is it that the people on BMG think the Globe endorsement to be a ‘bigger prize’ because the kind of people that are on BMG give it more attention?

      • My oldest son sees no value in poetry. Recently I tried to convince him that the beauty of it is that one can express so much with a few words.  I used the example “the ant has a voice” to demonstrate this principle.  Well my friend, your use of “slavering eagerness” is truly poetic. Why I could go on and on about how this truly captures the tenor of most posters at BMG.  sabutai – Poet emeritus of BMG, that’s the ticket.

  4. In her new blog, Emily chimes in and finds that newspaper endorsements don’t always get it right.

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    I’ll add that her analysis appears to not have included the 98 AG or 02 Treasurer’s race – both of which the papers got wrong.

  5. In true Herald fashion they not only picked the worst candidate for governor but the worst candidate for Lt. at the same time. Bravo Herald…One step closer to being Boston’s own Mad Magazine. Or The Onion perhpas.

    • …from the Globe’s Political Intelligence:

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      September 12, 2006
      The Herald endorsement history
      Four years ago, the Boston Herald endorsed Robert Reich for governor in the Democratic primary. Now, the paper is backing Tom Reilly.

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      At this point in the campaign, every move is over-analyzed, so, hey, here is some more, coming from one strategist: the Herald endorsement is a “bank shot” actually meant to help Kerry Healey win in November. How so? Follow the ball: The Herald editorial is meant to prop up Reilly’s campaign in hopes that he steals just enough votes from Christopher Gabrieli, so that Deval Patrick wins the primary. And she then beats Patrick, who offered his own thoughts on electibility this week.

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      Whew!

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      Posted by David Dahl, Political Editor at 12:07 PM

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