On campaign trail, Patrick depends on grass roots support

Date: 10/5/2010

Oct. 6, 2010

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

Gov. Deval Patrick called Reminder Publications on Friday from the campaign trail and he said he is repeating the strategy that brought him to the governor's office almost four years ago: establishing a grassroots network of supporters.

Patrick called after meeting potential supporters at a pub in Quincy.

Now the primary target of a television advertising campaign paid for by the Republican Governors Association, Patrick said that campaign was "the old style of slash and burn politics."

He said he believes voters will see the difference between him and Republican candidate Charles Baker. He said that Baker will "say anything, do anything" to get elected.

Patrick came to the governor's race more than four years ago as an unknown with no background in Massachusetts politics. Running for reelection, he now has a record of what observers could characterize as both accomplishments and missteps.

In what has become a tight race between Patrick and Baker, the Rasmussen Reports polling organization reported on Sept. 30 that Treasurer Timothy Cahill is running a distant third, with six percent of the vote.

Rasmussen Reports indicated that Baker has picked up support as Cahill's candidacy has faded. Cahill was delivered what some pundits thought was a death-blow last week when his running mate, former Republican state representative Paul Loscocco, pulled out of the campaign and endorsed Baker.

Patrick called Loscocco's move "tacky." He said, though, that most voters aren't "focused on deals or games" but rather on issues such as jobs and education.

Patrick believes the momentum for the state to pull further out of the recession is real and said Massachusetts is "creating jobs faster than any other state."

He asserted that if job growth continues at the present rate by the end of the first quarter of 2011, "we will regain all of the jobs lost in the recession."

"The whole reason" behind his efforts to win re-election is so he and Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray "can finish the work we started."

Patrick noted the state benefitted from federal stimulus dollars and that he personally lobbied federal officials to include funding for education before the legislation that created the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed.

He predicted the future recovery of the state would be "bumpy, but we won't crash."

Patrick credited the state's success so far in recovering from the recession in part to the three priorities of his administration: education, innovation and infrastructure. He noted the Holyoke High Speed Computing Center, which will shortly break ground, as one example of the state supporting innovation and also used it as an example of how his administration has paid attention to the needs of Western Massachusetts.

Patrick said that, in the concluding days of the campaign, one of his challenges is to have his message heard above the "din of hate radio."

He added the misrepresentations of his administration are "right at or over the line."