“I proudly accept the nomination for Democratic gubernatorial candidate!” former State Treasurer Shannon O’Brien told supporters last night at her victory party at the Westin Copley Hotel.
Final primary results came in around 11 p.m. last night with O’Brien winning 33 percent of the votes.
“Are you ready to join me in this fight?” O’Brien asked supporters. “Are you ready to win and make history? Are you ready to end the gridlock on Beacon Hill?”
The cheering crowd answered a unanimous “Yes,” drowning out the candidate’s next words.
Chris Gabrieli, O’Brien’s personal choice for lieutenant governor, beat out the competition, winning an overwhelming 46 percent of the vote.
Gabrieli warmed up the already lively audience with his victory speech about an hour before the gubernatorial results came in. Walking out to the sounds of U2’s “Beautiful Day,” Gabrieli waved and thanked his supporters.
“The people of Massachusetts want leaders who will move beyond the tired rhetoric of the past,” Gabrieli said. “Shannon O’Brien and I can do this and tonight the people of Massachusetts have agreed.”
O’Brien’s victory in the Democratic gubernatorial primary last night caused enthusiastic celebration among her supporters. The results, however, did not come as a big surprise.
In a highly competitive Democratic race for the gubernatorial candidacy among such qualified candidates as former State Senator Warren Tolman, Senate President Thomas Birmingham and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, O’Brien had been ahead in the polls for weeks.
After the polls closed at 8 p.m., “Tony V.,” a local comedian who ran the ceremony shouted, “We’re very optimistic.
“This will be a victory party! We’ve probably already won, we’re just not quite definite yet,” he said.
Tony V. excited the countless staff members, volunteers and supporters who crowded into the hotel last night with optimistic statements and even an Irish jig.
“We are close to something very amazing,” he said. “Then we’ll be able to dance. We’re standing on the edge and we’re gonna jump. We’re going to do something great here tonight.”
Just like the voters in Massachusetts, most people in the crowd agreed.
“I think she’s totally awesome,” said O’Brien supporter Patti Drummey, a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “She stands for the important issues, and she is definitely the most honest and sincere candidate. She’s also the best quality candidate because she’s served in government for years.”
O’Brien, who earned her undergraduate degree from Yale University and her law degree from Boston University, has served in government since 1986 when she was elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature. She has also served in the Massachusetts state senate and since 1999 has been the state treasurer.
“She is definitely way above the other candidates,” said Mindy Chou, a Boston University sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. Chou said she had been working for the past five months on the Gabrieli campaign.
“The voter turnout has been low, but we’ve been making calls all day and people told us that they had voted or were on their way to vote for us,” Chou said.
O’Brien’s victory is only “the beginning,” according to Chou.
Over the next month-and-a-half, O’Brien and Gabrieli will begin a campaign against Republican gubernatorial nominee Mitt Romney and lieutenant governor candidate Kerry Healy, who won the primary last night against Jim Rappaport. The two teams are drastically opposed on issues such as healthcare reform, education, and, most significantly, Massachusetts’ struggling economy.
O’Brien did not hesitate to show her distaste for Romney, a venture capitalist from Belmont, who is best known for running the Salt Lake City Olympic Games last year.
“This election offers citizens the choice between a Republican masquerading as a moderate but who leaves working families behind and a Democrat who believes government is a catalyst to have working families help themselves,” O’Brien said.
“My opponent keeps putting on costume after costume,” O’Brien said, referring to Romney’s campaigning alongside different workers. “Massachusetts doesn’t want a governor who thinks getting involved with working people is a costume party.”
O’Brien’s confidence in her emerging campaign against Romney was echoed by her supporters.
“This was all just the beginning. This was the easy part,” said Jim Drummey, an O’Brien supporter and BU alumnus. “But I think she will beat Romney.”
“I think they [O’Brien/Gabrieli] have the best chance,” Chou said. “They are very experienced and qualified, definitely above Romney.”
With the most important part of the campaign underway, O’Brien will now begin rallying all Massachusetts Democrats to give her their support come November.
“Their going to regroup,” predicted Jessica Dinst, a CAS junior who worked on the Gabrieli campaign. “We’re going to focus our bombardment of phone calls and mass mailings toward all Democrats to unite them behind the winning candidate.”
All the former Democratic candidates gave O’Brien their support last night after the results came in, serving to illustrate Sen. Ted Kennedy’s claim, “What unites [Massachusetts Democrats] is so strong.”
O’Brien saluted her opponents in the past campaign for having “pushed me and challenged me and made me stronger” and said she “looked forward to working with them in the future.”
“We have made history tonight,” O’Brien told the audience. “Are we going to make history this November?”
The audience answered a deafening “Yes!”