Late notice, but in case you haven’t heard, Juliette Kayyem is coming to my house tonight at 7:30 to talk about her potential run at the Governor’s office. If you have any interest in hearing her, you are welcome to come. (1050 Adams St., Dorchester – Lower Mills).
She’ll be the fourth potential/candidate we’ve had over. Don Berwick, Steve Grossman and Dan Wolf have all been here. And I like all of them. And then there’s Mike Capuano, who I REALLY like. This is going to be a tough one. Luckily, I can hide behind Marty Walsh, at least until November. (That’s right. I said November!)
Joyce
Please share widely!
Having both Coakley and Kayyem in the race is good news for the male candidates who would be disadvantaged with a lone woman in the mix. Additionally, public safety folks rarely make the leap from Ashburton to the Golden Dome.
Especially anti-terrorism bureaucrats and academics. Kayyem’s credentials strike me as very odd for Governor, but I’m willing to hear her out.
include many public-sector executive positions.
I’m an open skeptic (like you), but I think one would have to say her resume is at least as strong as Deval Patrick’s was 8 years ago.
She’s going to have to be as good as Patrick on the issues, though, if I am going to take her seriously.
And hlpeary is right, I think, that her presence in the race blunts Coakley’s.
So far we have heard Wolf and Berwick make solid cases for their candidacies here while answering tough questions. Grossman has not come on, but his convention remarks were surprisingly effective, in my view. Deval sold himself early (I remember canvassing Arlington around this time in 2007) as the progressive grassroots alternative to Reilly and didn’t really emphasize his AAG credentials until the general to rebuff the Willie Horton tactics of the Healy campaign. For Kayyem to just emphasize DHS runs the risk of blunting Coakley on gender and experience/narrative ground. It’s early and we will have to see, although a crowded field benefits the front runner.