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Date: 4/15/2020
CHICOPEE – Two city men with deep interests in politics have revived their Internet-based show “The State of the Race” to provide a local perspective on the presidential race.
City Councilor Joel McAuliffe, who is also an aide to state Sen. Eric Lesser, and Joshua Clark, who is a teacher at Chicopee Comprehensive High School and the chair of the city Historical Commission, have both participated in various political campaigns.
With COVID-19 precautions in place, both men spoke to Reminder Publishing through an online conference call. McAuliffe recalled the origins of the show, which had been broadcast over the Westfield State University radio station, and said, “It started in late 2015 and went through the race until November 2016.”
He added, “The purpose of this really is a presidential politics show. It’s been interesting doing a podcast we livestream.”
The pair revived the show in February with the Iowa caucus and even tried to broadcast all night as the results slowly unfolded. They admitted with a laugh they couldn’t do it.
Before COVID-19, Clark said the “word-wide headquarters of the State of the Race was Joel’s den.” That room is covered with souvenirs and memorabilia from past political races.
Before the stay-at-home order, McAuliffe and Clark even traveled to New Hampshire to cover that state’s key primary election. One of the big surprises was the poor showing of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, which eventually led to her dropping out of the race after she did poorly on Super Tuesday.
“New Hampshire served as a warning sign. I fundamentally believe she was the best candidate in the cycle but it did not translate into votes,” McAuliffe said.
The impact of social media and using it to campaign prompted McAuliffe to say, “We’re in uncharted territory in terms of campaigning. People are trying to figure it out on the fly. [Vice President Joe] Biden is doing live videos from home and [Sen. Bernie Sanders] Bernie’s been doing fireside chats.”
When this interview took place, Sanders was still a factor in the Democratic race.
The other wild card has been COVID-19 and Clark said, “COVID plays into the hands of Joe Biden.” Clark explained that Biden did not have the grassroots organization as Sanders did.
“Sanders had a field operation. You can’t do that [now],” Clark added.
McAuliffe questioned the scheduling of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, which had been scheduled for July 13-16. The party has now moved the event to the week of Aug. 17.
Clark said picking a presidential candidate “may be more effective with a national primary.” He noted that historically “how we choose a candidate now isn’t the way we’ve done in the past.” Such a primary could be delayed “as late as possible” to allow candidates to campaign on a national basis.
Although the Democratic primaries have ended and Biden is the presumptive nominee, McAuliffe and Clark are not yet through being pundits. Their podcasts can be found at https://www.facebook.com/thestateoftherace.