How Democratic is it?
IN MASSACHUSETTS, the Democratic Party set the rules two years ago. When the Democratic Party meets in convention tonight and tomorrow, it may trim the field of three candidates for governor so that, when the primary comes in September, the Democratic Party may have only two choices -- or even one -- to get the party's nomination.
Wait a minute. Who or what, exactly, is the Democratic Party? That's a good question, and an important one. The answer from the Worcester convention is that a few hundred members of the Democratic State Committee, and a few thousand delegates to the convention, claim the right to be super-Democrats, able to dictate to the several hundred thousand voters who will cast Democratic ballots in September whom they may or may not nominate.
It is not a good answer. It is arrogant, insider politics that contributes to voter alienation and is often counter-productive for the party's own fortunes, as the convention nominee is frequently spurned by primary voters. It is true for the Republican Party, too.
The mechanism is the infamous 15 percent rule. Candidates who don't get at least 15 percent of the convention vote are barred from the primary. This year, former Clinton administration lawyer Deval Patrick put most emphasis on the caucuses leading up to the primary, and by all accounts performed brilliantly, even winning Watertown, the home of Attorney General Tom Reilly. Since then, Reilly has been working to make good his assertion that he will clear the 15 percent hurdle comfortably, though without much of a cushion.
Chris Gabrieli, meanwhile, has been scrambling after a late start, occasioned by the fact that he thought he was going to be Reilly's lieutenant governor running mate, before Reilly made another choice.
Apologists for the 15 percent rule say it creates an opportunity for candidates willing to work hard and organize locally, even if they don't have a lot of money or name recognition. But this means candidates must start working many months before the caucuses. In Gabrieli's case, only the expenditure ofhis personal wealth on TV advertising isgiving him any chance of making the 15 percent.
Patrick cannot be blamed for playing the rules to the hilt this year. The rules should not be changed at the last minute, and apparently will not be, to penalize him for his success.
Next time, the party should provide a safety valve, allowing convention-rejected candidates to get to the primary by filing enough signatures. Tomorrow, party officials should be deeply embarrassed if either a two-term attorney general or a respected entrepreneur who was the party's nominee for lieutenant governor four years ago is barred. 