Mayoral candidates scramble for last-minute votes

In the final stretch of campaigning for mayor of Boston, Mass. Rep. Martin Walsh and City Councilor John Connolly continued their efforts to gain as many undecided and last minute voters as they can with less than 24 hours until the election.

Both campaigns said that they are continuing their ground efforts to gain as much support as possible for their candidate before polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

“We’re still knocking on doors,” said Kate Norton, spokeswoman for the Walsh campaign. “We’re still making phone calls. We’re still doing all of the same things that we were doing before … and that’s what we will continue to do through Election Day.”

Natasha Perez, spokeswoman for Connolly’s campaign, said Connolly’s camp is making sure his stances on issues stand out to the voters.

“The Connolly campaign in the final weeks is focused on talking to voters about the importance of our schools and education and how they are the backbone link toward economic and job growth,” she said.

Both candidates are scheduled to greet voters at the polls on Tuesday across the city as they gain last minute votes that could sway the election.

Walsh is projected ahead of Connolly 47 percent to 40 percent, according to a University of Massachusetts-Amherst poll released Saturday. It is the first time Walsh has led the polls since the Sept. 24 primary.

“Contrary to what a lot of polls before us are finding, we actually found Walsh ahead by seven points,” said Melinda Tarsi, assistant director of the UMass poll. “Our margin of error is 5.9 percent for likely voters, so that means that our results are outside the margin of error. We found Walsh to be pulling away from Connolly, which is in opposition to what previous polls have been suggesting.”

Deborah Schildkraut, professor of political science at Tufts University, said the accuracy of the results depends on the methodology of the polling company, as a phone poll such as the UMass poll, the methodology can skew the results.

“A big part of it depends on how good their likely voter model is, it depends on if they are doing a good job on getting people who only have cell phones,” she said. “We know that there are big demographic differences between [someone] who only has a cell phone and [someone] who only has a landline.”

Tarsi said she believes the UMass polling is accurate and will reflect the results of the election.

“We’re confident in our methodology and we’re confident based on looking at what happens in the campaign, looking at the endorsements that Walsh has picked up, looking at how the Walsh campaign has been stepping up their phone polling, stepping up their ground game and getting their contacts out — it makes us even more confident in our results,” she said.

Schildkraut said polls could be influential on undecided voters who wait until the last minute to decide on a candidate.

“One bit of information [that last minute voters use to make up their minds] might be which candidate everyone else seems to like better,” she said. “So if one candidate is doing well in the polls, that can be a really important signal that people can use to help make up their own mind.”

Perez said the Connolly campaign’s strategy is to continue to reach out to voters in the time remaining before the election, regardless of the poll numbers.

“Our campaign isn’t really focused on polls,” she said. “What the John Connolly campaign is focused on is getting his message out about the importance of our schools, economic development, jobs creation and having safe and healthy neighborhoods.”

Norton said that the Walsh campaign is glad to hear about the poll numbers and she hopes those numbers are reflected in the polls.

“For us, the only poll that matters is on Election Day,” she said. “It’s great to read about it in the news, but that doesn’t change our game. Reaching out to voters has been our game plan and that’s what we will continue to do. We feel good.”

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