LG Forum Wrap Up & Straw Poll Results

It appears that the LG candidates held a forum/debate out in Westfield last week. You can read a wrap-up of it here courtesy of the T&G. The article doesn't say anything particularly new, but it does include an interesting nugget at the end:

An exit poll by the debate's student organizers had Mr. Murray winning with 34 votes, Ms. Silbert in second with 32, and Ms. Goldberg and Dr. Kelley tied with 6. Nine respondents said they were still undecided.

A sampling of that size - 87 respondents - can be trusted to a certain degree. However, they are not typical voters because they voted after learning more about the candidates than the average voter will ever come close to learning. With all the information, they still could not pick a clear winner. However, they sent a clear message: Silbert's and Murray's messages resonate the best. The others', simply, don't.

If I were Deb Goldberg, I'd think about shaking up her campaign team in a hurry. This kind of result is not something that dollars can cure. She can't throw money at a landslide like that and expect to win. It can't be good times in the Goldberg camp, despite the fact that they're probably all giddy
about the money they have to spend. As an undecided delegate who wasn't going to support Goldberg anyway, this confirms my concerns about her. She's unelectable and will be a drag on the democratic ticket if she wins the primary. Her money will diffuse any ability we have to criticize Kerry Healey for being out of touch. I think having only 6 people vote for you out of 87 after they've heard you and the other candidates for an hour is a bad, bad sign.

As for the winner here, it appears to be Silbert. She's positioning herself to be the outsider underdog battling the insiders, and if she keeps running like this, then she could surprise a lot of people come September. I'd be ecstatic if I were over at the Silbert HQ after this result.

Murray's take? Mezzo-Mezzo. He is (and ought to be) the early favorite. His political pedigree makes him initially appealing to people and he says all the right things that we Dems like to hear. I think his getting the most votes is great for him, but I think he probably would have thought he would win more handily. The Murray folks gotta be looking over their shoulder.

Kelley? Not a surprise. He's single issue and that's the kind of result single issue guys get.

All in all, another interesting event in the LG race.

Can't wait to hear what happens at the upcoming LG forums.

(Incidentally, it appears that this guy Sutner at the T&G is the only reporter in the state on the LG beat. Good luck and thanks to him!)