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RPCV Doyle aims to be ‘good soldier’ for Democratic Party
RPCV Doyle aims to be ‘good soldier’ for Democratic Party
Doyle aims to be ‘good soldier’ for Democratic Party
By Brian Tumulty
Press-Gazette Washington bureau
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BOSTON — Gov. Jim Doyle will join other Democratic governors Wednesday in Fenway Park for an outdoor reception under the shadow of the famous left-field wall known as the Green Monster.
He’ll also go to many of the other events sponsored by the Democratic Governors Association, such as Wednesday night’s party at Ned Devine’s Irish Pub, today’s lunchtime New England Clam Bake at the University of Massachusetts and a policy forum.
The parties Doyle will attend are among the many events corporate donations are bankrolling to wine and dine delegates and other activists at the Democratic National Convention.
“That is kind of the way business is done around both conventions over the last 20 or 30 years,” Doyle told reporters Monday at a delegation breakfast paid for by We Energies.
Democrats and the Republicans, who will hold their national convention in New York at the end of August, use the events to reward and energize party activists for the final push leading up to Election Day.
The Center for Responsive Politics, an independent Washington watchdog group, lists 20 major corporations that have donated millions of dollars to both conventions, including AT&T, Coca-Cola, IBM and Microsoft.
As a first-term governor, Doyle says he’ll do whatever and go wherever the party asks.
“I’m content to be a good soldier here,” he said. “I want to do anything I can to help John Kerry be elected president of the United States.”
During the Democratic primary, Doyle kept publicly neutral and held forums with Kerry and his competitors.
But the governor noted he’s been a Kerry supporter since 1972. While attending Harvard Law School in nearby Cambridge, Doyle worked on Kerry’s failed Democratic primary campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rich Judge, Wisconsin director of the Kerry campaign, said he’s pleased by Doyle’s cooperation. Doyle joined Kerry during a bus trip through northwest Wisconsin earlier this month, Judge said.