Casino Politics Enters U.S. Senate Race

By design, the format at this morning’s “forum” among Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate was not meant to encourage much in the way of sparks – which presented a huge communications challenge for any candidate trying to break through and into the headlines.

Throughout the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast event, candidates stuck mostly to 90-second stump speeches.

So when it came time for closing statements, most in the audience probably weren’t expecting any bombshells. But City Year founder Alan Khazei threw a curveball into what has so far been a predictable campaign and, in the process, raising an issue analysts have said front-runner Martha Coakley is trying to avoid.

Khazei railed against the Chamber for endorsing an expansion of casino gambling in Massachusetts, using the social ails arguments. [Full disclosure, I directed communications for former Speaker DiMasi when he led opposition last year].

Khazei didn’t target anyone else on the stage directly but staked the clear anti-casino ground and sure got the media interested in a hurry. Reporters I spoke to on the way out were abuzz about his comments as the businesspeople left the Chamber forum and the first take up on the wires already leads with Khazei and casinos.

The media interest is predictable.

The casino issue will always be a communications hot button. It has always played more like social issues such as abortion, gay marriage and the death penalty than anything else. It brings with it significant public interest, passionate support and opposition and, let’s face it, reporters and the public get casinos a heck of a lot more than they do Medicare reimbursement rates or economic development strategies.

The under-current to watch, however, is whether Khazei continues this strategy tonight in their first live televised debate (live at 7 p.m. on all Boston TV stations) and whether any of this lands in Coakley’s lap.

The AG has proposed vigorously regulating the casino industry and made her voice known about criminal justice matters related to it but has not forcefully taken sides on either side of the issue beyond that. Casino opponents have tried to call Coakley out and State House observers have suggested that Senate President Therese Murray, a Coakley supporter, shelved the issue in the Legislature this year to keep it off Coakley’s docket before the Senate election.

Some in the audience were shaking their heads at Khazei’s move because casinos are not an issue facing the U.S. Senate and the next Senator really won’t have much of a voice in the debate on Beacon Hill.

All that may be true but Democratic primary voters in Massachusetts care a lot about casinos, and some of the most liberal voters in the state are still furious with other Democrats who have championed casinos – including Governor Deval Patrick. And, as noted above, Khazei is already seeing the PR benefits in getting his so-far largely under-the-radar campaign noticed by the media and the talking heads.

Will this tact make a dent in the December 8 primary? Time will tell. But today’s verbal volley puts Khazei, and casinos, on the map in the Senate race.