Lowell Caucuses: David vs. Goliath
As you can tell from the Leftyblogs aggregator for Massachusetts, many towns held their caucuses today. For those of you waiting with baited breath to find out how we did with our (not-so-secret) organizing for Deval Patrick…well, it wasn’t a sweep for Reilly, though he did make a good showing here. This is, of course, in contrast with the rest of the state.
First, I wanted to talk about the caucuses themselves. I was of two minds about holding all 11 wards in one big room. It was rather noisy, and sometimes hard to hear our own chair when he was talking, so some confusion happened. However, at least in my ward, it wasn’t consequential, and upon thinking about it there are some advantages to group caucuses. Having one location makes it easier for people to know where to go. How many times have you had to look up your polling place before going out to vote? I know I have (one of the downsides of moving every 1-2 years…). Having all the wards meet at the Senior Center (which as an aside is VERY nice!) on Broadway meant better accessibility and easier directions. Also, one set of LDCC members to make sure things went smoothly, and one set of volunteers. Having multiple locations would have made the logistics harder. So all in all, I approve of the way things ran. I heard of no shenanigans in Lowell, which is better than I can say about some towns. There are some reports trickling in about possible abuse of rules in other places.
By the way, the LDCC better be prepared, because I’m determined that a reinvigorated committee will outgrow that space next time. 
LowellDems.org has already posted the list of delegates. (KUDOS to them for being so proactive - thanks!). We swept Ward 10, have a delegate in Ward 8, and one in Ward 1. We have several alternates as well. There are some undecided Ward Chairs - all I can say is that you will get every opportunity we can provide to meet Deval Patrick in order to make up your mind come June. We’re confident you’ll love ‘im.
Now, as to specific observations. First, we were so totally David. The insiders were Goliath! Reilly had state Sen. Panagiotakos, US Rep. Marty Meehan, and the Lowell contingent of state Reps on hand to bring supporters to bear. Frankly, at first I was stunned at how many Reilly supporters showed up in my ward, despite the fact I knew that Rep. Murphy and others have lots of pull here…but now that I think about it, wow, if I’d had the whole month to get Ward 8 together, we still could have blown them out of the water. If I’d gotten another 25-30 people we’d have swept the whole ward. So Reilly is so damned lucky I got Swiss cheese kidneys that decided to bust a cyst in January. Seriously. If that’s what you can muster in a major stronghold with a cadre of elected supporters with supporters of their own…well no wonder you lost your city of residence, Watertown.
Let’s just say Patrick is proving his ground game is solid all over the state. I’m sure the media and Reilly might try to spin these caucus sweeps as “well, sure, the liberal activists are with Deval” (never mind that conservative Dems are on board with Deval everywhere) but this only proves you win with boots on the ground. Reilly has not done enough to build an infrastructure that can win - which will hurt us in the general election if Reilly gets the nod. Personally I’d rather see more grassroots organizing from Reilly - if he’s our man come November, he’ll lose unless he gets the “liberal activists” - and all the other activists as well, including the hundreds of brand spankin’ new ones Deval has amassed - to go out and pound the pavement for him. Reilly’s actions in the race thus far have dampened enthusiasm for him. He runs a top-down, consultant-driven campaign, from all appearances. Deval has made his campaign our own. He has given us a stake in it.
That goes beyond politics to something deeper and closer to home.
February 5th, 2006 at 1:06 am
Heh! I was at the Watertown caucus. It was a blast.
February 5th, 2006 at 1:16 am
You forgot to mention Reilly’s speech.
Basically it was about 5 minutes long, but no one paid attention after 1 minute. Most people were talking to their friends instead. It was somewhat sad.
As a Deval supporter, I was laughing a little.
February 5th, 2006 at 10:36 am
One thing that struck me about having all wards caucus in one room was watching the Reilly machine in action.
There was one Reilly guy (works for Golden maybe?) running around the various wards basically “press-ganging” anyone who showed up (generally because they were “told to”) to run on the Reilly slate once it was clear that there was significant opposition from the Patrick camp. I wonder if this would have been feasible if the wards had caucused separately? (It certainly would have required more effort on the part of the Reilly camp.)
I realize that this all perfectly legit and is just an example of a well-oiled machine (or family in this case) at work, but it still pisses me off… smarmy @$$. Lesson learned: Get as absolutely as many people as possible to show up to support you; you can never underestimate the strength of the machine.
A good day despite that, though!
February 5th, 2006 at 10:59 am
The papers today seemed to suggest that Reilly is strong in the urban areas, and Patrick is strong in the suburbs and rural areas. How funny is that. I think the story that won’t ever get written is that in places where a local political machine was able to be activated, Reilly did well. In places that were left open to the Democratic process, Deval did well. All told, yesterday was a victory for Democracy in Action.
February 5th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Yesterday’s Lowell Democratic Caucus was a good civic lesson for all of us who are not “insiders.” The
results had nothing to do with liberals and non-liberals; nothing to do with ideology or public policy
issues. It all had to do with the political machine (elected officials, their staff, city employees and
families of these people) getting their people to show up for less than an hour and vote the slate.
All legitimate and up front.
But now that some of us walked in through the crack in the door, the dynamics will change.
As they say, “All Politics are Local.”
February 5th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
SCATHING editorial on Reilly in the Sun yesterday: http://lowellsun.com/editorials/ci_3476268
QUOTES:
“All [Lt. Gov. candidates] must be thinking the same thing; it would be a nightmare running with a guy who makes John Kerry look decisive.
“Worse is what voters are thinking. Reilly’s credibility factor isn’t reaching the temperature level of Juneau, Alaska. (Yesterday, it was 8 degrees).
“Devout Democrats still profess to believe in Reilly — at least publicly. Privately, however, most are joining the rank-and-file who feel Reilly’s political instincts are a joke.
“Reilly, incredibly and embarrassingly, admitted as much by saying that politics is ‘not my strong suit.’
“That’s hard to swallow from a career politician who’s been running campaigns — and winning them — since 1990.”
Also, interesting piece (first of a series?) on Julian D. Steele today….
February 5th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
The media hasn’t even started examining Patrick yet.
As far as I’m concerned, this is still Reilly’s to lose and I’m guessing he won’t lose it.
February 5th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
Mike,
Why do you think Reilly would be an outstanding executive for our fair commonwealth?
February 5th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
Mike, the media would like nothing more than to find something on Patrick. They just can’t find anything. The worst thing they can say about him is what they’ve been saying: ‘He’s rallying the progressives by espousing his liberal positions.’ As soon as they can find something else, I’m sure they’ll report it. They’d like nothing better.
February 5th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
I read both articles from the Lowell Sun and Boston Globe. Pretty interesting, when you take it from a local view to a statewide view of what is going on. Nothing personal, but a debate between Reilly and Patrick would be a train wreck.
February 5th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
Mimi’s right. Also, Watertown and Cambridge are not exactly rural — Watertown’s density, at 8,000 people
per square mile, rivals or tops that of Lowell. It is about machine politics, and which places still have
a standing machine after 20 years of gubernatorial defeats.
February 5th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
Lisa: good way to put it! That machine (as far as I can see) has been declining…in Lowell, between 2000 and 2005, we lost about 100 voters while “unenrolled” and Republicans gained about 100. That’s not a good trend, folks!
The party has to deserve the loyalty and respect of the voter, or it will fail. I’m sick of failing!