Kim and PolInt note that Tom Reilly’s website, which up ’til yesterday hadn’t been updated since the primary, now features a letter that, in addition to thanking supporters etc., says the following:
Deval has my congratulations and he has my support. It is time to end 16 straight years of failed Republican governors and I will help him do that.
Well, Tom, that’s an OK start. But the situation has gone well beyond that, with Kerry Healey running ads containing footage of Reilly calling Patrick “soft on crime” (among other things). And here’s today’s Globe on the news conference held by other Democrats featured in that ad, all of whom appeared to denounce the ad and reiterate their support for Patrick:
Cyndi Roy, a spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party, said Reilly had been invited to the news conference but said he could not attend. She said he did not say why. Two former spokesmen for the Reilly campaign did not return phone calls yesterday afternoon, but Roy noted that Reilly has endorsed Patrick and that many of his former supporters are helping Patrick’s campaign.
Reilly needs to get out of his undisclosed location and debunk, loudly and in person, the ridiculous notion that Patrick is “soft on crime.” He needs, in other words, to do what he said he’d do: “help” Deval Patrick “end 16 straight years of failed Republican governors.” A letter on his website isn’t enough.
What are the odds that he, personally, would rather see Healey win, but his party affiliation politically requires him to side with the dem nominee. After all, his big thing was taxes, and he’s much closer to Healey in that area than Patrick.
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Anyone more familiar with Reilly personally want to comment on the possibility that he’s personally ambivalent about Patrick for governor?
Agreed. He is either a really sore loser, or a Republican… and either way I’m glad he didn’t win the primary. And it may seem like that goes without saying, as I was a Patrick supporter from the start, but I certainly don’t feel the same way about Gabrielli’s loss: he has acted like a true gentleman since the second his concession speech started. Reilly, on the other hand, is quickly losing any smidgen of respect I may have ever had for him.
Perhaps he’s having a hard time coping with his rather crushing defeat having also given up the AG job too. Reilly is likely done, and I imagine it isn’t easy to cope with that.
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I liked Gabrieli during the race and even strongly considered supporting him, so I’m very happy to see him handling his loss gracefully.
Oh, he’s only “done” if he wants to be. He’ll never be elected again, but he has a mile-long resume, knows everyone who’s anyone, and is obviously a smart guy who can do any of a million different things in either the public or the private sector. By being silent, he’s coming off as an immature sore loser: THAT will harm his career more than losing an election It wasn’t even all that dramatic a loss: yes, it was 3rd out of 3, but it was only a few points lower than Gabrielli, and the primary was more about a spectacular win than about spectacular losses. Gabrielli must have saw that from the very second he got on stage and hugged Patrick on Primary night.
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Life sucks, move on. Politicians lose elections, it’s just what they do. Both Mitt and Muffy have lost elections. Gabrielli’s lost elections. And now Reilly lost one: I’m sure it sucks, and he certainly had reason to be depressed initially, but what good is sitting around feeling sorry for himself going to do? What would he have done when if he had lost to Muffy?
Does anyone really think that Reilly’s support for rolling back the income tax to 5.0% was anything other than a political tactic? He was firmly with the rest of the Democratic Party for years, and only changed his position when he ran for Governor. He’s really closer to Patrick than Healey on taxes, immigration, crime, and just about everything else. He gave it his best shot, but he just didn’t have the duende one needs for that office
I think Reilly is a decent man. But if he doesn’t rise to the occasion here, his last appearance in politics will be his starring role in a Healey ad — I hope that’s not what he wants.
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that after a few years of random appearances and a scruffy look, he’ll emerge from his hibernation to make a movie? That would be algoriffic.
Where has MavDem been?
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I think the problem is that Reilly does believe Deval is soft on crime, so we shouldn’t hold our breath waiting for him to come out and say otherwise.
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Let’s not feel too bad for Reilly. When the dust settles I can imagine a very lucrative legal career for him and maybe even a million dollar home for himself should he choose.
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Tom Reilly!
This guy, who a year ago was the official shoe-in for Governor, loses more stature with every passing day.
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I actually found reasons to like Reilly even during the primary when he was doing all kinds of goofy stuff against my candidate. However, I’m having trouble maintaining that attitude. Perhaps someone can help me out, because I genuinely do not like disliking this guy.
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I just do not see what grounds Reilly has for an animus, personal or political, against Deval Patrick. Okay, Reilly lost, and that has got to hurt. But politically their platforms are in fact very close.
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Furthermore, Patrick has been personally respectful of Reilly. He did not denigrate or smear his opponents in the primary campaign–his elbows weren’t even particularly sharp, to use the euphemism so prized by pundits and pols that want to sound worldly and tough about negative campaigning.
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Tom Reilly wanted to be Governor and claimed to be motivated by a desire to serve the people of Massachusetts. His inexplicable silence draws into question is fitness for the former and his sincerity about the latter.
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Nobody expects Reilly to play a leading role in the Patrick campaign. And perhaps even the minimum that decency would require–one or two unity appearances, plus a crisp denunciation of Healy’s “soft on crime” attack ad (which uses debate footage of Reilly)–are painful for Mr. Reilly. Okay. But, the man is supposed to be tough. And also caring. And a Democrat.
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So what gives?
