Bay State leaders showcase influence in Denver

Kennedy, Kerry, Patrick among orators

DENVER - Four years ago, Massachusetts was the center of the universe of the Democratic Party: Boston hosted the party's national convention, and John F. Kerry, the state's junior senator, was the presidential nominee. This year, the convention is 2,000 miles west of the Hub of the Universe, and the only serious presidential contender in the 2008 campaign from arguably the nation's most liberal state was a Republican.

But the Bay State, as it often does, exerts outsized influence in the presidential politics of the Democrats. Even in what is basically an off year, Massachusetts will attract more than its share of attention.

It starts with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, an enormous presence in US politics - and now an emotional one - as he fights incurable brain cancer. He is debilitated by the treatments, yet arriving here this week in dramatic fashion to participate in the proceedings that will nominate Barack Obama, whose candidacy Kennedy helped validate with a critical endorsement. He was honored last night with a video testimonial at the Pepsi Center.

Tonight, Governor Deval Patrick, the second black governor elected in US history, will address the convention.

Patrick's personal story and his politics of change echo those of his friend, Obama, who is seeking to become the first black president of the United States.

Tomorrow, it will be the turn of Kerry, who lost a close race four years ago, to address the convention.

"For a variety of reasons, Massachusetts has played an unusual role in presidential politics," said Alan Solomont, the state's Democratic fund-raiser extraordinaire. Solomont yesterday addressed a breakfast meeting of the Bay State delegation that includes two former national party chairmen, Paul Kirk and Steve Grossman.

"Maybe it's because we take politics so seriously," Solomont said afterward. "Whether we have a favorite son in the game or not, we're always near the center of attention."

The state has always been an enormous source of financial support for Democratic candidates, and was again this year, as both Obama and his onetime rival Hillary Clinton mined the state for campaign dollars.

Solomont, the chairman of Obama's New England steering committee, led a prodigious fund-raising effort that took in $10.2 million from Bay State donors, the largest per capita amount of any state - eclipsing even Illinois, Obama's home state.

In the past, he has been a major fund-raiser for Kerry and President Clinton.

Since President Kennedy's election in 1960, three United States senators and two governors from Massachusetts have sought the presidency, albeit unsuccessfully.

In 1980, it was Edward Kennedy, unsuccessfully challenging Jimmy Carter, an incumbent in his party. In 1988, Governor Michael S. Dukakis was the party's nominee.

Four years later, Paul E. Tsongas, the former senator considered a dark horse candidate, won early contests before being cut down by Bill Clinton and losing the nomination.

Kerry followed in 2000, and this year it was Mitt Romney, the one-term Republican governor who was defeated by John McCain for the GOP nomination.

But it's more than money and candidates. The state's chief domestic export may be political talent.

For decades Democratic presidential candidates have relied on operatives from Massachusetts for advisers, pollsters, and, most of all, field organizers.

With the possible exception of Iowa, the first presidential caucus state, Massachusetts has probably produced more individuals who can run a get-out-the-vote operation in a precinct, a county, or an entire state, than any other state.

"Massachusetts exports a lot of bodies and a lot of talent to presidential campaigns and general elections," said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic strategist and principal at the Dewey Square Group, whose other principals include nationally known operatives such as Michael Whouley, Chuck Campion, Charlie Baker, and Lynda Tocci.

Despite the endorsements of Obama by Kennedy, Patrick, and Kerry, Hillary Clinton won a smashing 15-point victory over Obama in the Massachusetts primary on Super Tuesday. Marsh said the Obama campaign needs to create enthusiasm among those Clinton operatives in Massachusetts, who lined up behind Hillary Clinton and who every four years are willing to fly to a battleground state, live out of a suitcase, and survive on pizza and caffeine for weeks at a time.

"They'll vote for Obama but they may not be ready to get on the bus to help out in the battleground states," Marsh said.

And while Massachusetts won't have a candidate on the Nov. 4 ballot, the addition to the Obama ticket of Senator Joe Biden Jr. of Delaware will bring at least some level of involvement of a couple of other Bay State political veterans into the campaign's closing 10 weeks.

Two of Biden's trusted advisers - Larry Rasky and John Marttila, both of whom are in Denver - are from Boston and worked on his unsuccessful presidential campaigns this year and in 1988.