Mass Governor Race

If this were 2004 and you were a resident of Massachusetts, who would you want to be your Governor:

A)    A wealthy businessman who had the money and resources to buy advertising space and exposure

B)     A popular Attorney General with a long and passionate commitment to the state of Massachusetts

C)    A nobody former civil rights attorney in the Clinton Administration who unapologetically served on the board of Ameritrade and other Fortune 500 companies

Party identification aside, if you were a resident of Massachusetts eighteen months ago, you wanted Tom O'Reilly to be your next Governor. Fed up with Mitt Romney and the perceived apathy of his administration, you were just waiting for November 7^th 2006, the day you could vote for the popular Attorney General. The Democrats would consolidate power and the only state that voted for both Michael Dukakis and George McGovern would finally elect another Democratic Governor.

It was his to lose. Tom O' Reilly had spent the last two years campaigning for the corner office. He was chomping at the bit to stick it to his detractors; the ones who mocked his inability to purchase his own home; the ones who pitied him for serving a Republican Governor; those who said he could never lead. All he had to do was select Chris Gabrielli has Lieutenant General, and the corner office would be his. Only one little caveat. It turns out grass roots' campaigning is back in style and someone was fixing to take advantage. Only that person would not be Tom O'Reilly. That individual would be Deval Patrick.

Deval Patrick was and is a bright and capable politician. A trusted and revered Prosecutor in the Clinton Administration, he served as a prime example of the American dream. But, politics in Massachusetts are not always fair and when he entered the race in July of 2005, he was given little chance of electoral success. Why then with a week to go has he wrapped up the Democratic nomination and stands posed to take over the corner office? Grass roots campaigning, baby. Ever since the beginning Patrick has built up an impressive infrastructure that has propelled a political unknown into state-wide stardom.

Block Captains; Prescient Captains; etc; that is how you win elections, my political hero, Michael Dukakis, likes to say. Deval must have been listening, for he has shocked the political establishment and a week from now can very well become the first African-American Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He didn't start of with the name recognition; he didn't start of the with support of the party faithful; and he certainly didn't start off with the early campaign donations. What he did start off with was a strategic plan to build up an infrastructure of support that would carry him through the primaries, through a bruising general election campaign, straight through the corner office.

I realize the election is still a week away, but as a political science student, and a fan of all things political, I can't help but admire Patrick and the impressive grass roots campaigns he instituted.