I don't expect Tim Cahill

to win the governorship this fall, but if he plays his cards right, he could end up being the main challenger to Governor Patrick's re-election.
At this point, Charlie "Ziplips" Baker, moneybags and all, is running like Grady Sutton W.C. Fields' favorite stooge i.e. slowly and clumsily.
I sense an opportunity for Cahill, who does have three million large on tap (all raised from democrats back when Tim was a democrat mind you) so he can sure as hell git somethin' started.
The odds are long though, independents are fifty one percent of the electorate, but they trend all over the ideological map and have gotten into the habit of bidding up their votes high at election time with the two major parties.
Hard stony soil for an authentic independent sez Humble Elias.
Still, the region favors quixotic independent crusades, Connecticut has had two independent Senators and a Governor (granted on of them was Joe Lieberman) and Maine has had two independent governors, so the DNA is there certainly.
I don't see Cahill having much of a ground game, so that means he'll have to invest in clever campaign commercials and hope his brand catches fire. In some ways he'll be running in the fashion of a local republican, lotsa blather about his outsider cred, commercials running four per hour in prime time.
Who knows if it'll work though?
I also think, Governor Patrick is fine with all of it, nothing so suits his electoral strengths as to see the race become a de-facto year long democratic primary.