Political Circuit: Sounds like Cahill's in

“I want it to be a little more planned out than Charlie’s was,” Cahill said, referring to the roll-out of Republican Charles D. Baker's campaign last month. “His was obviously put together pretty quickly.”

Baker told the world he was running for governor in a Babson College conference room, with a white dry-erase board in the background.

-- MATT VISER

A little help from Obama

For an incumbent governor, Deval Patrick is not showing much fundraising prowess -- but then again, not every governor can count on a popular president to raise millions of dollars for his re-election.

Patrick aides say to look for President Obama to swing through Massachusetts in October to help out his good friend. Between that fundraising trip and another expected presidential visit next year, Patrick's team hopes to raise as much $4 million for the governor's political committee and the Democratic State Committee.

While Patrick can only raise $500 a year from each donor, he can collect $5,000 donations annually for the party, which would then pour its resources into Patrick's campaign.

Patrick's political committee, which now has a relatively paltry $525,000, also lost some much-needed cash this month when the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance forced his committee to ''purge'' its account of $28,000 worth of donations from his 2006 election. The office's audit said the donations did not comply with the legal standards, mostly because some individuals had exceeded the $500 annual limit.

Patrick can also tap into the $1 million account that his running mate, Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray, has built since the two took office. Still the Patrick-Murray team will be up against some well-funded campaigns, including, in all likelihood, that of Cahill, whose war chest tops $3 million.

-- FRANK PHILLIPS

Right band, wrong song

Elsewhere, it would probably be a meaningless endorsement. But in Boston, when the Dropkick Murphys speak, people tend to listen.

At least City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty Jr. is hoping they do, because Ken Casey, the lead vocalist for the gritty, Hub-bred band has just endorsed him in this year's mayor's race.

"One of the goals of the Dropkick Murphys is to bring people together, and that is what Michael Flaherty will do as the next mayor of Boston," Casey, who grew up in Milton and lives in Hingham, said in a statement from Flaherty's campaign. "Michael Flaherty shares the core values of the Dropkick Murphys: working-class solidarity, friendship, loyalty and self- improvement as a means to bettering society."

One problem, though: The Flaherty campaign can't be that big a fan of the band. The campaign, in announcing Casey's endorsement, touted the Dropkick Murphys hit "Ship It Up to Boston." Trouble is, the name of the tune, famous for being a theme song of sorts for Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, is "I'm Shipping Up to Boston."

Sounds like someone should ship some Dropkick Murphys albums up to Flaherty headquarters.

-- SCOTT HELMAN

Welcome back, Volpe

A distinguished former governor last month had a brief tenure in storage, but history buffs and believers in State House decorum should take heart: John A. Volpe is back.

His portrait has been reinstalled in a corridor on the second floor, just outside State Auditor Joseph DeNucci’s office.

By tradition, when former governor Mitt Romney’s new portrait joined six others in the lobby of the governor’s office earlier this summer, it bumped a governor -- in this case, Volpe, who left office in 1969 -- out into the hallways. The absence of the first wholly Italian governor of Massachusetts inspired a State House parlor game -- Where's Volpe? -- documented in this space last month.

Because there was no room at the end of the third floor, where other recently bumped governors have been hung, he went into storage. Volpe's new home on the second floor puts him in odd company -- alongside governors from the 17th and 18th centuries -- but it's a home nonetheless.

-- MATT VISER