Patrick, Reilly, and Gabrieli Vie to Fight Healey in Title Bout

Over the weekend, the Commonwealth held its collective breath as the state democratic party held its annual convention. Everyone was wondering: Will it be Deval Patrick, Tom Reilly, or Chris Gabrieli? And the answer is . . . yes. Under party rules, a candidate needs 15% of delegates to secure a place on the primary ballot in September, and all three men did so.

Actually, there was some suspense as to whether Reilly and Gabrieli would even earn spots on the ballot at all. Patrick had nearly 58% of the delegates, earning him the official (if somewhat meaningless) endorsement of the party, while Reilly had a little over a quarter of the delegates and Gabrieli just scraped by with 15.36%. Patrick, of course, has the strong and relatively unified backing of the party's liberal wing, while Gabrieli and Reilly share the moderates. At this point, it seems like the race could be decided by turnout, grievous campaign missteps, or some combination of those factors.

As always, Adam at Universal Hub provides the internet-surfing citizens of the Commonwealth and the world with all the best links on this topic, so you should go check that out. Kerry Healey already has the Republican nomination locked up.

We don't think the Mass. Democratic convention is what Courtney Brown had in mind when he wrote "Ballots of Tumult," but we think it's a great name for a book.