Patrick, Reilly may use public funding

Two of the three Democratic candidates for governor are considering the state's public funding program for campaigns, the first in a series of crucial decisions that will shape the next phase of the campaign for governor.

With the hoopla of the weekend's Democratic convention behind them, spokesmen for Deval L. Patrick and Thomas F. Reilly said yesterday that they are strongly considering public funding, as they weigh campaigns against venture capitalist Christopher F. Gabrieli and his considerable wealth.

The deadline for seeking public financing is tomorrow. If at least one candidate opts in, the others must file statements by Friday declaring what their spending limit will be, and the highest figure becomes the new cap for all candidates.

With the public financing decision, the three Democratic candidates for governor embark this week on divergent routes to the Sept. 19 party primary, each operating under a different strategy and theory of victory. The goal: broadening their support beyond the 4,500 or so activists who gathered in Worcester for the weekend convention to the 750,000 Democrats and Independents who will vote in the primary. The winner faces Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, who is the Republican nominee, along with Independent Christy Mihos and Green-Rainbow Party candidate Grace Ross.

Gabrieli barely won a spot on the Democratic primary ballot Saturday, getting the necessary 15 percent of the delegates by just 17 votes. However close the margin, he is in the race, changing the equilibrium of the campaign with millions of his own money to spend. He has put $2.6 million into his campaign, and promises to spend millions more.

Both the Patrick and Reilly campaigns say they believe that Gabrieli and his record have received only passing examination to date, and they expect campaign-generated ``opposition research" and news media scrutiny of accomplishments Gabrieli has touted to become part of the news and debate. But the three-way race makes direct attacks and negative advertising riskier. A rule of thumb in politics is that if Candidate A attacks Candidate B, Candidate C will benefit. And with three candidates, a plurality would win the primary.

Patrick, a former corporate and US Justice Department lawyer, is the endorsed candidate of the state party, having won 58 percent of the delegates' votes Saturday. He has cast himself as an outsider, but Gabrieli's presence on the ballot complicates that strategy. Patrick's campaign will expand the organizational effort that stirred the party's activists, dominated the February caucuses, and produced the decisive convention win. Using technology and shoe leather, Patrick's team will continue the effort that so far has attracted 5,000 volunteers, according to campaign manager John Walsh.

``We will continue to go to the grass roots, to bring new people into the process and bring those who checked out back in," Walsh said. ``We believe that's the only way that Democrats will win in November," he said, and recapture the governor's office after 16 years of Republican rule.

The goal is to enlist 12,000 volunteers, each willing to bring out 35 Patrick voters on primary day. When they get 10 new backers to pledge support on the campaign website, Patrick sends them a letter, Walsh said. If they reach 35, they get a button that says, ``I got my 35 for Deval." Bring in 100, and the candidate will call them personally. ``If you get 500, Deval will cook you dinner," Walsh said.

The campaign plans to open its first satellite field office soon in the Grove Hall section of Roxbury and has enlisted 70 summer interns to bolster the organization effort, Walsh said. Both Patrick and Reilly attended the Dorchester Day parade yesterday.

Neither the Reilly nor Gabrieli campaign believes there is enough anger or enthusiasm among ordinary voters to generate the type of organizational groundswell that the Patrick candidacy hopes will carry the day in September.

Patrick -- who has about $1.6 million on hand, but has raised large amounts recently -- plans to spend about $2.5 million on ads later in the campaign, according to top advisers. The campaign says it has a base of about 14,000 contributors, most of whom have donated less than the $500 maximum, who will be asked to give more to finance late ad buys.

For Reilly, Gabrieli's entrance shakes an underpinning of the two-term attorney general's strategy in a head-to-head fight with Patrick: the primacy of fund-raising. By signing a single check, Gabrieli can erase the advantage of the campaign chest Reilly has assiduously stocked over the past 3 1/2 years. Gabrieli has vowed to spend whatever it takes to win. In two previous self-funded campaigns -- for Congress in 1998 and for lieutenant governor in 2002 -- he spent about $11 million total in losing efforts.

One Reilly adviser said that Reilly, who has nearly $4 million in his campaign account, can stay competitive with Gabrieli in paid media in the later stages of a primary campaign, but acknowledged the attorney general can't afford an early advertising shootout with the campaign's deep-pocketed upstart.

Reilly's strategy has been to seek support from institutional pieces of the Democratic base, roll up mainstream party endorsements, and focus on a centrist message of tax cuts and economic development designed to attract independents and working-class moderates, who are struggling in this economy. He will soon unveil proposals on public education and the economy, campaign spokesman Corey Welford said.

Reilly foreshadowed other strands of his strategy in remarks to supporters over the weekend, suggesting he is the most electable of the Democrats.

Gabrieli, who entered the race April 6, spent $2.1 million on ads that ran until the day before the convention. Without competitive advertising by his opponents, Gabrieli's poll numbers rose quickly, polls commissioned by his campaign and Reilly's showed.

Gabrieli will resume advertising in the near future, probably on radio, according to one senior campaign staffer, and this week, he will outline proposals to introduce private-sector-type managerial reforms in state government.

Like his rivals, he argues he can compete with Healey, but he adds another component, threatening to match her money with his if they face off in a general election. Gabrieli's frantic efforts to build support at the convention provided the skeleton of a political infrastructure for a statewide campaign, though some of his backing came from activists and officials who supported him in 2002, when he won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. Dan Cence , campaign spokesman for Gabrieli, said the campaign has coordinators for 36 of the state's 40 Senate districts and in about 85 of the state's 351 cities and towns.