Say goodbye to Al Gore and George W. Bush, Massachusetts.
That was the last look you got at the two candidates when
they skipped town Wednesday morning. They will not be back. Nor will the energy of a presidential election.
The reason: This is Gore country.
Bay State Democrats made that clear Tuesday night during the
candidates' showdown at the University of Massachusetts.
Thousands of boisterous, cheering Gore supporters stormed
the campus grounds in the hours before the first presidential debate. A river of unionized laborers churned down Morrissey
Boulevard and on to Columbia Point. Construction workers, clad in orange T-shirts bearing the
slogan " Carpenters for Gore" mingled with parading firefighters and laborers bearing the
emblem of the AFL/CIO.
Maybe as many as 6,000 turned out for Gore. Jesse Jackson
rallied with the union workers outside. They yelled. They tossed rocks at the few hundred college students and ex-hippies
who turned out to protest for Ralph Nader. They exuded an aura of victory in a state Bush is
sure to lose.
Sure, Bush got the endorsement of the Massachusetts state
troopers union the following morning on his way out of town. A lone Democrat, Brighton state Rep. Brian P. Golden, also
endorsed Bush. And of course, Gov. Paul Cellucci is in the Bush camp.
But when it came to real people Tuesday night, not a Bush
backer was to be found outside the debate hall on the Umass grounds.
This is bad news for Bush, but not that bad. He did not
expect to win Massachusetts. Republicans rarely do.
It could be worse, though, for Cellucci.
The governor is on the campaign trail this month to stump
for a major tax cut. He almost single handedly got a question on the state ballot that would chop the state's income tax from
5.85 percent to 5 percent. He has made the tax rollback the priority of his administration, and all but
staked his political future on its passage.
Cellucci is scheduled to debate the merits of the tax cut
several times over the next few weeks with Democrats who say it would cripple the state's ability to provide services and
benefits mostly the rich.
In a normal year, he might have a chance to win.
But this year Cellucci finds himself debating not just
Democrats like Steve Grossman and Senate President Thomas Birmingham.
He's also debating Al Gore.
Tax cuts have turned into a central issue in the presidential race. Bush, like
Cellucci, is suggesting a major reduction in income taxes. Gore, like Massachusetts Democrats,
is arguing that the GOP's proposed cuts are too much, and want targeted tax credits for the middle class
instead.
The two candidates might as well have been debating Cellucci's tax cut proposal in their
matchup at UMass Tuesday night.
And that's where the trouble for Cellucci comes in.
To win, he needs to convince hundreds of thousands of Gore
supporters that their candidate is wrong about taxes. He needs them to vote with Bush on the issues, even if they are choosing
Gore the man at the polls, and that may be a tough stretch.
Still, there are some signs that the campaign is about to
take off in a big way.
Campaign finance records released Thursday show that groups
backing Cellucci's tax cut have raised $350,000 in the past two weeks alone. Nearly half of that was contributed by EMC
Corp. founder Richard Eagan and his subordinates at EMC.
Add that to the money already in the rollback
warchest, and you have enough for a television blitz in the weeks just before
the vote.
They are likely to be the only political ads you'll see.
Bush and Gore are unlikely to buy airtime here, considering Gore's likely victory.
That could leave enough room in the state's political
consciousness to consider Cellucci's tax cut plan before they hit the voting booth. If not, it could be another defeat for
the state's lone Republican force.