It is ridilulous to suggest that Reilly has been a sore loser since the moment the primary ended. He gave a very nice concession speech, in which he praised to Deval for winning and acknowledged that he was beat badly. (In one my favorite lines, he started to say “We may have been beat tonight,” and then stopped himself and said “Forget ‘may’ have been beat, we got beat. We’re just trying to get up to 25 (percent)”
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I do agree that Reilly believes that Patrick is soft on crime. Can anyone give me evidence that he is not? Evidence that he is tougher on crime that Kerry Healey the prosecutor? Patrick is many things, most of them good, but a hawk on crime? I’m not convinced of that.
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There are thirty-something days left in this campaign, and I am sure we will see Reilly again. However, I recognize that many on Blue Mass Group have been going through Reilly-bashing withdrawal, and I trust that this has provided an opportunity to get back into it. Reilly is a decent man, and he has a day job to attend to. I’m sure there are many things he has to do in the AG’s office in his remaining months there.
Kerry Healey is not even a lawyer. How could she be a prosecutor?
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She’s a “criminologist” at best. And until she ran for governor she had the exact same position on CORI reform that Deval Patrick has now.
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Of all the candidates for governor left in the race, it’s only Deval Patrick who has actually worked as a prosecutor.
I’m hearing a lot about how Deval Patrick is “soft on crime” but I’m not hearing any particulars. Could someone please elucidate me on the specifics? He has been a prosecutor, and an assistant attorney general: both positions which seem to be based on NOT being soft on crime. Are there specific incidents that people are referring to?
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And, btw, Muffy is NOT a prosecutor. She’s not even a lawyer!
I was thinking the same thing. Every Republican is uttering “soft on crime” without offering a shred of evidence on this one. This needs to be seriously rebuffed, because it’s plain lies.
and thus supposedly can’t be trusted not to help out the brothers in the system. No, it doesn’t make sense and it’s hopelessly racist, but I think that’s where a lot of this is coming from.
Yes, that was as much as I could pick up about the accusations. But, yes, of course. slaps head
Muffy hasn’t proven to be quite the formidable enemy that was hoped for, and who can really get mad at Mihos? I agree that there is a little “attack withdrawal” going on here, and the application of arbitrary standards. Given the numbers of people public kneading their hands about being able to vote for Reilly as a nominee, it does smack of hypocrisy to complain that Reilly isn’t following some unmentioned program of unity love.
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Listen, Reilly isn’t going to become a different person just because it would be convenient for Deval. He was bad at politics this summer, he still is. He didn’t make enough appearances at political events this summer, he still doesn’t. He didn’t spend a lot of time rallying the troops this summer, he still doesn’t. He had an actual job this summer, he still does.
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And he believed Deval was soft on crime this summer — and maybe he still does.
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In Bizarro Liberal World, this makes him a Republican, but for many of us that makes it an issue Deval should address (vis-a-vis outstanding bills on Beacon Hill, opinions on sentencing regulations, etc.) I’m not pleased with Reilly’s absence, nor am I pleased that the new politics of hope seems stuck on attack mode.
I think Tom Reilly made his greatest mistake by making these comments in the first place.
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Either he stays quiet, or he comes out and says, “Actually, I was lying. Deval wouldn’t be soft on crime.”
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Perhaps he feels he was telling the truth. In any case, this always hurts Democrats. We have to run primary campaigns that often turn brutal and then deal with the divisions afterwards.
one more thing: I think it is only fair to point out that at least Reilly has updated his website with a thank-you letter to supporters and mention of congratulations to Deval. Gabrieli has yet to do so.
From just about everything I’ve heard, Reilly is on board, but exhausted. His finance people all came over to the coordinated campaign. As for Tom himself, he’ll be more public on his own schedule. If there was one thing that we learned about him over the course of the past year, it’s that he just doesn’t like politics. Let him spend some time with his family before forcing him back in the arena.
This has not been an easy year for the AG, let’s cut him some slack
the most reasonable explanation I’ve heard yet. Burnout can be a powerful thing. I noticed that Reilly didn’t appear at Patrick’s victory party the way Gabrieli did, but I chalked it up to complete demoralization and exhaustion. After all, as was said above, this was a man who not too long ago was considered to have a lock on the Governor’s Office.
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I hope Reilly gets back into the game somehow, and not just because that it would benefit Patrick. I’d just hate to see all that experience and talent go to waste, and I think Patrick could find a place for him in his administration where he could shine once more.
with his not showing up at Patrick’s victory party, or staying mum ’til now. But with this ad running, I do feel as though some strong statement from him is called for. He can email it in if he wants, though showing up in person would be better. But he’s got to say something.
David, no one understands the need to get Reilly and his supporters on board the Deval Express more than I do here in Reillytown.
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That said, the way to get their support is not to hector them or to tell them what they’ve “got to” do. It just doesn’t work like that.
Maybe he could run in every race, to provide a place for demoralized supporters’ votes.
I believe this idea that Deval is soft on crime came from support he had given in a letter about a man that was convicted of killing a police officer. I think, if I recall correctly,that some prominent legal people came out and said that the man didn’t get a fair trial, that he was likely to be innocent, and I believe Deval was one of those people. Might not have this exactly right.
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Deval is not soft on crime. it is a dumb meaningless label. It sounds bad, but what does it mean? It is more important to be smart on crime, to develop solutions that punish legitimately, protect the community, but at the same time recognize that the vast majority of people get out of prison and they need to have avenues to build a new life or they are likely to keep committing crimes. CORI and SORI reform come under the heading of being smart on crime.
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As for Tom Reily, I think he is very angry that what he felt was rightfully his, that he had earned by his lengthy commitment to public service, was taken from him by a a political nobody.