Somewhere around the start of October, Massachusetts voters were shunted into the electoral Twilight Zone that encloses nearly every election cycle and lasts until the polls close in November. It’s a time and place during which one mayoral candidate has accused another of calling him a lizard, a gubernatorial contender has leered at a debate moderator as she jokingly offers to show off her tattoo, and, in 2010, a Democrat-turned-Independent candidate for governor has sued his former campaign staffers days after his running mate bails and endorses the Republican Party’s nominee.

Against that backdrop, the top three candidates for governor came to Adams Corner on the same day in search of votes. On a bright Sunday afternoon, they waded through the Irish Heritage Festival’s crowd of about 10,000 people from Dorchester, Milton, Quincy, and other nearby neighborhoods and towns.

Inside the Eire Pub, where Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton once dropped by, Republican candidate for governor Charlie Baker and his running mate Richard Tisei served beers from behind the bar.

Seated nearby, former mayor Ray Flynn said Baker, who has reportedly struggled to connect with voters on the campaign trail, was doing well with the crowd. “He got a good reception here,” Flynn said, taking a sip of his beer. “This is the ultimate test. If you survive the Eire Pub, you can survive anything. You can survive Mt. Everest.”

In back of Gerard’s, Gov. Deval Patrick, among the Democratic incumbents who, polls say, face intense voter disappointment amid an economic downturn, eased into handshakes with voters, guided by Democratic state Reps. Marty Walsh and Linda Dorcena Forry and City Councillor Maureen Feeney.
“I think he’s done a good job,” said Mary Kennedy, who lived in the St. Mark’s Parish neighborhood before moving to Peabody. “He’s done his best. That’s all you can do.”

Around the corner from her, Treasurer Timothy Cahill, the former Democrat now running as an Independent, strolled down Adams Street with a beer in hand.

The neighborhood has its share of Democrats, who, like Cahill, probably pulled the lever for Reagan in the 1980s and for Republican Scott Brown, who in January’s U.S. Senate race lost Boston but picked up a few precincts in the Neponset section. (Indeed, they are the type of voter that the Cahill campaign planned to focus on, according to a copy of a contract included in Cahill’s lawsuit charging former staffers with attempting to pass on proprietary information to Baker. “Define Baker among the Republican base very early as a [Republican In Name Only and establish] Cahill as an alternative to Patrick for Reagan Democrats,” the contract read.)

Tina McCleary, originally from Dorchester but now living in Quincy, led Cahill around the Irish festival. Referring to her candidate placing consistently third in the polls, McCleary said Cahill retains support among independent-minded voters. “People say, ‘I don’t let polls dictate who I vote for,’” she said.
“We’re just trying to get as many votes as we can,” Cahill told the Reporter. “This is a natural place for me to get votes.”

At 7 p.m., after Patrick and Baker had left, and as a U2 cover band played on, Cahill was still making his way down the street.

Treasurer, attorney general candidates make use of Wilkerson case in campaigns
Former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson still hasn’t fully paid a fine for campaign finance violations, state Attorney General Martha Coakley acknowledged this week.

The issue surfaced on Sunday during a WBZ-TV debate she had with her Republican opponent, Jim McKenna, who accused Coakley of letting Wilkerson off lightly and leaving the heavy lifting to federal law enforcement officials. Coakley said she levied a $10,000 fine against Wilkerson for campaign finance violations, and was aware the federal government was investigating the Roxbury Democrat when Coakley took office. Coakley noted that Wilkerson is expected to get a tougher sentence at the federal level for her crimes, which she pleaded guilty to earlier this year. Wilkerson, who was arrested in 2008 and resigned from the Senate shortly afterwards, is expected to be sentenced after City Councillor Chuck Turner’s trial wraps up this fall.

“Did you collect the fine?” McKenna asked. “We are attempting to now,” Coakley said. “But that’s not the point. You said we looked the other way while the federal government brought criminal charges. That’s just flat wrong, Jim, and you know it.”

Asked for an elaboration on Coakley’s statement on the fine, Coakley’s office said that Wilkerson had paid $5,000 by the end of 2008.

Wilkerson is prohibited, through a court order, from further fundraising or campaign actions until the balance of the fine is paid.

Melissa Karpinsky, a Coakley spokeswoman, said the attorney general, along with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, obtained an “unprecedented” court order that required Wilkerson to be in compliance with strict campaign finance disclosures and review. “This enforcement action did not give Wilkerson immunity,” Karpinsky said in a statement.

Separately, state Rep. Karyn Polito, a Shrewsbury Republican making a bid for state auditor, this week released an ad that flashes surveillance photos of Wilkerson allegedly stuffing cash into her bra while Polito promises a “whole new approach” and asks, “Have you noticed how greed and self-interest come ahead of doing what’s right for the people?”

Polito, who entered the public employee pension system when she joined the Legislature ten years ago, has promised not to take a pension if elected treasurer and highlights that position in her ad. “Let’s return to a citizen-run government,” she says, “where elected office is a privilege and not a ticket to retirement riches.”

Polito is running against Steve Grossman, the Democratic nominee.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Check out updates to Boston’s political scene at The Lit Drop, located at dotnews.com/litdrop. Material from State House News Service was used in this report.