Patrick's convention win
DEVAL PATRICK was the story in Worcester yesterday -- a boisterous welcome from enthusiastic delegates, a dynamic and, to many, inspiring speech, and a convincing first-ballot endorsement for the Democratic nomination for governor.
But it's a lot farther from the DCU Center to the State House than 50 miles and five months. The immediate question for the former Clinton administration lawyer is whether his impressive victory is likely to be reproduced in the September primary, and then in November. Although quite a throng, the convention delegates represent less than 1 percent of the primary electorate, and convention-endorsed candidates have often been tossed aside in the primary.
Clearly, Patrick must build a campaign with broad appeal, a more thoughtfully developed agenda, and few mistakes. Still, the convention endorsement gives him powerful momentum. While it is true that past convention endorsements have often crumpled in September, the last three Democrats endorsed for governor by the convention -- Mark Roosevelt, Scott Harshbarger, and Shannon O'Brien -- did all win the nomination. The last exception was in 1990, when John Silber barely cleared the 15 percent convention hurdlebut easily won the primary. The difference now is that Silber was an outsider who needed heavy insider help to make it through the convention. Patrick is an outsider who bested the insiders at their own game, completely dominating the February caucuses and thereby controlling this convention to such an extent that Attorney General Thomas Reilly, a two-term incumbent, received help from Boston Mayor Tom Menino to stay in the race, while Chris Gabrieli, the nominee for lieutenant governor last time, needed help from House Speaker Sal DiMasi and possibly from Reilly.
Indeed, state party chairman Philip Johnston said Patrick's campaign was a genuine ``phenomenon" that was controlling the convention possibly more strongly than Michael Dukakis had controlled the 1982 convention, and that it had clearly attracted more people who are new to active political participation.
Other camps said Patrick has built his campaign on the left flank of the party and will have difficulty winning the larger electorates in September and November. But his speech yesterday was based more on idealism than ideology. He spent less breath than his opponents in slamming Republicans or decrying the plight of overstretched middle-class families, and more in calling the delegates and the public to be part of their own solutions. ``Our cause succeeds only if you see this not as my campaign, but as yours," Patrick said.
The coming weeks will tell whether Patrick can make his candidacy resonate as well with a much larger audience. 