Deval camp will not yield Western Mass.

While much of the focus of the Democratic gubernatorial primary has stayed in and around Boston, Western Massachusetts will also have a say of who represents the Democrats in November’s general election.

Most have called the region a foregone conclusion, assuming that it will go handily to Attorney General Thomas Reilly, who will face off against businessman Deval Patrick and venture capitalist Chris Gabrieli in Tuesday’s primary election. Reilly was born and raised in Springfield and although he makes his home in Watertown, he enjoys a high level of support in the region.

In a race as a tight as this one, which many polls show to be a three-way dogfight, each candidate will need all the votes they can muster. Polls haven’t bothered Patrick, however, who believes he can do very well in Western Massachusetts.

“The poll that matters is the poll on election day, because there’s a vote on election day,” said Patrick. “We do internal polling. All the other candidates do it as well. I know that I’m going to have to be working up until the polls close on election day and I expected that. That’s a part that we planned for. and we’re ready.”

Patrick has run a grassroots campaign from the outset of his candidacy and feels that he will have a strong showing in Western Massachusetts next Tuesday.

“We have over 7,000 volunteers,” said Patrick. “We have income from every corner of the state. We will be organized in every corner of the state. We have a very robust get-out-the-vote program. We had a meeting with our field team [on Sunday] in Framingham with the field team leaders and there were 400 of them there and they came from all over the state. So we mean to be competitive everywhere, including in the western part of the state, because I want to be governor of the whole state.”

Patrick won the endorsement of the Democratic Party in June at the state convention held in Worcester and has established a strong network throughout the state.

Springfield Democratic City Committee chairman E. Henry Twiggs has been working for Patrick for months to help Patrick win next Tuesday. Twiggs said that the party has been working to identify traditional primary voters and getting them to sign pledge cards for Patrick.

“We’re not measuring our numbers yet,” said Twiggs, who has been the party chairman in Springfield for six years. “We’re just continuing to try and get the word out and trying to identify the vote.”

Twiggs has not seen much attention given to the region by Gabrieli and Reilly.

“Because we have been so focused on our own campaigns, in terms of the other two candidates, I don’t know how often they have been here,” said Twiggs. “Certainly not as often as Deval has been here. We have seen them [have] some level of visibility, but certainly not as much as we have been doing.”

As an African American, Patrick could stand to do very well with minorities on Tuesday. That has not, however, been a strategy for the campaign.

“In terms of the numbers of minorities and African Americans, I don’t know [who we have identified as Patrick voters],” said Twiggs. “We’re just going after people. All citizens. We’re not focusing on any minorities. We’re going after votes, wherever they may come from.”

Although the region is seen by many to be headed to Reilly, Twiggs argues that the Patrick campaign will put up a fight.

“I’m not going to suggest by any stretch of imagination that we’re going to win Western Massachusetts, but I’ll tell you one thing: everyone is going to know we’re in the race and we’re in the race to win,” said Twiggs.