Going Off the Rails On the Khazei Train

By Steve Poftak
December 3rd, 2009

(sorry about the title, could not resist).

In the last two weeks, two separate polls have come out (Globe and Rasmussen), both showing Martha Coakley with a significant lead. (Sidebar: The careful reader will note how much time is spent in the Globe poll determining that the respondent is a registered Democrat, unlike its previous effort in the Mayor’s race).

The interesting part, at least for this observer, will be to see how Alan Khazei fares. In an abbreviated election cycle and starting with almost zero name recognition, he’s either running last or tied for third depending on which poll you believe. He’s managed to spin his amazing rolodex (note to self: make more billionaire friends) into fairly shocking endorsements from the Boston Globe and Worcester T&G (as well as Blue Mass Group and the West Roxbury Transcript). In my neck of the woods, he’s the only candidate demonstrating any self-generated (i.e. not doing one’s duty for a union or other institution) grass-roots support.

Could he potentially beat out Steve Pagliuca, who’s poured huge sums of money into the race (and vacuumed up seemingly every ad on the internet — Pags = Google profits)? Maybe.

Could Khazei even come close to outpointing a Mike Capuano, a sitting Congressmen? We’ll see on the 8th.