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Who’s with whom

But as noted above, many of Dodd’s prominent Boston-area friends have not yet committed full-tilt to help his campaign. Crowe is holding off on choosing between his good friends Biden and Dodd. O’Neill is in the same boat, choosing to aid both. “I’m in the mood to help friends,” he says. “Joe Biden’s people would like to have me to themselves, and so would Chris Dodd’s.”

For that to happen, Dodd will need to prove he’s a viable candidate. If he does, more Boston power players will kick into action.

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards
Edwards has a surprisingly low-key Massachusetts presence, and even appears to be losing the support of some of those who helped him in the 2004 campaign. Back then, the area’s trial lawyers — second only to labor as big, reliable Democratic contributors — rallied around him.

Some of the old crowd is giving to him again, but not exclusively. Leo Boyle, a past president of the American Trial Lawyers Association, has donated to both Edwards and Biden in the past, but says he’s waiting things out for now. Meanwhile, Michael Thornton is supporting Obama.

Of course, Edwards doesn’t need them the way he did as a relative unknown in 2003. “His family is a lot bigger now,” Boyle says. “It’s not that the support from his legal family has diminished, but people have many good candidates to look at, and he has many other groups he’s talking to.”

But MacDonald says that fundraising in the state is going very well — and that when supporters’ names do come out, it will include many familiar ones. “What was difficult and rocky terrain four years ago is now very fertile” for fundraising, he says.

Edwards also has Beth Leonard, a Menino operative, who previously worked on Kerry’s campaign. No doubt she’s working her contacts back in Boston.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama
Obama’s Harvard Law School connections are working hard to help him; some are flung far and wide, but many are right here in and around Cambridge, including marquee names Lawrence Tribe and Charles Ogletree.

Perhaps not surprisingly, some local African-Americans are supporting Obama, including ubiquitous public-relations guru Collette Phillips and William Cowan of Mintz Levin.

But an impressive roster of insiders has also joined the cause. In addition to Solomont, Obama has former Paul Tsongas campaign chair Barry White; Tom Reilly hand Bob Sherman; Bill Clinton advisor Betsy Myers; and outgoing state-party chair Philip Johnston.

He also has some venture capitalists and young professionals, but hasn’t yet really seen an influx of the energetic progressives who helped put Deval Patrick in office. In fact, even some supporters concede that Obama’s local fundraising effort has been a little slow-starting — his first big event here won’t take place until next month (at Boston University’s Agganis Arena, if plans pan out), which is after the critical first-quarter reporting deadline. “We’re building the plane as we taxi down the runway,” Solomont says.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson
Richardson’s slow start in this state may be the most surprising early development. Richardson has the truest Massachusetts roots of the group, having gone to high school in Milton and to Tufts University for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees. His wife, Barbara, grew up in Concord. Plus, “he’s the only candidate who can genuinely claim to be a Red Sox fan,” says Jeff Gulko, a Boston supporter, along with his father, Larry.

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