It is infinitely more fun to cover a campaign when you can talk to
the candidates. No offense to all the handlers, consultants,
hangers-on and everyone else who is paid to get in the way of direct
conversations between journalist and subject.
Ditch all the buffers and you can really learn what is going on in
their heads.
There was one of the unique days recently when both Andy Dillon and
Virg Bernero were in the same town, being interviewed in the same
building and they were gracious enough to share a little face time with
no go-betweens.
Democrat Dillon knocked down a piece of popular wisdom. That
"wisdom" suggests that since the House Speaker will have a tough time
luring hard core democrats to vote for him, the only way he can win is
to attract independent and some GOP voters.
Nope.
"I'm not counting on crossovers to win. I do not need them," he
boldly goes against what the punditry class promotes.
Dillon admits his opponent has a pretty good lock on the special
interest groups but, "I'm talking to the voters directly and I've got,
in my view, the majority of the votes in the Democratic Party. My
profile appeals to them."
So there you have it, despite being pro-life, anti-stem cells, and
having fewer unions that the Mayor, he still wins the majority of
Democrats.
Bernero is sure not buying that. Not for a second.
"We have all these endorsements from the key constituencies of the
Democratic Party. Who will show up for Andy Dillon?" he wonders.
The feisty Bernero was more than eager to denounce all the polls
supposedly showing him behind anywhere from between ten and twenty
points. (It is now down to nine.)
"This is a bunch of non-sense. It's a bunch of crap. Let's get
real," he takes a pot shot at the number crunchers.
He rejects it as stale data and before anyone writes him off he
suggests with 50% of the democratic's undecided, he can win and will.
(That is now down to 39%.)
The chances of him winning?
"At least 50-50% or even 55-45% now today," he asserts.
Dillon pegs his odds are better than 50-50 while conceding, "The
wolves are out to get me." And he smiles when asked, "Will they?"
"No. We'll win."
You'll have the final say on who is right.