MA-Gov: Victory for the Netroots...and Why it is Important

Last night history was made as the true netroots/grass roots/progressive candidate, Deval Patrick, took over 50% of the vote in a 3-way race for the Democratic nomination for Massachusetts Governor.  I have been involved in the campaign for 9 months as a convention delegate, phone banker, and precinct captain.  Come hear how much fun it is to finally be on the winning side, read my analysis of Deval's victory, and what this all means for the larger netroots movement as a whole.

Unbelievable...freacking unbelievable.  I can't tell you how happy, relieved, and gratified I feel right now.  Too many of us have spent too many years voting our conscience and thus for the losing side in elections.  For once in my life I voted my conscience and a majority of my fellow citizens agreed.  Oh, the Joy!

I am a precinct captain for Deval in my town.  For election day it was my job to organize enough people to have 2 holding signs at the polling place at all times.  I am proud to report that with all the precincts in my town reporting, Deval got 50.5% of the vote, Gabrieli got 32.2%, and Reilly got 17.2%.  Interestingly enough, our phone poll of the entire town last week showed Deval's support at 45%.  I never thought in my wildest dreams we would top 50% in our town or statewide!

After holding signs I raced to the Deval party being held at the Copley Plaza hotel in Boston.  I estimate we had >1000 people crammed into a hotel ballroom.  About 8:30 early returns came rolling in very positive for us.  About 9:15 some of the news organizations were declaring Deval the winner, and by about 10:00 both of his rivals had conceded defeat.  I thought Gabrieli's concession speech was particularly gracious.  This left us hanging around for an hour waiting for the triumphant moment.  Ultimately, Deval appeared at 11:05, I am sure to coordinate with the 11:00 news broadcasts.  Very surprisingly, the first person onto the stage was Chris Gabrieli!  He was magnanimous enough to come over and congratulate us.  He then hung around on stage during Deval's speech, looking a bit awkward...I actually felt for the man.

Deval's speech was vintage Deval.  As always, he spoke of hope, change, and making Massachusetts a better place.  The room was electric with energy, and it had the feeling of part victory rally, part revival meeting.  My voice is still hoarse from all the screaming I did.  Late in his speech Deval launched the first salvos of the general election campaign.  He tore into Kerry Healey (current Lieutenant governor), not on a personal level, but on her positions and her administration's record.  To his credit, Deval used the term "this administration", tying Healey as closely as possible to the unpopular current Republican governor Mitt Romney.  Here are some quotes as best I can remember them...

"Let's talk about the economy.  This administration has lost 140,000 jobs and 60,000 residents..."

"Let's talk about our highways....it took a human tragedy for this administration to wake up to the cost overruns and incompetence of the Big Dig."

"Let's talk about education...Massachusetts is 47th in the country in college affordability."

This man is the real deal, fearless, committed, and principled.  No leader since Bobby Kennedy has instilled such hope and passion in me.

Deval's victory was gratifyingly far reaching.  He won EVERY county in the Commonwealth.  Even in towns where Deval lost it was by a small margin.  He ran very strong in Boston, Worcester, the more affluent outer suburbs of Boston, and even in rural areas.  In some of the small towns in the western part of the state Deval got 80% to 90% of the vote.  This is a tribute to the reach of our grassroots efforts, and to the power of how a few people in each town can make a difference.  The towns where Deval did worst are, for lack of a better term, blue collar ethnic enclaves.  These places have high numbers of Irish- and Italian-Americans who still strongly identify with their ethnic group.  Gabrieli being Italian, and Reilly being Irish the outcome in these towns was predictable.  I am hoping the campaign realizes their weakness amongst these voters, and that these are some of the first places Deval will visit now that he is the nominee.

Why Should You Care?
Deval is a true grassroots/netroots politician.  Markos is a big fan of Deval, and it appears Deval got some of his playbook by reading "Crashing the Gate".  I would argue that last night's triumph is the most significant victory for our cause to date.  We have shown that the right message, a message that is firmly and unapologetically progressive, can appeal to a wide swath of the electorate.  What is significant that the politics-as-usual, play it safe, consultacrocy driven finger-in-the-wind candidates who we regularly condemn on this website are who Deval triumphed over last night.  

If Deval wins the governorship, it will be the first opportunity for our progressive agenda to be implemented on a state level.  Massachusetts will act as an incubator for progressivism, and the whole country will be watching whether we succeed or not.  Yes, it is important to fight the good fight in all 50 states, but don't ignore the bluest of blue states, this is where we will succeed first, and the learn the necessary lessons to govern successfully at the national level.