Another Ex-Clintonite Failing in Gubernatorial Bid

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By Dean Abbott CNSNews.com Correspondent September 17, 2002

(CNSNews.com) - With Massachusetts voters heading to the polls Tuesday, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Robert Reich hopes to avoid the same fate that has recently befallen two other former members of the Clinton administration seeking office in their home states.

But if pre-election polls are any indication, Reich, a former U.S. labor secretary, will go down to defeat just as former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno did in the Florida gubernatorial primary on Sept. 10. Former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo quit the New York Democratic gubernatorial primary when it became obvious he would lose.

Heading into the campaign's final weekend, Reich claimed to be confident.

"The wind is at my back ... there seems to be a great deal of momentum right now. The polls are showing movement in my direction and all signs are positive," he said.

However, a Boston Herald poll, which surveyed 458 likely Democratic voters between Sept. 12 and 14, showed Reich running fourth in the primary with only 16 percent support, well behind the leader, State Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, who collected 34 percent.

Reich does not believe the losses experienced by Cuomo and Reno have anything to do with his own bid for governor.

"We're all very different people, running in very different places. There's an overlap because we're all Democrats and we all worked in the Clinton administration, but I don't think there's a pattern at all," Reich said.

Reich points to two former Clinton staffers who have succeeded this election season.

"Erskine Bowles did very well in North Carolina in his primary. Rahm Emanuel did very well in Chicago, so I think these contests are based on people and location," Reich said.

Bowles, a former Clinton chief of staff, won the Democrat nomination to square off against Republican Elizabeth Dole for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Jesse Helms. But Dole, a former presidential candidate, is heavily favored.

Emanuel, who served as a White House advisor to Clinton, won the Democratic nomination for the Fifth District House seat back in March and should cruise to an easy win in November.

New Mexico Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Richardson is also benefiting from his Clinton connections. The former U.S. Energy Secretary leads his Republican rival by 14 points in the latest polling for the New Mexico governor's office.

Reich said he believes candidates in these races rise and fall on local issues.

"I think that state are issues are paramount, certainly in this state (Massachusetts). I am running against three state officials -- one is a former state official -- and most of the issues that I'm asked about are state issues," he said.

Unlike others who were unable to translate their experience in the Clinton administration into support at the ballot box, Reich said he's finding that his association with Clinton is helping him in Massachusetts.

"It's been a help to the extent that people remember me as secretary of labor. They remember me working hard for working families, fighting for the Family Medical Leave Act implementation and fighting for better worker safety. People remember that. They also remember the good years economically under the Clinton administration."

Despite his name identification, Reich said people are "most interested in what you're going to do to improve the state, what your ideas are. Those are the major issues here."

Reich's biggest challenge has been financial. He said his goal was to raise enough money "to have a campaign that was credible, and we've done that on a shoestring. It's quite amazing that we are now in striking distance of winning this election."

However, he admits to having been handicapped by entering the race so late.

"I didn't enter until January. Other people have had often two or three years to gather funds. I'm not a state official and I wouldn't take any lobbyist money. So, it hasn't been easy, but I think the money is coming in because people are attracted to the cause."

Reich said he has spent $100,000 of his own money as a result of his fundraising problems.

"My wife and I provided the campaign with about as much as we possibly could afford given that we have two college age kids and four elderly parents," Reich said.

Financial constraints have also limited the campaign's ability to buy media time.

"We're not going to have as many television advertisements as my opponents. But, I don't think people care that much about the quantity of your advertisements. It's really the quality of your candidacy that counts," Reich said.

If Reich fails to defeat O'Brien, State Senate President Tom Birmingham and former State Representative Warren Tolman in Tuesday's primary, he plans to continue "writing and advocating on the behalf of working families" and teaching at Brandeis University where he is a professor.

But, Reich added, "I will be the Democratic candidate" and all "that's in my mind now is winning."

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2002


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