Patrick, Gabrielli, or Reilly?
Goldberg, Murray or Silbert?
Kennedy or ... Kennedy?
Just a thread for us Massachusetts Dems (and other interested parties) to hash it out. Polls close in an hour, I'll put updates here as they come in.
The Boston Globe has a site to put up your "pollwatching" stories here. Most of what I'm seeing says "no wait" or "short wait." Commentator on NECN is saying turnout seems to be higher than expected, though, maybe 700,000 or so.
Results will be posted here.
Well, even in Massachusetts we can't have an entirely clean election. Looks like The Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund has filed a complaint charging "that candidates' names were not translated into Asian languages on primary ballots." There were also "a few difficulties with scanners used to count ballots in Boston," but no major problems with machinery. Do any town in MA have Diebold machines? We use scanners where I am as well.
[8:10, no numbers yet. Grr, I'm chomping at the bit!]
[8:15, first numbers, 1 precinct (on the Cape, I think): Patrick 73%, Gabrielli 20%, Reilly 7% (1 vote!)).]
[8:25, 7 precincts. Patrick 54%, Gabrielli 26%, Reilly 21% - Lieutenant Governor is really tight).
On NECN, MA Dem Chairman just said they won't run negative ads unless Healy does.
[8:40, 41 of 2166 precincts: Patrick 52%, Gabrielli 29%, Reilly 19%/Murray 38%, Goldberg 35%, Silbert 27%]
[9:00, 163 of 2166 precincts: Patrick 50%, Gabrielli 29%, Reilly 21%/Murray 38%, Goldberg 36%, Silbert 26%]
9:05 - No results from Boston, Worcester, or Cambridge yet. NECN is reporting that one station has called the race for Patrick already, commentator says it's early but he can't see why they would be wrong.
NECN reports that Patrick won Gabrielli's home district.
[9:18, 342 of 2166 precincts: Patrick 48%, Gabrielli 29%, Reilly 22%/Murray 41%, Goldberg 35%, Silbert 24%]
[9:31, 425 of 2166 precincts: Patrick 48%, Gabrielli 29%, Reilly 23%/Murray 41%, Goldberg 34%, Silbert 25%]
BIG NEWS: NECN REPORTS GABRIELLI AND REILLY TO CONCEDE IN NEXT FEW MINUTES.
UPDATE, 9:44PM: AP CALLS RACE FOR PATRICK, REILLY CONCEDING NOW
Murray has taken a fairly commanding lead 44% - 33% for Goldberg, I wouldn't be surprised to see this called soon as well.
Some of the other races in MA:
The Republican Senate nomination is close, but who cares.
Only one challenger in Dem House races, and Rep. Steve Lynch knocked off the challenge by a wide margin, currently about 76% to 24%.
Bill Galvin won the Sec of State by an even wider margin over Bonifaz
Looks like a good night for progressives all around. Huzzah!
UPDATE 9:57 PM - GABRIELLI CONCEDING. TIM MURRAY DECLARING VICTORY, NO MEDIA CALL YET
UPDATE 10:11 PM - AP CALLS LG FOR MURRAY. Kerry Healy is giving her speech now. How soon till she goes dirty against Patrick? She just said he ran an excellent race. She's trying to appeal to split government. Now she's saying Patrick will raise taxes and weaken criminal law.
UPDATE 10:32 PM - Patrick about to give victory speech. Turnout well above expectations - with 69% of precincts reporting there are already 661,949 Democratic votes cast - and they were saying earlier that a higher turnout would HURT Patrick.
UPDATE 10:49 - Speech wil be at top of the hour, Murray will be there.