Reilly picks St. Fleur for running mate

Yawu Miller

(Editor’s note: Please click here for an update on this story.)

Declaring his gubernatorial candidacy a push for new leadership, Attorney General Thomas Reilly tapped state Rep. Marie St. Fleur as his running mate for the Lt. Governor’s spot on the Democratic ballot.

Standing behind a podium with Mayor Thomas Menino and former Suffolk County District Attorney Ralph Martin, Reilly and St. Fleur both pledged to wage a campaign to “bring Massachusetts back.”

“This state wants change,” Reilly announced to a roomful of supporters at the Boys and Girl’s Club on Dorchester Avenue. “The state wants new leadership. And you’re looking at that new leadership right now.”

Reilly’s selection of St. Fleur for his gubernatorial running mate caught activists flat footed as the news spread through political circles Monday afternoon. At the official announcement on Tuesday, St. Fleur’s supporters, including Dorchester activists and prominent Haitian Americans, crowded into the Boy’s Club’s 4th floor meeting room.

“This is unprecedented,” said supporter Alix Cantave, who has been tapped to chair her campaign committee. “It’s an historic moment. It’s never happened before in this country.”

Reilly publicly courted millionaire investor Chris Gabrielli last week before settling on St. Fleur. St. Fleur says the two came to an agreement after Reilly visited her Dorchester home Sunday.

“I did not expect or anticipate this, but I want to thank Tom Reilly for his courage to make this choice,” she told reporters.

St. Fleur is now one of five Democrats in the Lt. Governor’s race — a field which includes Worcester Mayor Tim Murray and Brookline Selectwoman Deborah Goldberg, who St. Fleur had formerly endorsed. Being selected by Reilly gives no assurance of an easy victory. St. Fleur must run against any others seeking election, fighting for delegates at the state convention in June and for votes in the September Democratic primary.

St. Fleur must raise funds for the race, which could easily cost $500,000. She currently has $19,000 in her account, according to a Boston Globe report.

While admitting she doesn’t “have a dime,” St. Fleur said she is willing to step up to the challenge.

“I’m here and I’m here for the long haul,” she commented. “And we’re going to get it done.”

What St. Fleur does bring to the table is a knowledge of state government that she has gained from her six years in office with leadership positions in the Education and Ways and Means committees.

“It shows the speaker and her fellow members put a lot of confidence in her,” said Lawrence Rep. William Lantigua during Tuesday’s announcement. “She’s a huge asset to the Reilly organization.”

What has largely gone unspoken in the calculus of Reilly’s decision is the potential effect a black female running mate may have in blunting Deval Patrick’s momentum in his run for governor.

“The Democratic party in this state has never had a history of running people state wide,” notes Horace Small, who heads the Union of Minority Neighborhoods. “They’ve never even tried to cultivate any black official’s talent. The strategy here is to take votes away from Deval. It’s part of the whole plantation politics: divide and conquer.”

While most in the black community have been supportive of St. Fleur’s selection, no Legislative Black Caucus members or elected black officials other than Lantigua and state Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry attended the announcement.

A State House source said most of St. Fleur’s colleagues in the Caucus are supporting Patrick and were not invited to the Reilly event.

St. Fleur’s run for Lt. Governor will leave her House district without an incumbent. While there have been as yet no announcements, prominent activists in her district include former state Rep. Althea Garrison, former candidate Barry Lawton, DSNI Executive Director John Barros and local activist Julio Henriquez.