Candidates Make Last-minute Push Before Primary
Posted: September 16, 2002 (AP)
BOSTON -- Shannon O'Brien munched on a muffin at a New Bedford diner. Warren Tolman scored the endorsement of a Boston meter maid. Tom Birmingham cruised the Merrimack Valley in his "Momentum Tour" bus. Robert Reich planned to eat dim sum and go bowling.
On the day before the primary election decides who will face Republican Mitt Romney, the four Democratic gubernatorial candidates made a last-minute push for votes on Monday.
O'Brien, the state treasurer, visited diners in New Bedford, Fall River and her hometown of Easthampton. "I'm just making sure that all the Democrats know that if they want to win in November ... I'm the one to vote for," she said.
O'Brien, whose father Edward O'Brien lost a 1976 congressional primary by four votes, said she was continuing to target voters with automated phone messages from Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Grossman.
Robert Reich, who took the day off to observe the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, planned to resume campaigning after sundown with an all-night campaign swing through Boston. Reich planned to meet fans leaving the Red Sox game, have a cannoli in the North End after midnight, then visit Chinatown and an all-night bowling alley in Dorchester. Former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley held a news conference on Monday to stump for Reich. Spokeswoman Dorie Clark said Reich wanted to reach as many voters as possible, particularly given his day off on Monday. "If that means getting dim sum at 2 in the morning or bowling in Dorchester at 3:30, that's what we'll do," she said.
Birmingham, the Senate president who has made union endorsements a campaign cornerstone, started the day with leaders of the teachers unions at South Station and planned to end it at Boston Medical Center to highlight his endorsement by the Massachusetts Nurses Association. "What those endorsements represent is what the people of the commonwealth care about," including education and health care, he said. "This is a very fluid race and there's no substitute for meeting people personally when they haven't quite made up their minds yet."
Tolman, the race's only Clean Elections candidate, greeted voters at Boston's Back Bay subway station and at Ralph's Diner in Worcester. Many people were waiting until the last minute to decide, Tolman said, giving as examples a meter maid and three others in Boston's financial district who told him on Monday they were behind him. "If they want someone who's going to be a reformer and stand up for their interests, not the special interests, then I'm their guy," Tolman said.
Secretary of State William Galvin predicted a low turnout, even though candidates for statewide offices have spent a record amount of money on television ads and other campaign expenses. Using absentee ballots and other indicators, Galvin predicted that fewer than 30 percent of registered voters would cast ballots. He estimated about 700,000 Democrats would vote and about 235,000 Republicans.
Massachusetts has about 3.9 million registered voters. Polls will be open on Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Also on Monday, a new poll showed O'Brien leading, with the support of 30 percent of respondents. Reich trailed with 21 percent, followed by Birmingham at 16 percent and Tolman at 12 percent, according to the WHDH-TV/Suffolk University poll.
In another closely watched race, Kerry Healey held a slight lead over fellow Republican James Rappaport in the Republican lieutenant governor's race, though her lead was within the poll's margin of error, meaning the race is a statistical tie.
Like Reich, Rappaport observed Yom Kippur on Monday and did not campaign. Healey campaigned with Healey in Boston. Three Democrats are running for lieutenant governor.
The poll of 370 likely Republican voters also found that Healey, Romney's running mate, was more popular among men than women. Among men, Healey led 43 to 23 percent, the poll found, while women preferred Rappaport by 38 to 31 percent.
The poll of 370 likely Republican voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points. On the Democratic side, 400 likely Democratic voters were polled, for a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. (AP)
