Yes, there is a Democratic primary

Since July 10, the day the Big Dig tunnel ceiling collapsed, the Democratic race for governor has not cracked the first eight minutes of the major Boston television newscasts. Now, with the primary five weeks from today, the Democratic race is limping into a critical final stage, pushed to the edges of the public's interest.

For candidate Deval Patrick, the diversion has been a blessing. Several polls, including those taken by his rivals, show he has maintained a slim lead or is tied with his two Democratic rivals, even as he has been outspent this summer. Patrick has held the lead in most public polls since winning the Democratic Convention endorsement in early June.

His two primary election opponents -- Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly and Christopher Gabrieli, a wealthy businessman -- have spent almost $4 million over the past four weeks in hope of improving their standings. Strategists familiar with polls in all the campaigns say the inroads by Reilly and Gabrieli have been slight.

And several strategists agree that the attention focused on the Big Dig and, more recently, the foiled terrorist plot in Britain has given Patrick, who has fewer financial resources to draw on than his two rivals, breathing room to hold off on an expensive ad campaign. His campaign is expected to launch a five-week, $2.5 million-plus television advertising blitz by the end of this week.

``He has been extremely lucky," said Dan Payne, a Democratic political consultant who left Patrick's campaign last fall after serving as an adviser. Payne said that Patrick, with an extensive grass-roots operation, has positioned himself to take advantage of the low level of public interest in the campaign. ``Luck is often the result of good design," he said.

Yesterday, Gabrieli and Reilly took to the campaign trail to generate media coverage and excitement among voters in the Sept. 19 primary. Each disputed the notion that other news events are putting a drag on their efforts.

``I feel a lot of momentum out there on the campaign trail," said Gabrieli, who held three public events yesterday. ``I think people are paying attention to the race." His ads, aimed at moderates and independents, cast him as a nonpartisan problem solver.

Reilly, at a lively meet-and-greet event in Taunton last night, sounded similarly optimistic. ``It is obviously going very well; these are regular people," he said, gesturing to the crowd of more than 200. ``The only poll that counts for me is on election day. . . . I'm the only one in this race that is like them."

Reilly's aides said they were encouraged by the trends they see in their recent polls. Reilly's advertising has targeted President Bush, Governor Mitt Romney, and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.

Patrick's aides said his campaign will begin its media effort with an ad that outlines the candidate's life story, from the hardscrabble neighborhoods of Chicago's South Side to the top levels of the federal government and to the corporate board rooms of major corporations. ``We will be very competitive on TV in the last few weeks," said Doug Rubin, Patrick's senior adviser, confirming that the first Patrick ad will begin appearing by the end of this week.

The Patrick biographical ad and others will prominently feature the candidate himself, as do Gabrieli and Reilly's ads.

``He is his own best salesman," Payne said, adding that Patrick, a political newcomer who was virtually unknown to voters a year ago, has used his life story to capture the imagination of the liberal activist wing of the Democratic Party.

The Democratic campaigns have not aired negative ads , though there are signs the campaign could get nasty. Over the weekend, the Globe published an internal Reilly campaign e-mail exchange that outlined how the attorney general's political aides were planning to promote the effort by a New York-based labor organizer, Ray Rogers, to discredit Patrick for his role as Coca-Cola's general counsel.

Patrick faces a tough battle to compete with Reilly and Gabrieli. Reilly, having spent close to $2 million since late July, has about $3 million left in his advertising budget, aides say. Gabrieli, a multimillionaire who has already used $5.4 million of his own money over the last four months to promote his candidacy, is spending close to $600,000 a week.

At this point, Gabrieli's ability to tap his personal fortune to pay for his campaign is considered the most important variable in the Democratic race, strategists said privately.

The Patrick campaign's antidote to the financial gap lies with its grass-roots effort. Taking a page from Howard Dean, Patrick spent money on a grass-roots organization, using the internet to link up supporters. The campaign says it has raised $1 million online since last fall, a quarter of its total fund-raising. It has just hired 12 new field coordinators for the last five weeks of the campaign.

Lisa Wangsness and Cristina Silva of the Globe staff contributed to this report.