Patrick rocks primary; rolls into history

Howard Manly

Deval Patrick rode a common-sense message of hope and optimism to defeat two democratic challengers in Tuesday’s primary and took a step closer to ending a 16-year Republican stranglehold on the Massachusetts governor’s office.

Standing in his way is Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey who faced no competition in the Republican primary and remained almost silent for most of the grueling and expensive Democratic primary until she launched an attack ad against wealthy entrepreneur Chris Gabrieli a few days before Tuesday’s election.

Strengthened by a high turnout among African-American and minority voters coupled with a surprising showing in wealthy conservative districts across the state, Patrick is expected to build on his impressive grass-roots campaign to reconnect voters and non-voters with state government. Patrick is also expected to benefit from a widespread disenchantment with national Republican politics and President George Bush’s war against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The race was never close. Starting with the democratic caucuses in February, when Patrick beat rival Attorney General Thomas Reilly by a nearly two-to-one margin – and in Middlesex County by a nine-to-one margin -- Patrick has never looked back. During the June 3 Democratic Party Convention in Worcester, Patrick again flexed his political muscle by earning 58 percent of the vote, while Reilly earned 27 percent and Gabrieli squeaked in with a tad more than 15 percent.

In hindsight, it appears almost incredible that state democratic leaders wanted Patrick, the former Clinton White House civil rights attorney who has never held an elected office, to wait his turn before running for governor. Not since Edward Brooke has an African American held a state wide elected office. And Brooke, the former two-term U.S. senator, was a Republican.

At 8:50 p.m. on Tuesday night, with less than four percent of precincts reporting vote counts, Channel 38 projected Patrick to win. Five minutes later at 8:55 p.m., with 91 of 2,166 precincts reporting (roughly 4.2 percent), CBS4 also projected a Patrick victory on its website. And at 9:41 p.m., with 34 percent of precincts reporting, the Associated Press called the race for Patrick as Attorney General Thomas Reilly was taking the podium to deliver his concession speech and pledge his full support to his former rival.

“We may have lost an election,” Reilly conceded at 9:45 p.m., “But I think you can see that I’m a very lucky man. I have what’s important in life — a wonderful family and wonderful friends. I’m sorry it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to work out, but we will go on.”

Gabrieli gave his concession speech shortly after Reilly’s and took a shot at Healey, whom he believed wrongly accused him of supporting stem cell research in order to reap profits from his investments in bio-tech firms. Gabrieli strongly denied the charges.

“I believe and I know you believe that the people of Massachusetts deserve better than this from anyone who wants to be their governor.” Gabrieli said. “… We got in late, we came in strong and I feel we moved the debate.”

Both Reilly and Gabrieli pledged their full support for Patrick, as did U.S. Senator John Kerry.

“This is a critical race,” Kerry said in a statement. “Massachusetts has had too many years of too many Republican governors who put their personal agenda ahead of the Massachusetts agenda. We need to elect Deval Patrick governor in 2006 to grow our economy, bring new ideas and new energy, make our communities safer, create jobs and keep Massachusetts on the cutting edge in science, technology and alternative energy.”

Though Patrick clearly spoke to all of those lofty issues, his campaign was rooted firmly on the ground — and with the people.

“I voted for him because he represents outstanding leadership with elegant style,” said Roxbury resident Celeste Cox, who was among the crowd jammed at the Copley Hotel in downtown Boston.

Weston resident Deborah Bernat echoed those sentiments. She readily conceded that she had never participated in politics until she heard Patrick deliver a speech. She said Patrick inspired her to get involved.

“We have to support the most admirable leader we have,” Bernat said. “He supports citizenship and has a message that involves everyone. I support him all the way.”

That message was well-received in Boston. In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s primary, Patrick campaign voters in Boston — and across the state — canvassed likely voters asking supporters to turn in cards pledging their support. Names were entered into a database that gave the campaign the ability to reach out to their base of support on the day of the primary.

Likely voters received two rounds of phone calls, literature drops and home visits on primary day.

“This is a grassroots effort,” deputy campaign manager Ron Bell said as he sat in Patrick’s “War Room” in Grove Hall. “We’re meeting people where they are. We’ve reached out to all sectors of our community. And we’re still pulling out more voters.”

Over last weekend, more than 1,000 volunteers and staff canvassed the city on foot, distributing more than 100,000 blue 6 3/4” by 9 1/2” cards bearing Patrick’s “Together We Can” slogan and urging supporters to display them.

By Monday morning, the cards were everywhere in the city, boosting the campaign’s visibility.

By 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the Patrick staffers in the Grove Hall office were confident their candidate had won.

“We won,” said former Boston City Council President Bruce Bolling. “They can’t even count the votes we’re getting. We’re bringing them in in wheelbarrows.”

U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano attributed Patrick’s victory to his campaign’s emphasis on street organizing.

“I’m a firm believer in street work,” he said. “You can’t win without that. He had just enough money. He had the right message and the right delivery. When you add street level work, you can’t lose. And we’ll do it again in November.”

State Rep. Byron Rushing said that Patrick won on the strength of his field organization.

“This represents a major victory for people who want change in Massachusetts, but also want it to happen from the grassroots,” he said. “This proves that if you take ideas from the ordinary people — talk to them, listen to them, they will respond. Nobody had a better field organization than Deval.”

Serghino Rene, Alex Bloom and Yawu Miller contributed to this report.