Metro
THE BOSTON GLOBE MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/METROB
Seth Moulton has
been a busy man.
The North Shore
congressman has
been crisscrossing
the early presiden-
tial-primary states
like any of the via-
ble candidates. Just
last week, he hit Cedar Rapids and Des
Moines, before heading to Weare, Ex-
eter, and Hillsborough in New Hamp-
shire. He ate corn dogs and ice cream.
And America ignored him — as it
has, resolutely, since he announced his
candidacy in April.
Inpollafterpollafterpoll,Moulton
has registered at zero percent. Yes, zero.
The same number your dog or cat
would poll. Yet the Harvard-educated
US Marine Corps veteran soldiers on.
He has not approached any of the
benchmarks for getting onto the over-
crowded Democratic debate stage.
Is this any way to waste a perfectly
good summer?
Don’t get me wrong; I respect Moult-
on as a political talent. He ran a fine
campaign in taking out longtime in-
cumbent John Tierney. He’s obviously
smart, driven, and ambitious.
But his presidential bid always puz-
zled me. It came on the heels of a disas-
trously inept campaign to push out
Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House.
He was the 20th candidate to enter the
field. By then, he was, in essence, Just
Another White Guy. He has garnered
even less support than John Hicken-
looper, who got out, or Steve Bullock,
who’s on the way out, or that congress-
man from California whose name never
sticks in my head (Eric Swalwell, who’s
out.)
Just months ago, Moulton was formi-
dable. Since the moment he was elected
to Congress, rumors swirled about him.
There was talk that he would demolish
Ed Markey head-to-head in a US Senate
race. Or that he would be a strong can-
didate for governor, even though he has
never expressed the slightest interest in
beinggovernor.
Instead, he led a doomed crusade
against Pelosi — without actually run-
ning against her — and now here he is,
at the obvious low point of his formerly
gilded political career, stuck in a race he
doesn’t even register in.
Why not pack it in? Or, rather, when
does he pack it in?
“My experience working with candi-
dates is that they’re the last ones to
know,” said Democratic strategist and
pollster Brad Bannon. “They’ve invested
all their time and energy and money in-
to running for president, and they have
a hard time admitting that they’ve
failed.”
I wanted to ask Moulton about the
future of his faltering campaign last
week, but was told that he didn’t have
time to get on the phone, given his
packed schedule in Iowa and New
Hampshire.
But he’s a smart man, and it isn’t as
though he can’t read a poll. He has to
know this isn’t happening.
With his glittering résumé, good
looks, and moderate politics, Moulton
always seemed to view himself as a man
headed for big, big things. That soaring
ambition is now part of his undoing.
America simply doesn’t see what he sees
when he looks in the mirror. Heaven
knows, he’s not the first presidential
candidate to pull into Iowa or New
Hampshire and discover he isn’t as pop-
ular or as famous as he thought he was.
Running for president was a premature
— make that a rash — move.
Moulton clearly isn’t going to be our
next president, so what’s next? He has
always treated the job he has like a step-
pingstone to his true destiny, and voters
tend to resent that. His time as a con-
gressman could be done.
It certainly isn’t too late to jump into
the 2020 Senate race against Markey,
but will voters believe he really wants
the job? He’s probably a weaker candi-
date than he would have been six
months ago.
What happens to politicians who
reach for the big brass ring and end up
flailing? That didn’t seem like a ques-
tion Seth Moulton would ever have to
ponder. He’s soon going to have a lot of
time to think about it.
_Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He
can be reached at
[email protected]. Or follow
him on Twitter @adrianwalker.
Thelost
summer
Adrian Walker
By James Pindell
GLOBE STAFF
Less than six months before the
New Hampshire primary, presiden-
tial candidates are visiting the state
increasingly often, with more than a
dozen Democrats — plus President
Trump — making trips over last
week and this one ahead.
Welcome to the part of the cam-
paign that political scientists call
“the invisible primary.” Historically,
long before voters cast their ballots,
campaigns are jockeying to compete
in polling, fund-raising, staff organi-
zation, and local endorsements.
Granted, some of these metrics
of early success have changed for- For example, campaigns are
focused on unique individual contri-
butions instead of the total sum
raised, because that’s one of the
Democratic National Committee’s
thresholds to participate in debates.
