At Patrick gala, euphoric backers hail an intense winner
It had been almost 45 minutes since television stations had called the governor's race for Deval Patrick last night, setting off a delirious celebration of his relatives, closest friends, and campaign staffers gathered inside the parlor of an opulent fifth-floor suite of the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel.
At last, the doors of an adjoining room where the man of the hour had been ensconced, working on his victory speech, popped open.
Deval Patrick appeared in the doorway, his eyes alight. He clenched both fists and smiled. The gathering erupted and cheered.
For 15 minutes he made his way around the room, greeting people one by one, saying little, but hugging them close.
``Hello, Mama," he quietly told the elderly wife of the master of his house at Harvard.
He squeezed the cheeks of his daughter Katherine. ``Hello, my sweet," he said.
His 83-year-old father-in-law, who had come up from Queens, held him by the shoulders for a long moment.
``Hi, Mr. Governor," he said.
Patrick replied softly: ``We have more to do yet."
Patrick was embracing other guests when an aide tapped him on the shoulder to say the Dukakises had arrived.
Before long, Michael Dukakis and his wife, Kitty, were with him.
The former governor told him: ``Beautifully done."
Soon, US Senator Barack Obama of Illinois , a longtime friend, was on the phone, offering congratulations. He wasn't the only senator to do so.
Senator John F. Kerry walked in with his wife, Teresa, and embraced Diane Patrick and then her husband, the victorious candidate.
Diane whispered something to Kerry, and the senator laughed.
Diane Patrick, a former schoolteacher turned prominent Boston lawyer, was asked a few minutes later how it all felt.
``I'm doing more well, if there is such a grammatical expression, than I could have ever expected," she said. ``I'm so proud. I'm just so proud. He's worked hard for this. He's earned every single vote."
Just before 11 p.m., a small group of aides began escorting the couple down toward the ballroom, where hundreds of exuberant supporters were waiting to cheer a man few of them had even heard of two years ago.
Patrick turned to his wife as they walked toward the elevators.
``How you feeling, baby?" he asked her.
``I'm feeling great," she told him.
Lisa Wangsness
REILLY
After voting yesterday, he took his wife to breakfast and went for a 6- mile walk in his hometown of Watertown. It was the first time he had been able to get outside like that for weeks, he said.
He spent the afternoon appearing at polling places, his sleeves rolled up, a smile on his face. At the L Street Bathhouse in South Boston, he clapped his hands and told supporters, ``We can get this done; we can get this done."
But even hours before the polls closed, the 64-year-old veteran of many elections seemed to be looking back.
``It's been great. Yeah, it's been great," he said outside the bathhouse. ``The most wonderful thing about campaigning is the people you meet."
Last night, shortly after the voting was over, several hundred of Reilly's supporters gathered in the ballroom of the Westin Hotel in the seaport district. They were resolutely cheery.
``I'm thinking tonight that Tom Reilly is a very lucky man," said Alan Solomont, gesturing toward all the people who had gathered.
Even after his defeat was clear, Reilly, too, remained spirited. At about 9:40 p.m., he appeared in the ballroom.
``Folks, we gave it everything we had," he told the crowd, some with tears streaming down their faces.
He gave Deval Patrick his due, saying he had run an ``outstanding campaign." And then he returned to the same theme he sounded in the afternoon, his gratitude for all the people he had met across the state.
``I am very grateful for the opportunities you have given me," he said. ``I have absolutely nothing to complain about."
With the slide of the last couple of weeks, Reilly clearly had time to think about his priorities. He had family and friends who loved him, and that was the most important thing, he said.
``I'm sorry it didn't work out the way I wanted it to work out," he began to tell those assembled.
But then a woman in the audience yelled out: ``We love you Tom!" And a burst of applause made it impossible for him to finish his sentence.
Yvonne Abraham
Gabrieli
He didn't look like a man about to concede defeat in the Democratic primary for governor.
Indeed, Gabrieli seemed positively effervescent as he worked the crowd behind a red rope -- hugging, shaking hands, and smiling as he offered a steady stream of thank-yous.
He looked like a man who had won, a scene that contrasted starkly with the mood of inevitable defeat in the room almost an hour earlier, when the first television projection of a Deval Patrick victory appeared at 8:51 p.m. on two large screens flanking a huge American flag. Just before Gabrieli appeared from behind the curtain, one supporter had to jump-start a chorus of clapping and chanting.
``Let's get it going here! Come on," a Gabrieli worker yelled. Slowly, the applause started, as well as a call for ``Chris, Chris, Chris."
But then, as Gabrieli pledged to support Patrick and excoriated Kerry Healey, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, tears began to fall down the face of at least one volunteer.
Front and center, facing Gabrieli and his family, stood Tino Capobianco, the candidate's 17-year-old district captain in Winthrop.
He's also the senior class president at Winthrop High School, and the primary loss hit him hard.
As his hero passed in front of him, Capobianco returned an embrace as Gabrieli put his hand on his back and said quietly, ``Thank you. You were great."
Gabrieli showed no negative emotion on the podium, just an upbeat defense of his campaign on which he spent more than $10 million of his own money. But after a third failed attempt to win public office -- the 1998 congressional primary, a bid for lieutenant governor in 2002, and yesterday's result -- Gabrieli gave few clues about running again and adding any more of his fortune to the $20 million he is believed to have spent in the three races.
``I haven't ruled anything out," Gabrieli said.
Brian MacQuarrie 
