"Grossman hopes endorsements will lead to victory" by Michael Levenson and Jim O’Sullivan | Globe Staff April 27, 2014
When the father of Franklin County’s register of probate died last year, Steve Grossman attended the wake in Greenfield, nearly two hours from Boston. “He rearranged his whole schedule,” said John Merrigan.
When Quincy’s Ward Four city councilor was being sworn in to office on his birthday, Grossman was there, too, serenading him with a warbling rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
“It was one of the most awkward moments, but also one of the most personal moments, that I’ve shared with a politician,” said Brian Palmucci. “But that’s Steve Grossman.”
This year, especially, it is.
Grossman, the state treasurer, is campaigning for governor as though he were running for city council, lavishing attention on local, county, and state officials at clambakes, breakfasts, and banquets, no matter how far away or how humble their office. It is part of a strategy he hopes will vault him past Attorney General Martha Coakley, a fellow Democrat, who has much wider support among voters but a cooler relationship with elected officials.
Grossman has so far racked up the endorsement of 90 officeholders — state representatives, senators, sheriffs, mayors, and selectmen — who have pledged to support him at the Democratic State Convention in June and to urge their supporters to join them in backing Grossman in the September primary.
I guess it is about time I got back to this anyway with only a month to go.
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The strategy harks back to an era in Massachusetts politics when running for office meant lining up the support of party panjandrums who could reliably deliver blocs of voters. Reviving that tactic in 2014 will be a distinct challenge, say political strategists, who point out that Governor Deval Patrick and Senator Elizabeth Warren built their campaigns not on endorsements from the political establishment, but by inspiring liberal activists to contact their friends and neighbors.
Grossman has so far failed to project that level of charisma; though, to be fair, neither has Coakley. Still, he will need to shake every hand he can to close the more than 20-point gap in the polls between him and the attorney general.
She has been ahead by more and lost.
To do so, he is relying on other elected officials to fill a room and introduce him to their supporters. Every time he wins an endorsement, he said, he puts a pin on a map to mark where the elected official lives and asks that official to host a meet-and-greet for him at a community center or ice cream parlor.
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Coakley has courted endorsements as well, but without as much success. She has the backing of 13 elected officials.
“Steve is definitely doing the retro, elected official strategy because that’s his strength right now,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic strategist, who pointed out that Grossman, as a former chairman of the state and national Democratic parties, is harnessing relationships cultivated over three decades in politics. “The question is, after the convention, can he build out a grass-roots campaign?”
Elected officials say the treasurer’s approach has genuine appeal. He goes out of his way to show up at their ribbon-cuttings and breakfasts, and remembers details about their work and family life.
While Coakley is also a regular presence at political events, she is not known for showering praise on selectmen and state representatives, some of whom grumble that she doesn’t remember their names.
Coakley has also lost support, to Grossman’s benefit, because her prosecution of former state treasurer Timothy P. Cahill on corruption charges and former state representative Brian P. Wallace for campaign finance violations created hard feelings in the clubby world of Beacon Hill.
“The prosecutor’s job doesn’t tend to make you a warm and fuzzy person,” said Representative Michael Costello, a former prosecutor who has endorsed Grossman but said he likes Coakley.
As a longtime political fund-raising powerhouse and wealthy business owner, Grossman has also bestowed financial largesse on many local officials, a number of whom are now backing his campaign.
Still, his supporters say, there is no substitute for being there.
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Grossman’s path is similar to the one plotted by former lieutenant governor Timothy P. Murray, when he was eyeing a gubernatorial bid.
Let's hope it ends the same way.
As the governor’s liaison to local officials, Murray maintained a frenetic statewide schedule, storing up chits among local powerbrokers — a machine that could have proved helpful had he stayed in electoral politics.
I'm done with the chitchat.
But Murray’s flameout also illustrated the perils of that approach.
His association with former Chelsea Housing Authority executive director Michael E. McLaughlin, sentenced to three years in federal prison for lying to state and federal regulators, helped sap Murray’s political potential, a cautionary tale about getting too cozy with local kingmakers.
I didn't think we had those here in America, and especially in Massachusetts.
Related: Murray Makes His Move
Judge Shows Mercy For McLaughlin
Also see: McLaughlin can keep what he put into pension
And I guess we are to feel sorry for the mafioso-like figure who committed adultery with his assistant.
