As a group, Massachusetts Democrats haven’t had many bad things to say about Gov. Charlie Baker. If anything, they’ve been inclined to praise him, whether it’s attorney general Maura Healey lauding Baker’s work on opioids or Mayor Marty Walsh and House Speaker Bob DeLeo saying they won’t rule out voting for Baker in 2018.
Over the weekend, at their party’s convention in Worcester, the three Democrats hoping to take Baker on made it clear that their M.O. will be different. While their methods differ a bit, they all claim that Baker is short on vision, and that that alleged deficit is holding Massachusetts back.
At the Democratic convention, that approach went over reasonably well. But before the public can size up the case against Baker, they’ll need to learn a lot more about the people making it.
On Monday in Boston, I did some admittedly unscientific polling in hopes of getting a sense of how many people know the Democrats who hope to take Baker’s job.
Based on my research, the answer is: almost no one. Nobody could name Warren, Gonzalez, or Massie off the top of their head. And when visual cues were offered instead, the results were just as bad.
There are some obvious caveats. The gubernatorial race is still its very early stages. And yes: when Deval Patrick launched his first campaign back in 2005, he was a virtual unknown.
That’s said, it’s not clear that anyone in the current Democratic field has Patrick’s innate political talent. What’s more, all three Dems are targeting an incumbent who a lot of people seem to find likeable enough.
Watch the video above to see how Bostonians reacted when asked about their knowledge of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates.
