Phoenix on Galvin

The Boston Phoenix has a good article about Secretary of the Commonwealth and presumptive gubernatorial candidate Bill "Prince of Darkness" Galvin. Galvin's non-campaign seems to be slowly kicking into gear. This Sunday, he spoke out against the Democratic plan to push the state primaries back to May. Tuesday, he hosted a private fundraiser at Anthony’s Pier 4. Plus, Galvin is getting press over his looking into the Procter & Gamble buyout of Gillette on behalf of shareholders. Unlike Tom Reilly's Big Dig cost-recovery operation, Galvin's investigation has largely not been accused of political maneuvering since his campaign for Governor has largely operated under the radar. According to the Phoenix, this is exactly how Galvin wants it.

"He's a master at being low-key while getting headlines at the same time," one Democratic observer says. "Galvin is one of the smartest people I know, and he's smart enough to know that the minute you become a candidate, you start getting killed by the press."

The rest of the article is worth reading, too, as is the March, 2001 bio of Galvin the Phoenix published prior to his entry in the 2002 governor's race.

One thing that I do like about Galvin is that, of all the current candidates, he's the only one who I have heard talk about solving the population loss in Massachusetts. In a January editorial in the Globe, he wrote:

We must act quickly to get Massachusetts moving again. We need to address the root causes of our population loss: high housing costs and job losses.
[...]
[T]he records in my office which trace the outmigration of voters to other states show that the largest age group leaving Massachusetts are men and women 30 to 49 -- not just recent college graduates looking for a career but more established younger people who were the most productive part of our workforce.

Stemming the population loss in Massachusetts is very important, not only for the state, but for progressives nationwide. If the census were taken now, Massachusetts would lose one of its Congressional representatives. Not only does that mean that the people of Massachusetts will have less of a say in our Federal government, but that's also one less safe Democratic seat in an increasingly partisan Republican House.