Play for Massachusetts

Sanders makes his play for Massachusetts

Hillary Clinton has the state Democratic establishment in her corner. The Vermont senator is hoping to tap the grass-roots energy inspired by Elizabeth Warren.

By Lauren Dezenski

Hillary Clinton has the Massachusetts Democratic establishment. Bernie Sanders has the progressive grass roots. It’s an uneasy balance that’s reflected in the latest polls, which show a dead heat here.

On the ground, the race itself is building up to be a test of institutional clout versus grass-roots energy. Top leaders from Beacon Hill to Capitol Hill lined up behind Clinton early on, pitting them against a growing pool of Sanders supporters — many activated four years ago by the populist message of another senator: Elizabeth Warren.

“If Sanders does win in Massachusetts, one hypothesis would be that he did it in part because Elizabeth Warren and her view that the country is now rigged against the 99 percent, prepared the Massachusetts Democrats for the Sanders message. It warmed up the Massachusetts Democrats,” said Ralph Whitehead, a longtime professor in press and politics at UMass Amherst.

A poll released last week by Public Policy Polling shows Sanders besting Clinton by 7 points. Another, released Sunday by the Emerson College Polling Society, showed Clinton and Sanders are dead even.

“You’re seeing people with the same passion and energy who were out banging the doors for Gov. Deval Patrick and Elizabeth Warren,” said Sanders’ Massachusetts spokesperson Joe Caiazzo.

On Monday, less than two weeks before the state’s March 1 primary, Sanders traveled to Western Massachusetts for a rally in Amherst after receiving the endorsement of the National People’s Action, a national grass-roots organizing group.

In his speech delivered to a crowded UMass Amherst stadium, Sanders noted his efforts to combat “a rigged economy, something your Senator Elizabeth Warren has talked a lot about.”

“Thank you all for sending Elizabeth to the Senate,” Sanders added.

Many attending the Sanders rally at UMass Amherst noted the similarities between the two senators.

“I think they’re pretty similar, they’re both trying to reign in Wall Street,” said Bob Pollin, 65, a UMass Amherst economics professor from Amherst. Pollin attended the rally with fellow economics professor Jerry Epstein from Northampton, also a Sanders and Warren supporter.

“Elizabeth Warren reflects who we are as a state and Bernie Sanders does as well,” Pollin added.

Sarah Perrott of Amherst is an assistant manager at a local grocery store and attended with two of her co-workers.

“They’re very much both for the people,” said Perrott, who came to the rally already a Sanders supporter. She counts herself among Warren’s in-state supporters as well.

“I just feel like if and when we have a woman president we can do better than Hillary Clinton,” said Mandi Flaherty, 28, of Pembroke.

Perrott agreed. “She’s just saying what people want to hear.”

Flanked by a crowd of people mixed with many out-of-state residents, the location of the NPA event carried significance: The endorsement was delivered at the Ironworkers Local 7 union headquarters in South Boston, which endorsed Sanders in November 2015 and has hung a sign on its building since then. Local 7 is also the same union to which Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Clinton supporter, has belonged to for more than 30 years.

Behind the scenes, the Clinton campaign pushes back hard against the notion that her support is mainly among party powerbrokers, or that it isn’t as organic as support for Sanders.

“From the beginning, Hillary Clinton has made her campaign about the families she will fight for and deliver results for as president. She has listened, learned and lifted solutions for their concerns, like New England's opioid and substance abuse epidemic, into the spotlight of her campaign here in Massachusetts,” said Harrell Kirstein, a Clinton campaign spokesperson. “Because of this personal campaign, we are seeing support from voters across the Commonwealth, and our campaign will work hard to earn the support of every primary voter in Massachusetts.”

In December, the campaign began with a muscle-flexing exercise: It rolled out a massive show of establishment support with 190 endorsements from elected officials across the state, ranging from all nine members of Congress to the state’s attorney general to a hard-fought endorsement from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. Many of those elected officials bused their loyal supporters north to New Hampshire for the primary, among them Walsh, Rep. Jim McGovern, and Attorney General Maura Healey.

Warren was notably missing from that list.

At the same time the Clinton campaign was locking in support among the state’s political elites, the Sanders campaign began expanding its base of support to open five campaign offices throughout the state by early February — while also pouring cash into Boston’s TV advertising market, which reaches southern New Hampshire.

Not to be outdone, the weekend after the New Hampshire primary, the Clinton campaign announced it was opening up six offices in the state ahead of March 1.

State Sen. Jamie Eldridge, one of the few elected officials in the state backing Sanders, contends Warren’s silence on the race speaks volumes about where she stands in the election.

“I also think the fact that Sen. Warren hasn’t endorsed in the race has been a signal to progressives that she is very open and conducive to a lot of the ideas that Sen. Sanders is talking about and certainly over the last few months, she has defended some of his positions in calling out the big banks,” said Eldridge. “I think that’s why Bernie Sanders has so much support in Massachusetts.”

Warren has no plans to endorse ahead of the Massachusetts primary, according to an aide familiar with the decision.

Answering a reporter’s question following his speech, Sanders noted what is ahead in the coming days and weeks of the nomination fight.

“Much of this is a slog,” Sanders said. “We hope to win you and we hope to win in a number of other states.”