By Dan Kennedy • The press, politics, technology, culture and other passions

Dan Winslow brings his campaign to Danvers

Winslow in Danvers

U.S. Senate candidate Dan Winslow calls himself “the Dan with a plan.” I am the Dan without a plan. But I do follow Winslow on Twitter. So when I saw that he was heading for Danvers Square, I walked the block and a half from my house to see if we could connect.

Winslow, one of three Republicans running in the primary on Tuesday, was greeting voters and meeting supporters at New Brothers. We’ve conversed so much on Twitter that it was hard to remember that this was actually our first meeting.

Winslow is as ebullient in person as he is on social media, touting his endorsement by the Springfield Republican as representing a “clean sweep” of Massachusetts newspapers. (Most notably, Winslow has been endorsed by both the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald.)

Still, the polls suggest that Winslow — a state representative, former judge and a top adviser to Mitt Romney when he was governor — is running third, behind former U.S. attorney Michael Sullivan and venture capitalist Gabriel Gomez. The winner will square off against one of two Democratic congressmen, Ed Markey or Stephen Lynch, in a special election to be held in June.

Winslow’s hopes would appear to rest on low turnout (likely to be especially low given how little attention the campaign has received following the Boston Marathon bombing) and his get-out-the-vote effort. His profile as a fiscally conservative, socially moderate Republican is one that has traditionally appealed to independent voters in Massachusetts. But he’s not well known, and there are only a few days to go.

Photo (cc) by Dan Kennedy. Some rights reserved.

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4 Comments

  1. Steven S. Epstein

    The most recent poll is meaningless, with a sample of 128 people and therefore a margin of error of +/- 9 points, conducted before and after 4/15 is as meaningless as polls can be.

    Far more telling is that Dan is six for six with daily papers’ endorsements. The three you do not mention are the Eagle-Tribune, Lowell Sun and Sentinel and Enterprise.

    • Dan Kennedy

      @Steven: Polls usually hold up pretty well, although I agree that this is a particularly difficult race to poll — no one has any idea who’s going to show up.

  2. Matt Kelly

    The best part of this photo is the blond girl in the back, frozen in history with that ‘what are those people doing?’ look in her eyes.

  3. Peter O'Neil

    Dan,

    Late to the party here, but FWIW Gabriel Gomez worked for two private equity firms, not VC firms. It’s a distinction with a difference.

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