fb-pixelMany yet to be persuaded in Mass. governor’s race - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Many yet to be persuaded in Mass. governor’s race

At the Heritage Coffee Shoppe in Auburn, politics is often on diners’ plates. Sixty percent of voters in the Central Massachusetts town are unlisted.Photos by Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff/Globe staff

AUBURN — Fueled by french fries and toasted bulkie rolls, the daily political round table at Heritage Coffee Shoppe starts a little after 1 p.m. and some days lingers past its 3 p.m. closing time.

Choosing the next governor can take a while when the choices are coming out of 2010’s recycling bin.

Given the opportunity to vote for both Charlie Baker and Martha Coakley within a few months of each other four years ago, many voters in this suburb of Worcester and around the state chose neither. Baker’s lackluster bid for governor earned him a four-year trip back to the private sector; Coakley poured a 40-point lead down the storm drain in her failed US Senate race and shuffled back to the attorney general’s office.

Advertisement



Now, both candidates have recycled themselves out of 2010 and into a race with no obvious precedent in Massachusetts’ politics: Call it the political losers’ bracket. It is as if the Red Sox, after clinching the 2004 American League title, found themselves playing the equally hapless Chicago Cubs in the World Series.

“It’s a toss-up; it really is,” said George Neubauer of Auburn as he tucked into a plate of waffles.

Neubauer is a registered Republican who voted for Governor Deval Patrick over Baker in 2010. He also chose Coakley over GOP upstart Scott Brown in the special election two months later to succeed the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

This time? He’s leaning Baker. Maybe.

“It hasn’t happened yet,” Neubauer said of his plan to “bite his tongue’’ and switch allegiances (again). “I could swing the other way.”

That is not unusual in Auburn, where 60 percent of voters are unenrolled, and neither candidate can count on party affiliation to carry them. Here, Coakley got steamrolled by Brown. But Baker, though he won, failed to fully capitalize on the town’s conservative streak. Now, voters such as Neubauer have less than two months to choose between candidates still best known for their low moments four years ago.

Advertisement



George Neubauer, eating his breakfast of waffles, said he is leaning toward voting for Charlie Baker for governor of Massachusetts. But, he says, “I could swing the other way.”SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF

So what do you do if you’re Dan Smith?

“I was a registered Democrat for 35 years and all the partisanship that was going on was driving me crazy,” Smith said Thursday, already dreading the coming onslaught of political ads. “I said, ‘I think I’m going to reregister as an independent.’ ”

Now he is unenrolled, 64 years old, and a self-described liberal on social issues who is becoming more conservative on fiscal matters as he ages.

Formerly urban, now living outside the city; formerly Democrat, now drifting away, Smith is the kind of voter that Democratic political consultant Lou DiNatale said is in play for both Baker and Coakley.

“Neither of these folks is an easy fit for this audience, but it’s clearly the swing element in the election,” DiNatale said.

“I can truthfully say I don’t know who I’m going to vote for,” Smith said.

He is not alone on that. Recent polling shows especially high undecided numbers among Worcester County voters such as Smith who consider themselves tepid or leaning Democrats, said Joshua Dyck, codirector of the Center for Public Opinion at University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Baker must win places like Auburn in a rout, not eke out a 500-vote margin in a place with 11,555 registered voters, as he did in 2010. Coakley is going to take the cities, but one lesson of 2010 is that she has to do better in Republican-leaning towns than she did in the 25-point loss to Brown in Auburn.

Advertisement



For each candidate, shedding the loser label could be key to convincing the voters that they failed to sway before. No surprise, then, that each side’s operatives are trying to paint the other as 2010’s biggest loser.

“Baker emerged from his loss with his reputation intact,” said Republican consultant Jason Kauppi. “He ran a good campaign if not a great campaign. This time around, he’s a better candidate. The problem for Coakley is she emerged as really damaged.”

Not so, said Democratic consultant and former party chairman John Walsh.

“Coakley went back and was an excellent attorney general,” he opined. “What Charlie did is, he sort of retreated.”

Polishing away the tarnish of earlier losses is not impossible, the dueling consultants agreed.

“Voters and people are very forgiving. When you forgive someone, you feel better about yourself,” Walsh said.

“As long as you’re not reminding them of your past sins, they may not haunt you as much as you might think,” Kauppi said.

And, in a race for an open seat, neither candidate has to beat a proven winner.

“You [only] have to be better than the other guy,” Kauppi said.

But figuring out how undecided voters might find their way to one camp or another will take longer than the waitresses at Heritage Coffee Shoppe are willing to stick around.

Advertisement



Tom Ashe, a lifelong unenrolled voter, said he is siding with Coakley because of her work on foreclosures during her time as attorney general. But like many here, he said party affiliation does not drive his decision-making.

“You’ve got to look at what’s happening,” said Ashe. “I honestly think she’ll do a better job.”

But on the other side of the diner and the decision, longtime Selectman Robert Grossman said he will be firmly in Baker’s camp, yard sign and all.

“I think it’s time again for another Republican governor,” Grossman said.

On Thursday, the town clerk, Ellen Gaboury, was finishing lunch at the counter and chatting about the primary election.

A registered Republican, Gaboury has been administrator for Auburn’s elections for the last 12 years.

Turnout was twice what it was two years earlier, she said. Some of the many unenrolled voters who came to the polls Tuesday were aggravated because they could not take ballots for both parties’ primaries at the same time.

“Maybe we’re a little bit unusual, I don’t know,” she said as she finished her lunch.

“I worked with Coakley’s office and she’s done a lot of really good things,” Gaboury said, including changes that made her job as clerk easier and streamlined services.

“But,” she said, “I like Charlie Baker.” She tossed her napkin onto her plate and pushed it up the counter.

“I’m not sure what I’m doing,” she said.


Nestor Ramos can be reached at nestor.ramos@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @NestorARamos.

Advertisement