Tom Reilly in Menotomy

Wa-al th' other fella came thru town last night, and in the interests of full disclosure Humble Elias was in the room to see what the AG had on offer.

Tom Reilly is a low key guy no doubt it, he may have thrown a lot of miscreants into the slams, but he still comes on like Bob Newhart.
Like Patrick, Reilly was born poor and marginalized in Springfield Mass (here he harps on his roots beyond 495 drawing an oblique contrast to Patrick who is, in the patois of East Cambridge a "blow in")...but then a poverty stricken youth is the common characteristic of this year's democratic gubernatorial field.
He must've said "I know Massachusetts" ten times last night....for all I know it'll be his campaign slogan come next month's caucus.
If Reilly has a unified approach to the race it is his assertion that being Attorney General has given him nigh perfect preparation to be governor. If the issue is youth crime he touts his early intervention programs, if the subject is jobs then he reminds us of his stewardship as receiver at Harvard Pilgrim...he likes to draw on his AG props to frame responses.
Fair enough I guess, save for the gay marriage question he has been a good AG.
Some of his other ideas though are pretty uninspiring, he touts administrative savings as a means to acculmulate the necessary capital to extend health insurance to the uncovered citizenry.
Somehow I doubt better cheaper databases are gonna make this happen but at least he is talking about universal coverage as a way to stimulate the economy, that much makes good sense.
Reilly waxes passionate when he rolls out his indictment of the Romney admin it's failures and follies, his voice goes up and octave and the AG starts jabbing his finger in the air. He bluntly insists that only a democrat can unite the state, which is again a very good point. The whole effect recalls a 1960's TV drama's idea of a crusading prosecutor.
Alas though, Romney isn't in the race this year, a fact that Reilly seemed to regret....but much of what he says is easily transferred to Kerry Healey with few revisions.
Its not enough to indict though, better programs must be proposed better judgement demonstrated...at this point Reilly is running against the democrats legacy of four straight gubernatorial losses. Mere prosecutorial zeal against the Viceroy may not be enough.

Moreover, someone on Tom's battlestaff ought to tell him that touting charter schools in a town like Menotomy is a total non-starter. The schools already perform well in all the acrobatic tricks laid out by the legislature, in fact the whole school system is naught but one big charter school...thats why people are paying 800K for houses here.
No, in a town like ours, Charter Schools are a threat and a potential de-funder of a good thing. They may have their place in municipalities with chronic education issues but in my neck of the woods they are poison.