Grossman said his endorsements help him connect with local activists who tend to have influence. “It gives me credibility,” he said. “But more than that, it’s the gateway to a virtually unlimited array of personal relationships that creates an army of activists that will hopefully propel us to victory.”
Grossman’s milieu is the local Democratic gathering, where he is often the highest-ranking elected official in the room.
He is a regular, for example, at the Longmeadow Democratic Town Committee’s annual brunch at the Twin Hills Country Club, said Michael Clark, chairman of the Longmeadow School Committee.
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Franklin County Sheriff Christopher Donelan said Grossman often calls him just to chat. “Frequently, my cellphone rings and it says Steve Grossman on the screen,” Donelan said. “He tries to stay very connected, and I like that a lot.”
That doesn't make me feel any safer.
But currying favor with elected officials is no guarantee that Grossman can close the double-digit deficit he is facing against Coakley. She is leading him in part because she is better known among voters due to her long tenure in state office and her prominent perch as attorney general.
Coakley is also activating her base, which includes women’s groups. Grossman’s success will depend on how well she can use her front-runner status to mobilize voters.
I may need to vote Coakley in the primary, just in case.
Doug Rubin, a Coakley adviser who previously worked with Grossman, downplayed the importance of endorsements. “Clearly, this is a big part of their strategy,” he said. “For us, it’s a part of the strategy, but a much bigger part of it” is building a network of grass-roots supporters.
If Grossman were to win the primary, his support from so many elected Democrats could also be a factor in the general election.
Republicans said it could help the GOP nominee, Charlie Baker, argue that a Governor Grossman would be unable to push back against the Democrat-controlled Legislature.
“The strongest argument for Baker against Grossman is an insider argument, that Grossman is so tied into the Democrats that there’s no backstop,” said Republican consultant Meredith Warren. “If the Democratic Legislature wants to raise taxes, Steve’s not going to stop them.”
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No mention of him being a former AIPAC chairman, and that is why he won't get my vote. His loyalty to the state is questionable, especially given all the tax money and connections between Bo$ton and I$real.
Maybe these will give him a boost:
State’s $30 scratch tickets get a fast welcome
No mention of him being a former AIPAC chairman, and that is why he won't get my vote. His loyalty to the state is questionable, especially given all the tax money and connections between Bo$ton and I$real.
Maybe these will give him a boost:
State’s $30 scratch tickets get a fast welcome
Martha Coakley criticizes Steve Grossman over super PAC
She has her own PAC problems:
"Attorney General Martha Coakley’s state political committee will turn over $17,813 to charity as part of an agreement with campaign finance regulators who found that she violated Massachusetts laws by using her federal US Senate funds for state political activities."
But isn't she the state's highest law-enforcement official??
Maybe this will help divert attention:
"Coakley lawsuit wants college’s ex-chief to repay millions" by Walter V. Robinson | Globe Correspondent April 23, 2014
Attorney General Martha Coakley sued the former president of a tiny Falmouth college on Tuesday, seeking to force him to repay the school millions that he allegedly squandered on excessive compensation, Mercedes automobiles, and a quarter-million-dollar timeshare in the Caribbean.
In the lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Coakley also charged that President Robert J. Gee gave himself a $152,175 bonus in 2009, and then created false documents to make it appear that the school’s board members held a meeting to award Gee the money for his “superior job performance.’’ No such meeting ever occurred, according to the lawsuit.
Aaaah, the bu$ine$$ of Higher Education.
During Gee’s tenure, the college he headed, the National Graduate School of Quality Management, bought an ocean-view compound with four houses that included a presidential home for Gee. Last year, the school sold those properties at a loss of at least $1.5 million.
“Dr. Gee diverted and squandered funds that should have been spent to help the students and improve the quality of the school as opposed to running the school into the ground,’’ Coakley said in an interview on Tuesday.
Gee did not return a phone call Tuesday. His lawyer, J. William Codinha, said Gee will defend his actions. “All of the conduct he was accused of was sanctioned by the board,” Codinha said.
Gee, who founded the school in 1997, was removed as president and then fired in 2012 after a Globe review of the school’s annual tax returns and audit reports found that Gee had long been dipping into the school’s coffers to fund a lavish lifestyle.
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Gee’s free-spending ways came to light when Northeastern University investigative reporting students sorted a database of thousands of Massachusetts nonprofits by executive compensation. Gee’s, at $732,891, equaled that of the president of Tufts University.
