Deval Patrick, struggling in the low single digits in polls, is brushing off critics who say he doesn’t have a clear path to the nomination less than 60 days out from the New Hampshire primary.
“You talking about polls? Who cares about polls,” Patrick responded to reporters. “The polls that matter are when people vote.
“People keep saying, ‘You know, what about being late?’ I’m not late. I’m later. I’m not late. You know, I’m not late until the voters vote,” he added. “And the sooner that the voters understand and appreciate that, pundits and pollsters don’t get to say what the outcome is likely to be — we, we, all of us voters get to say what the outcome is going to be. And until they have decided that with their vote, I have a fighting chance and I’m going for every one.”
The path “we knew was there is wider,” Patrick said.
The former Massachusetts governor, who spoke at the Unite for Mental Health New Hampshire Town Hall at St. Anselm College in Manchester Monday, has had trouble garnering more than 1 percent in recent polls after jumping in at the 11th hour.
“He got in the game in a little late. We really haven’t heard very much about him here,” said Hanover resident Suzanne Martin, 68, eating dinner at the Airport Diner in Manchester.
“There’s just a saturation of candidates,” she said, adding she thinks Patrick’s chances are “slim.”
Pollster John Zogby said it’s “almost impossible” to see a path for Patrick in the primary.
Despite being the former governor of a neighboring state, Patrick is struggling with name recognition, Zogby said. The former Massachusetts governor would need former Vice President Joe Biden to “fail miserably” in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“Patrick did come from nowhere and wowed people when he ran for governor, but I’m not sure he has the audience right now to do that in the primary,” he added.
UNH pollster Andrew Smith said, “There are four candidates at the top with money and name recognition already in place. Without money and name recognition, it’s very hard for him.”
“Maybe he thought he was filling a void in this race, but the fact is there really is no void,” said UNH professor Dante Scala. “I don’t think he has an especially plausible path.”
But Franklin Pierce University pollster R. Kelly Myers said Patrick’s chances could be “pretty good” — if his friend former President Barack Obama chooses to weigh in on the primary and backs him.
“He’s following Barack Obama’s footsteps, and those are pretty big and pretty powerful,” Myers said. “He can draw the voters that Obama attracted.”
