Little things don’t always turn a campaign, but sometimes they do. Massachusetts Democrats on Friday were planning to hold a rally in Lowell for Third Congressional District candidate Lori Trahan. They were missing just one thing … Lori Trahan.
The state party chairman took the hit, saying he scheduled the event (which included Elizabeth Warren and Jay Gonzalez) without realizing that Trahan was planning to be out of state raising money.
Scheduling mix-ups happen, but for some reason the key detail of the missing candidate was only announced several hours before it was to happen, according to The Boston Globe.
This strange thing occurs four days after Democrats finally got an official nominee, which was 13 days after the primary. (The top two vote-getters were so close there had to be a recount.)
It highlights a problem Trahan has. Her campaign doesn’t have anywhere near as much money as second-place finisher Dan Koh had. So she’s got to raise a lot to keep up with Green, who has deep pockets and is presumably willing to shell out some dough to try to win.
Green is a successful entrepreneur with no political record to attack. At this point, the Democratic playbook calls for finding some dirt that may stick and hitting it hard. (Expect to be hearing a lot about how horrible the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which Green founded, is for letting voters know how their state legislators voted.)
Every mix-up and every delay puts off the Decmocratic attack. It’s 46 days until the election.
To be sure, Trahan benefits by running in a district that hasn’t elected a Republican since 1972, by being originally from Lowell (which is the epicenter of the district), and by being connected to Marty Meehan, the savvy former congressman for whom she used to serve as chief of staff.
Yet Green is catching some breaks in the early going of the general election campaign.
And his campaign had some fun with the Trahan mix-up.
“Her priorities of ‘donors over district’ — from day one — demonstrate a shocking lack of judgement and are cause for deep concern from even her most ardent supporters,” Green’s campaign said in a written statement Friday night.
“In contrast,” the campaign statement concludes, “Rick Green is at a Cub Scouts meeting tonight because of a longstanding commitment.”
