A rousing speech in day of uncertainty stirs one delegate
Deborah Volpe squeezed through the throngs of green and yellow shirts spotted with stickers, the supporters passing out pamphlets and clutching campaign signs.
For most of yesterday, she had no idea who she wanted to choose as governor of Massachusetts. So she spent the morning meandering through the Democratic Convention crowd at the DCU Center looking for something:
``A leader that you believe is going to follow through with his promises," said Volpe, a delegate from Beacon Hill who is in her mid-30 s.
None of the three Democratic candidates were perfect, she said. Attorney General Thomas Reilly didn't seem to know enough about politics; she didn't see Deval Patrick giving his all to the state; and she felt Christopher Gabrieli deserved to be on the ballot, but she didn't like his support of the income tax rollback.
She waited yesterday morning for one of them to convince her otherwise. But as she was bombarded with fliers and pursued by respective supporters, the candidates were nowhere to be found. At one point, Gabrieli walked by and shook her hand but didn't stop to speak
``Someone should be courting you," said Rob Whitney, her ward chairman. ``Deval Patrick was here a little while ago."
Time went by, and others tried to sway Volpe their way. ``Can I convince you to vote for my boy Tom?" Councilor Michael Ross asked, pointing to the sticker on his shoulder.
``He's too conservative," she replied.
``We need people like that," he said.
She wasn't convinced. Volpe said she isn't usually indecisive. Her hardest choice before this was nine years ago, when she was deciding whether to move from Denver to Massachusetts for graduate school.
After moving to Beacon Hill, Volpe got involved in politics, helping out with Senator John F. Kerry's campaign and working with city councilors.
By noon, she found what she had been looking for.
``I came here to change politics as usual," Patrick declared on the stage.
The crowd erupted, and she stared up at the screen with eyes wide and a Patrick leaflet in her lap. By the end of his speech, her mind was made up. Patrick was her man.
``He just has that passion. He was right when he said there's so much focus on the cynicism and that we have to start looking at what the Democratic Party needs to do," she said. ``And that's exactly what I needed to hear."
RUSSELL NICHOLS
The Strategist
After the speeches ended and the delegates prepared to vote, John Walsh, Deval Patrick's campaign manager, planted himself in the dead center of the hall and stood there, looking absolutely relaxed, greeting starry-eyed delegates still dizzy with excitement.
Patrick's speech had ended with a massive standing ovation and a sea of blue signs. For Walsh, a specialist in the tedious business of organizing volunteers, it was a beautiful sight indeed.
``He made me cry," a woman gushed, grabbing onto the sleeve of his blue shirt.
``I was proud," Walsh said with a modest smile.
With his heavyset frame, deep voice and darting glance, Walsh looks every inch the veteran organizer, though when he isn't campaigning he runs a small insurance shop in Abington. When he is not shaking someone's hand, he is pecking away at a glowing Treo.
At his command yesterday were 40 whips, each with a half-dozen assistants, overseeing the 120 to 200 delegates in each Senate District.
The whips who checked in with him before the voting yesterday had good news: high turnout, delegates holding firm, even a few last-minute victories.
Chris Condon , a union operative and Patrick whip in charge of the Second Worcester Senate District, reported that a Thomas F. Reilly delegate who'd converted to Christopher Gabrieli didn't show, and Condon had managed to replace him with an alternate committed to Patrick. Walsh nodded.
When Reilly or Gabrieli fans he knew passed by, Walsh squeezed their shoulders and said with a smile: ``We'll be together soon."
LISA WANGSNESS
The newbie
It was clear yesterday that Helen Raizen, a 57-year-old Jamaica Plain resident, had a favorite candidate. And a favorite candidate. And a favorite candidate.
In all, she wore 13 campaign buttons and stickers: five for Deval Patrick, others for MassEquality, Deborah Goldberg , candidate for lieutenant governor, and John Bonifaz , candidate for secretary of state. Another touts immigrant rights.
``This button, I like the message," she said, pointing to the words that said ``I'm pro immigrant, and I vote."
She said her mother was an immigrant who came from Austria in 1940.
Yesterday's gathering was her first convention. ``I don't consider myself a party insider at all," said Raizen, a software engineer. ``But we can have a better state with a different leader, and I think that's what brought people here."
RUSSELL NICHOLS
The wanderer
Lucky for former Boston city councilor Maura Hennigan that she's running for another office.
She showed up at the convention with no picture ID and was turned away at the door at DCU Center in Worcester. When she pulled out a stack of brochures for Suffolk Superior Court clerk, the security guard scrutinized her photo and let her in. ``I told them they could fingerprint me," she said.
She was seen later walking around the floor with Deval Patrick stickers. The man she lost to, Thomas M. Menino, is supporting Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly.
ANDREA ESTES 