Also see: For Northeastern adjuncts, organizing is a no-brainer
Related: The Migrant Workers of College Campuses
Where they become prostitutes?
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Much of the fiscal hangover from Gee’s presidency involves his 2009 decision to buy the waterfront compound on Oyster Pond in Falmouth with breathtaking views of Vineyard Sound....
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More troubles for Marty:
Will DCF case taint Coakley?
Mass. AG hopeful aided online gambling venture
On casinos, SJC holds trump card
A legacy undone and a ruling vacated?
"Three in contest for governor striving hard for visibility" by Akilah Johnson | Globe Staff April 21, 2014
These first-time gubernatorial candidates — a biopharmaceutical executive, former health care administrator, and former homeland security official — are trying to break through their limited spheres of influence to engender the broader support of a state.
They are political unknowns unafraid of the liberal label. They embrace it, touting their progressive bona fides at candidate forums, meet-and-greets, and interviews. Gay marriage. Addiction as a health issue, not a crime. Jobs, the economy, and social justice. Access to affordable health care. Comprehensive sex education.
Their campaigns for the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nomination do not come with the name recognition, the political machine, or the war chests of Attorney General Martha Coakley and state Treasurer Steve Grossman, experienced campaigners whose political resumes include Coakley’s 2010 run for US Senate and Grossman’s tenure as chair of the Democratic National Committee.
While Juliette Kayyem and Don Berwick were political appointees on Beacon Hill and in Washington, D.C., serving in prominent positions in Democratic administrations under Governor Deval Patrick and President Obama respectively, their limited experience in public office has consigned them to relative political obscurity....
Doesn't she have problems with her voting record?
There are just two months before the state’s Democrats meet at their June convention....
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Related:
"Patrick looks to eliminate tech noncompete agreements" by Callum Borchers and Michael B. Farrell | Globe Staff April 10, 2014
Governor Deval Patrick on Thursday will propose sweeping legislation to make it easier for workers in technology, life sciences, and other industries to move from job to job by banning the noncompete agreements companies use to prevent employees from jumping to rivals.
The proposal is certain to inflame a battle within the state’s business community between larger, established corporations that say noncompete agreements prevent former employees from spreading business secrets and venture capitalists who contend they stifle innovation and undermine the state’s reputation as a haven for startups.
Who cares? He is leaving with a legacy in tatters from Bridgewater and the DCF to Dookhan at the drug lab and the meningitis scandal that killed people.
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The noncompete clause is probably the most controversial element of legislation Patrick will unveil Thursday. He also is proposing new spending for programs to promote technology jobs and is pushing an unusual effort to retain foreign students who want to stay in Massachusetts after college or graduate school.
Many can’t get a work visa through the main program, called H-1B, that the US government administers for foreign workers.
See: H1-B Hijacking
Maybe they are the ones who made the Malaysian jet disappear.
The Patrick administration said it identified a provision of immigration law that grants temporary visas to participants in certain programs — hence an Entrepreneurship in Residence program, in which foreign graduates agree to work at local universities part time while developing business ventures.
The foreign worker visa program has been controversial. In Massachusetts, the visas are mostly used by technology firms that contend they cannot find enough local workers with the necessary technical prowess. But critics of the program say the companies are exploiting the visas to find a cheaper source of labor.
Labor that can't really complain, either.
Still, Patrick’s visa proposal is not apt to generate anywhere near the battle on Beacon Hill that the proposed abolition of the noncompete clause will....
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Related:
Time to get rid of ‘noncompete’ agreements
DCF workers protest heavy caseloads
Judge allows defense experts to examine boy’s body
Mental illness not a crime; why treat it that way?
Mass. limits use of the potent painkiller Zohydro
And if you get through the primary lugging that ball-and-chain?
GOP seeks to end convention vote suit
GOP may consider adding Fisher to ballot
Mass. Republicans in disarray as elections draw near
Scott Brown’s candidacy could hurt Charlie Baker
Related: Scott Brown's Base
Jeanne Shaheen, Scott Brown rarely interacted in Senate
I decided not to interact with that article even though I did read it. Sorry.
NEXT DAY UPDATE: In N.H., candidate Brown laces up shoes to connect with voters
Globe tried to sneak that one by me on page B4 as I'm running away from it.
