“Jake is the elephant in the room – pun intended,” Cavell said Thursday. “One thing that is very clear is that there is one candidate in this race who should not represent the fourth district.”
A wave of developments followed quickly. Attorney General Maura Healey, with whom Cavell had worked until last year, announced hours later her own statement from Mermell, giving the Brookline Democrat the formal support of one of the state’s leading progressive political stars.
And soon after, a couple of super PACs – including one with the support of SEIU and the Massachusetts Teachers Association – unveiled their own package of ads in support of Mermell, including placing roughly $ 50,000 behind a television ad around them as ‘true blue’ to talk. Progressive.
The rapid-fire maneuver had the potential to move the race to the open seat of Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III in its declining weeks. Long overdue by Kennedy’s own challenge to Senator Edward J. Markey, the Fourth District’s game has been transformed from a polite, interparty affair into a controversial primary, fueled by the rapid rise of various outreach groups trying to influence voters.
Auchincloss, for one, has become a frequent target of other candidates after earning the Globe’s editorial distinction. He underwent an unusual public outcry this week apologizing for controversial past and social media posts, and with Cavell’s exit appeared even more on loggerheads with the primary faction of the primary.
Auchincloss’s campaign on Thursday dismissed Cavell’s remarks as “political back and forth”, instead pointing to Auchincloss part of the morning in Fall River with two state legislators and the mayor of the city, who signed him, packing food at the local Boys and Girls Club.
“Jake is focusing on the real issues affecting voters in the fourth Massachusetts,” said spokesman Yael Sheinfeld.
Cavell, who left his job as a consultant for Healey to launch his October association last October, campaigned on his experience in the White House and support for progressive priorities, such as education-free public colleges.
But the Brookline Democrat had been locked up in the middle of the field by nine people. He raised about $ 400,000 over eight months, including $ 29,000 he borrowed from his campaign, while other candidates launched expensive television advertising campaigns with the help of outside groups, giving them a broader exposure to voters.
There has been no independent polling from the field. But an internal poll conducted for Ihssane Leckey’s campaign, and released earlier this week on the Intercept, showed Cavell polling in fifth place at 7 percent, just behind Mermell, Leckey in third, Auchincloss, and Becky Walker Grossman , another Newton City council member leading at 19 percent.
Given the timing of his announcement, Cavell’s name will remain on the ballot. But his departure could add some clarity to a field where six of the candidates hail from Brookline, a progressive stronghold. He had already agreed on several issues with Mermell, a one-time aide to former Governor Deval Patrick who supports Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.
‘I joined the race I’m out for the same reason. Because I care about the problems, “Cavell said.” I believe Jesse can be the progressive fighter for this neighborhood. “
In her own statement, Healey did not mention Cavell’s exit in support of Mermell. But Cavell discussed suspending his campaign with her before his announcement, and his decision “made her choice even clearer” to support Mermell, according to a Healey aide who was given anonymity to discuss her reason.
“This was about Jesse, and her support for Jesse,” the aide said.
Healey and Mermell share political advisers, including consulting firm Melwood Global, and the two worked together on issues of reproductive rights when Mermell was vice president of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and Healey headed the civil rights department of the law firm, said campaigners.
Such political jockeys are not out of character for Healey. The Charlestown Democrat, who does not live in the fourth district, waded into the 2018 Democratic primary between Ayanna Pressley and then-official congresswoman Michael Capuano, and supported Pressley in their overwhelming victory.
Their presence now in the Fourth is only the last attempt to reshape the race. A rebranded super PAC that was once heavily funded by working groups that support Mermell revealed nearly $ 25,000 in spending on posters that support them.
The group, now known as the Commonwealth Values PAC, first emerged as the Rethink PAC in the 2012 cycle, when it spent more than $ 1.1 million on then-Senator Scott Brown in contrast to its loss to Elizabeth Warren.
At the time, the SEIU unions and the Massachusetts Teachers Association had collectively thrown hundreds of thousands of dollars into the PAC, which had been dumbfounded for years and had roughly $ 75,000 to begin with in July. It has not yet announced any new donations.
Likewise, the Toughest Fights PAC, which supports the TV ad with Mermell and is coordinated with the labor-support group, has not yet revealed its donors, saying they include “women and progressive” Democrats.
They are far from alone in the race. A group known as United to Win has formed to support Alan Khazei, a Brookline Democrat and co-founder of City Year, who on Thursday welcomed the conversion of former Obama defense secretary Leon Panetta.
And a super PAC, funded in part by Auchincloss’s parents and a national group of veterans, has so far dropped more than $ 420,000 on television ads and posters to support the US Navy veteran’s candidacy.
It’s by far the most outrage by any group so far in the race, adding to the flood of television commercials flooding into fourth-district voters’ homes.
At least five candidates – Auchincloss; Grossman; Leckey, a former Wall Street regulator; technical entrepreneur Christopher Zannetos; and Khazei – have launched more than $ 2.2 million worth of television commercials in recent weeks, expanding their reach to voters as the new coronavirus pandemic restricts personal campaign.
Ben Sigel, a Brookline lawyer, and Natalia Linos, a social epidemiologist at Harvard University, also fought in the primary.
Matt Stout can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @mattpstout
