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CAMPAIGN CONTRAST
O’Brien versus Grossman
BY SETH GITELL

Call it a "A Tale of Two Campaigns." On Monday, State Treasurer Shannon O’Brien marked the commencement of her campaign for governor with throbbing dance music, juiced-up supporters, and an excited speech at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. On Tuesday, former Democratic National Committee chair Steve Grossman gathered an assortment of reporters and political columnists together to unveil a six-figure television-ad buy. The message of O’Brien’s event was "Get on the bandwagon"; the message of Grossman’s was "I’m still in the fight."

Both candidates are essentially progressive-yet-pro-business candidates who tend toward fiscal conservatism. While Grossman has won praise and support from gays and is very progressive on social issues, he’s now grabbing the only political space left in the race — that of a pro-business, fiscally prudent Democrat who opposes delaying the voter-authorized tax cut. (Watertown state senator Warren Tolman holds the same position, but that’s mainly due to his commitment to the statewide referendum process that also saw voters support Clean Elections, the bedrock of his campaign.) Grossman’s new ads, in fact, tout his opposition to delaying the tax cut passed by Massachusetts voters in 2000. O’Brien, whose political base lies in the central and western parts of the state, is generally a centrist who also trumpets fiscal responsibility: she favors delaying the tax cut until "the economy is growing again." Making the comparison all the more compelling is the fact that O’Brien has called upon another Grossmanesque figure — multimillionaire and former Eighth Congressional District candidate Chris Gabrieli, who made his money by founding and selling a health-care-software company — to serve as her lieutenant governor. O’Brien praised Gabrieli’s "vast experience helping to create good jobs in our state," a line that echoes those used by Grossman supporters to promote their candidate.

With just a few wrinkles, O’Brien’s event went off well. In contrast to the Chelsea set-piece extravaganza of Senate president Tom Birmingham’s campaign kick-off, O’Brien’s organization jammed hundreds of supporters into a tiny hotel function room. (One political campaign trick is that small space makes crowds appear overflowing.) In this case, the campaign may have selected too small a room. When O’Brien’s baby daughter Regan fussed just as the candidate was about to reach the height of emotional oratory, O’Brien stopped and said, "Only my kid." The spontaneous moment could not have worked better. It humanized O’Brien as much or more as the moment when Birmingham’s mother introduced him at the Chelsea elementary school he attended as a child. Even better for O’Brien was the fact that Regan was looked after by her father, not a staffer — a problem that plagued Governor Jane Swift when she was lieutenant governor.

Finally, on the positive side, here’s a note for the "You Read It Here First" department. O’Brien has a manner of public speaking that is at the same time both natural and passionate. It’s almost unique among today’s leading politicians, especially the women. She doesn’t drone on in robotic fashion à la Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California. If she can ever get beyond the snake pit of the Massachusetts governor’s race, she will be a woman to watch.

On the downside, O’Brien’s campaign miscalculated by arranging for seemingly impromptu media availability. After the event, O’Brien’s handlers allowed print and TV reporters to swarm the candidate and shout questions at her. Her handlers may have thought that such a scrum would create a heightened sense of excitement around her, but in fact it created a media circus that threatened to draw the campaign off-message. It would have been better to take questions in an orderly fashion, as did former secretary of labor Robert Reich at his announcement — or not to take questions at all, as did Birmingham. O’Brien’s team rushed her out, leaving press members with Gabrieli, who seemed somewhat overwhelmed by having to deal with so many rapacious reporters, as a consolation prize.

As for Grossman, who heads the MassEnvelope Company, he presumably figures that he must play to his strengths as a businessman to win the nomination. To demonstrate this posture, Grossman even went to a dry-erase board with a Magic Marker to deliver a Ross Perot–like fiscal briefing. Through "basic business principles" — including measures such as pooling the purchasing of prescription drugs for $100 million — Grossman estimated he could save the state almost $1.6 billion without making cuts that would cause pain to state residents (unlike Swift). It’s unknown how much of an audience exists for Grossman’s message. He seems to be betting that it will appeal to enough people to raise his poll numbers and bring him the number of delegates he needs to garner 15 percent at the May 31–June 1 Democratic convention. There’s a potential pitfall for Grossman, however: delegates to the state convention are generally the most tax-happy of Massachusetts voters. They won’t like this new posture — even if it will please the general electorate.

All in all, given Grossman’s predicament — he was outshone by Reich at the caucuses earlier this month — it’s a risk worth taking. Too bad for Grossman he didn’t try it in January, before the caucuses.

Issue Date: February 14 - 21, 2002
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