Peggy's role models would never give up
4 May 2001
Silvio Berlusconi and Bill Clinton make Peggy Davis-Mullen look like a piker.
Berlusconi, one of
"Bimbo eruptions" and an unending stream of
scandals beset Bill Clinton nine years ago. Pundits said he had no choice but
to withdraw from the
To be sure, Davis-Mullen is no Silvio Berlusconi. She doesn't have Berlusconi's money, for one. Indeed, much of Davis-Mullen's problem appears to be that she doesn't have much money at all.
And she certainly is no Bill Clinton. She doesn't have his rhetorical powers, the infamous Clintonesque handshake or his way of looking you in the eye, making you think you're the only person is the room.
Still, there's a lesson here. Bad press and lots of scandals aren't necessarily fatal. Perversely enough, they may even help.
Since she officially announced for mayor just over two weeks ago, Davis-Mullen's campaign has been rocked almost daily by a series of disturbing allegations. She failed to file state taxes for two years. She didn't repay her school loans. Her year 2000 taxes under- reported rental income. She gave false answers when she applied to the bar. She used political pull to get her kids into a local school.
Even worse, Davis-Mullen has bobbled her answers. She made weird excuses (claiming, for example, that a C-section caused some of her aberrant behavior). She dodged questions.
All in all, it was about as bad a beginning to a campaign as one can imagine. Many - including Davis-Mullen - suspect that her bad press is a carefully orchestrated effort by the Menino camp to undermine Davis-Mullen early on, perhaps forcing her out of the race and at a minimum hurting her credibility.
If so, it's worked. Davis-Mullen vows to stay in the race. But if there was a message she wanted to get across in the first few weeks, no one has heard it.
Davis-Mullen was able to call upon the mayor to engage her in six debates, with each side choosing three topics. Davis-Mullen said she would choose education, affordable housing and development. A Menino staffer suggested the mayor would choose state tax policy, bankruptcy law and the school loan program.
The attacks on Davis-Mullen have hurt her ability to put together the elements of a decent campaign, including raising money and building a field organization. And they have called into question her character, a critical consideration for voters being asked to favor a challenger over an incumbent.
Nevertheless, it's early. The November election is a full six months off, giving Davis-Mullen lots of time to repair the damage and refocus her campaign. Moreover, she has been through it before. Even before she announced for mayor, she commonly got more bad press than any other city politician. Each of her City Council campaigns has seen her vilified. Each has seen her survive.
The prevailing wisdom, well before the latest onslaught of scandal, was that Davis-Mullen couldn't beat the mayor. Indeed, a poll she took before she entered the race seemed to confirm this. It asked this question: "Would you definitely vote to re-elect Tom Menino (or) would you consider voting for someone else?" Fully 45 percent of those polled said they would re-elect Menino. Just 7 percent said they would not vote for him. Everyone else said they either didn't know or would consider someone else.
Davis-Mullen drew hope from those answers. I wouldn't. On a bad day, I expect that even Tom Menino would say he would consider someone else. But that's not how it plays out when people vote: a good chunk would go for Menino - at least in a conventional race.
But, as the first weeks have shown,
this won't be a conventional race. Back in 1992, Bill Clinton's resilience in
the face of extraordinary attacks against him (who can forget him appearing
with Hillary on "60 Minutes" to defend his marriage?) was oddly
attractive. Unlike other candidates who cut and run when the going got tough,
That's where the comparison with Davis-Mullen rings true. The adjectives one hears in describing her are "feisty" and "tough." If she handles this right - if she is forthright but still ploughs ahead - she may yet be able to turn these days of adversity to her advantage.