Talking Politics

Who’s with whom

By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | March 29, 2007

Others are holding off in anticipation of a sign as to whom the office holders are loyal. “If you’re a close friend of a Senator Kerry or Deval Patrick, you want to see what they do,” says Crowe.

But those same officeholders are in no rush to choose sides, even behind the scenes. “They don’t want to be with a loser, they’ve been with losers before,” says Boston attorney Lawrence DiCara, who is by his own assessment one of the “150 or so” Democratic fundraisers in the area being courted.

Meanwhile, Mayor Tom Menino has not yet sent any signals, say some close to him. The state’s congressmen have stayed impartial. Many expect Deval Patrick to support Obama eventually, but that’s no sure thing; neither is the support of Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray, who is said to favor Clinton.

If and when such endorsements come, many will follow. But for now, here’s where the Democratic candidates stand among the Hub’s power brokers.

Delaware Senator Joe Biden
Boston is key to Biden’s plans, and it was no coincidence that he was the lone presidential candidate at the Southie St. Patrick’s Day breakfast.

Local PR powerhouse Larry Rasky is a long-time friend of Biden’s: he used to be Biden’s press secretary and served as communications director for Biden’s 1988 presidential campaign. Rasky brought Biden to Boston in order to pitch his presidential candidacy to select local insiders a year and a half ago, says City Councilor John Tobin, who is supporting Biden. And advertising tycoon Jack Connors was one of the first to offer the senator help raising money for an ’08 run. Add to that the relationships Biden has developed among any and all Democrats over the course of 34 years in the US Senate.

An even more impressive, though less well-known, name on Biden’s local friends list is Mary Liz Kane, of Liberty Square Group. Kane, former deputy finance director for Senator Ted Kennedy, was finance director for the Democratic National Convention host committee in 2004, a position from which she actually raised more money ($50 million) than they knew how to spend, resulting in a surplus.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton
Clinton’s strategy has been to lock up party-insider support as early as possible. So it’s a little surprising to see that very few of Kerry’s big local-area fundraisers have signed on with her — only four of his 57 Massachusetts “bundlers” have lent their names to the host committee of her Friday fundraiser.

But Clinton is not shy of support, beginning with some of the area’s most influential and well-connected women, including Barbara Lee, Swanee Hunt, Deborah Goldberg, Elaine Kirshenbaum, Elaine Schuster, and Gail Roberts. She’s also got Steve Grossman on her side, and super-funder Donald Saunders — not to mention Kerry’s former finance director, Jonathan Patsavos.

Plus, she’s got an impressive and growing list of local supporters who are political-process newcomers, including entrepreneurs, young professionals, and gay-rights activists. “When I go to the steering-committee meetings, I probably don’t know 40 percent of the people,” says Grossman.

Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd
Dodd, a New Englander, Providence College grad, and lifelong Kennedy friend, probably boasts the greatest number of personal friends and acquaintances in Massachusetts among all the Democratic candidates. Many of them are sticking loyally with Dodd, at the expense of others who might have expected their support.

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Related: Suffrage net city, Has Obama peaked? Yes, he has, ‘Sorry’ state, More

Topics: Talking Politics , Deval Patrick, Barack Obama, Democratic National Committee, More

Comments

Who’s with whom

well, it's an old trait. back in the day these folks would crack out a check to hang out at bob farmers brookline chateau. there they'd grip and grin for an hour and get a photo. now they get nothin'. those that rode that mechanisim to d.c. a la the clinton wander the boulevards and k street aimlessly. whatever happened to just going to graduate school?

By jeffery mcnary on 03/30/2007 at 6:30:46

Who’s with whom

I love a good fight...keep on keepin' on, all you contenders...tehe.

By meeshell_1 on 04/04/2007 at 5:42:49

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Biden
David A. Boyarsky, real estate
John Cahill, O’Neill & Associates, lobbyist
Jack Connors, Hill Holliday founder
George Cronin, Rasky Baerlein, PR
Kevin Fitzgerald, former state representative
Chad Gifford, Bank of America
Bob Glovsky, Mintz Levin, lobbyist
Ed Goldman, WBZ/ProMedia
Mary Liz Kane, Liberty Square Group, PR
Woody Kaplan, ACLU, activist
Larry Rasky, Rasky Barlein, PR

Clinton
Bonnie Berger, Boston College professor
Beth Boland, Bingham McCutcheon
Mary Breslauer, Human Rights Campaign
George Cloutier, AMS
Evan Dobelle, former DNC Treasurer
Thomas Glynn, Partners Healthcare
Deborah Goldberg, lieutenant-governor candidate
Steve Grossman, Mass Envelope
Rebecca Haag, AIDS Action
Gordon Hayes, LeBoeuf Lamb, corporate law
Swanee Hunt, former ambassador
Howard Kessler, financier
Elaine Kirshenbaum, Mass Medical
Barbara Lee, philanthropist
Marc Pacheco, state senator
Jonathan Patsavos, Kerry finance director
Lois Pines, former state senator
Alix Ritchie, Provincetown Banner
Gail Roberts, real estate
Donald L. Saunders, hotelier
Elaine & Gerry Schuster, financiers

Dodd
Charles Baker, Dewey Square Group, PR
Charles Campion, Dewey Square Group, PR
Michael Danziger
Nina & David Fialkow, venture capitalists
John Fowler
Richard Friedman, developer
Nick Littlefield, Foley Hoag, law
Patrick Lyons, club owner
Kevin Phelan, Meredith & Grew, real estate

Edwards
Beth Leonard, former Kerry aide
Alex MacDonald, trial attorney

Obama
Barry Bluestone, Northeastern University
William Cowan, Mintz Levin, lobbyist
Cheryl Cronin, Brown Rudnick, law
Philip Edmundson, insurance
Paul Eggerman, entrepreneur
Bernie & Carol Fulp, Go Biz/John Hancock
Mark Goodman, venture capitalist
Philip Johnston, party chair
Geoff Lewis, attorney
Betsy Myers, former Bill Clinton advisor
Scott Nathan, investor
Don Nova, venture capitalist
Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School
Michael Perik, publishing
Collette Phillips, public relations
Alan Solomont, venture capitalist
Michael Thornton, trial attorney
Larry Tribe, Harvard Law School
Barry White, Foley Hoag

Richardson
Dorothy Dyer
Larry Gulko, brand marketer
Thomas J. Holloway, attorney
Pat Keenan-Loope
Bill Kennedy
David Rice
Oscar Soto, AIDS activist

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