It's primary day across Massachusetts, and voters heading to the polls will decide contested races among Democrats for governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and attorney general.
By Matt Murphy and Andy Metzger
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
BOSTON – Martha Coakley planned to vote early with her husband at the West Medford fire station, grab a slice for lunch with voters at Santarpio's in East Boston and wait for the results to trickle in.
Steve Grossman mapped out a busier day with stops at 14 polling locations to greet voters from Quincy to Newburyport after casting his own ballot when the polls open at 7 a.m. at Bigelow Middle School in Newton.
Dr. Don Berwick was ready to vote at the Newton Highlands Community Center before greeting potential supporters at diners and a delicatessen in Newton, Brookline and Watertown and meeting with campaign canvassers in Newton in the afternoon.
It's primary day across Massachusetts, and voters heading to the polls will decide contested races among Democrats for governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and attorney general. Republican gubernatorial candidates Charlie Baker, the frontrunner, and Mark Fisher have a primary of their own, and voters will decide scores of local legislative races taking place around the state.
Coakley, the state's attorney general, has consistently led in polls against her two rivals for the Democratic nomination for governor, but she insists she's taking nothing for granted. On the last full day of campaigning, neither Grossman, the state treasurer, nor Berwick were willing to concede an inch.
"We'll defeat Charlie Baker," Berwick said Monday, assessing the Democrats chances of victory in November against the likely GOP nominee. "But Democrats are worried about that and they need to pick the person that has the best chance to beat Charlie Baker and they have one best chance in this race, and that's me."
![082514_baker_fisher_shake.JPG]()
Republican gubernatorial hopefuls Mark Fisher, left, and Charlie Baker shake hands at the end of their debate sponsored by The Boston Globe, Monday, Aug. 25, 2014 in Boston. They will face each other for their party's nomination in the Sept. 9 primary. AP Photo/The Boston, David L. Ryan Convinced of a tighter race than the polls suggest, Grossman closed his primary eve outside Fenway Park, amid a Red Sox homestand against the Baltimore Orioles, seeking votes from strangers and greeting old friends.
"For the primary campaign, I'm the home team. It's the bottom of the ninth inning," Grossman said, when asked to provide a baseball analogy for his position. "We're behind by a few runs. We got a couple of men on base and it's anybody's ballgame. The question is whether or not we can get a few hits in the clutch and bring it across the finish line."
For Coakley detractors the failure of her 2010 special election Senate campaign against Scott Brown was encapsulated with a mid-run quote she gave to the Boston Globe, dismissing the retail politics opportunity available by shaking hands in front of the ballpark in winter.
"I'll let people read into it what they want," said Grossman, who said he had opened his successful 2010 run for treasurer outside Fenway on opening day and thought it fitting to end it there.
Grossman's appearance on Yawkey Way Monday evening brought to mind Coakley's absence - her schedule had her in Dorchester at that time - for Bill McGue, a Waltham man who told the News Service he's unenrolled in either party and keeps his voting secret.
"Where's Martha Coakley?" McGue wondered aloud as he passed Grossman.
Asked about Grossman's choice of venue on Monday afternoon, Coakley said every campaign has its own last minute strategy to drive out voters.
"I must say I was at Fenway Park last fall when I started this race. I'm confident that we've laid the right groundwork for getting out, shaking hands. I said at the beginning of this no one would shake more hands than I do. I think I've fulfilled that promise," Coakley told reporters outside the Kickstand Café in Arlington.
Kickstand, crowded with mid-afternoon patrons diligently tapping away on laptops, provided the backdrop for campaign stops for both Coakley and Berwick on Monday afternoon.
Joined by wife Ann Berwick and wearing a shirt and tie, but no jacket, Berwick moved table to table introducing himself. Some patrons knew who he was. Others needed an introduction.
Stopping by the same table of Arlington High School seniors that Coakley had spoken with only two hours earlier, Berwick told them he was a pediatrician who ran Medicare and Medicaid for President Barack Obama.
Learning that none of the four students were old enough to cast a ballot on Tuesday, Berwick smiled: "It's a pleasure to meet you. Go tell your parents, Ok?"
Greg Harris, a 45-year-old undecided Harvard professor from Cambridge, said he probably won't make up his mind until he heads to the polls Tuesday. He's torn between voting for Coakley or Berwick, and had the chance to meet them both at the café.
"It's easy to imagine supporting either of them," said Harris, who chatted with Coakley about Porter Square Books and arts funding. "If Coakley's going to win, I want to send a resounding message, and I like her well enough. But she seems to be taking careful, calculated positions as opposed to Berwick who just comes right out and says what he thinks."
For Harris, he has no problem with Grossman as a candidate, but said the treasurer's campaign just never "clicked" with him.
Grossman told the News Service outside Fenway that he has been hearing a lot of feedback about a super PAC ad that featured his 92-year-old mother Shirley, a major donor to the outside spending effort to elect her son.
Michael Sullivan, a Republican who ran for U.S. Senate last year, was one of a few passersby at the ballpark who followed Shirley's directive from the ad, telling Grossman, "Call her, will ya?"
Grossman prevailed on voters from out-of-state to tell their Massachusetts friends about him, and connected with old friends and some supporters.
"He's a businessman. We need businessmen, not politicians," said Paul Hedstrom, of North Andover, after giving Grossman words of encouragement.
Grossman, who shed his usual orange tie to avoid any appearance of a fealty for the visiting club, said Brooks Robinson, an Oriole Hall of Famer, had uttered the message that appears on his father's gravestone: Make optimism a way of life.
"I know what the polls say, but I make optimism a way of life, and when you get out there, and you leave it all on the field - and leaving it all on the field is exactly what we're doing, because I think this is going to be a lot tighter than anybody suggested," Grossman said.
