Bay State Democrats poised to spend themselves into defeat

There are three Democrats vying for the nomination to run against Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey for the Massachusetts’ governor’s seat in November. One of them is venture capitalist Christopher F. Gabrieli who is already running annoying television commercials here in the state.

Christopher F. Gabrieli, a wealthy venture capitalist who is self-financing most of his campaign for governor, set a $15.36 million spending cap for his Democratic primary campaign yesterday, rejecting a plea from the party chairman to agree to a much lower spending level for the three-way race.

While Gabrieli insisted that he has no intention of spending up to his declared limit, campaign finance specialists say election spending for the entire gubernatorial campaign probably will surpass the record total of $30.6 million set by six campaigns in 2002.

There is zero chance that Gabrieli will get the nomination and the only result of his quixotic campaign will be to weaken the popular Deval Patrick or the politically-connected Thomas Reilly. Be sure to check Hub Politics for all your Massachusetts political news.