Ron Bell, Deval Patrick and who needs introductions
The Boston Globe reports today that Ron Bell, founder and Executive Director of Dunk the Vote has joined the Deval Patrick campaign as Deputy Campaign Manager.
"By me coming on, it will help reach the invisible vote, the young people, the hip-hop community, not just blacks," Bell said yesterday. "The theme of my life has been bringing people together of diverse backgrounds and it'll be an opportunity for me to tap into the networks and relationships I've built over the years. I know Boston. I know the state of Massachusetts."
While I really know very little about Ron Bell, and the only interaction with him was leaving a never-returned voicemail while I was organizing an event last year, it does seem that Deval's campaign is making a wise choice here. Though I can't for the life of me figure out why, Tom Reilly seems to have pretty broad support among black voters. Take this quote from a March 12th Globe article:
Patrick is the first African-American in Massachusetts to be a major contender for governor, but Reilly appears to have stronger support among black voters. Although the sample is small, Reilly got 39 percent of the African-American voters who expressed a preference, and Patrick 6 percent. However, another 41 percent said they were undecided.
Obviously this 39% is not set-in-stone, but the real key here is the 41%. I think that, if Deval can pull off the nomination at the June Democratic State Convention, it will make the race a dead heat. If he and Reilly are within just a couple percentage points of each other leading up to the September 19th primary, even a small number of African American voters in urban Boston could tip the scale either way. Sure, same could be said about many minority groups (i.e., the increasing power of Asian Americans in Boston), but for the size of the black population in Boston (25%) I think Deval is making a wise choice with this hire.
What really stuck out at me from this article, however, was a quote from Reilly campaign spokesman Corey Welford who, perhaps in reference to his candidate's strong support among African Americans said point-blank: "Tom needs no introduction in any communities."
That may in fact be true, but in reality, Democrats obviously have the black vote locked up in Massachusetts. So while Deval may still have inroads to make, even if he wins the Primary the party can still count on their support. I would counter to Mr. Welford that, another community that needs to introduction to Tom Reilly are the unenrolled voters -- those independents that have swung every election since the Dems lost the corner office 16 years ago. The community of independents in Massachusetts need no introduction to a man who they see as the quintessential Democratic insider, a patronage candidate there not because of his merits but because he paid dues to Party Establishment. When will the Democrats learn that insider-status does not win elections?
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