And, separately, thanks to techno-
logical advances, a campaign needs
fewer boots on the ground because
of the increasing pervasiveness of
social media.
But some of the more traditional
metrics still matter at this stage in a
campaign, including showing up in
the early nominating states, build-
ing a strong campaign organization,
and the ability to lure independent
voters (an X-factor in New Hamp-
shire, where primaries are open to
them). There’s also the candidates’
home-state advantage, as well as
how they fare in what Democrats
have said is their No.1 criteria for a
nominee — someone who can defeat
Trump.
The latest Suffolk University/
Boston Globe poll found a top tier of
candidates had emerged in the New
Hampshire contest: former vice
president Joe Biden, Senator Bernie
Sanders of Vermont, and Senator
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
And then there is everyone else (yes,
all 20 of them).
With that in mind, here is how
those three candidates stack up in
New Hampshire in each of these key
metrics.
Showingup
Since candidates must rack up
their unique donations to make the
CANDIDATES,PageB
InN.H.
race,who
willgain
theedge?
Biden, Warren, and
Sanders in top tier
Organization and
electability are keys
By Abigail Feldman and Jeremy C. Fox
GLOBE CORRESPONDENTSA
s hundreds packed a narrow North End street Sunday
night, an ethereal figure floated from a third-floor win-
dow, continuing a tradition that has lasted more than a
century.
After months of preparation, 10-year-old Victoria Car-
regal of Peabody completed the annual Flight of the An-
gel, a custom in her family for generations.
Many cheered, “Go Victoria!” as the child, dressed in flowing gowns of
blue and white speckled with gold stars, glided toward a statue of the festi-
val’s saint.
With a final, “Viva la Madonna
del Soccorso!” she rose into the air,
arms held aloft, as pillars of con-
fetti burst from the street below.
“I loved it,” said observer Joan-
na Mayo. “The whole thing was
wonderful.”
The angel’s flight, facilitated by
a safety harness, traditionally sig-
nals the finale of the North End’s
annual Fisherman’s Feast honor-
ing the Madonna del Soccorso,
whose likeness is borne through
the streets of the North End dur-
ing the four-day festival.
In taking the role of the Flying
Angel, Victoria follows in the foot-
steps of her great-grandmother
Anna Campo, who recently died
at 95, according to Carregal’s aunt, Justine Fialkosky.
“I feel honored,” Victoria said in a phone interview Sunday afternoon. “A
lot of my ancestors, my aunts, and grandparents did it.”
Victoria’s cousin, Sophia Fialkosky, of Newton, filled the role last year.
Victoria worked months on perfecting her lines, in which she asks the
Madonna to protect the fishermen of her ancestors’ village, according to Fi-
alkosky. To make sure the prayer is just right, Italian-speaking members of
ANGEL,PageBA NORTH END
FLIGHT PATH
Peabody girl takes delight in her role
in annual Fisherman’s Feast ritual
By Alison Kuznitz
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
CAMBRIDGE — A new type of
wearable robotic technology could
one day give ordinary people the
power to finish a marathon in less
than two hours.
But before achieving that feat, a
team at Harvard and the Universityof Nebraska Omaha needed to per-
fect its latest version of an exosuit to
make it easier for a person wearing it
to walk and run efficiently.
Previous exosuits could only
identify a single gait — walking or
running — but not both, said re-
searchers. They lacked the ability to
smoothly transition between stroll-
ing and sprinting without breaking
stride.
“This is a milestone for the field,”
said Jinsoo Kim, the co-first-authorof the study published Thursday in
Science, an academic journal. “It
highlights the potential of the sys-
tem for everyday activities, not just
one activity in the lab.”
The new exosuit is intended to
help soldiers and first-responders
who are working under strenuous
situations, said Kim, an engineering
graduate student at Harvard. The
technology could potentially allevi-
ate fatigue incurred while traveling
distances or carrying heavy loads, re-searchers predict.
“When you wear it, you forget
you’re wearing it,” said Ignacio Gali-
ana, one of the robotics engineers in-
volved in the study. He likened the
device to power-steering systems
that drivers often take for granted.
The new exosuit is made of a
lightweight fabric and includes a
thigh wrap and waist belt, which
weaves together an intricate web of
cables. The electric motor and a con-
EXOSUIT,PageBExosuit gives users robotics-assisted stamina
Aim is to assist first
responders, soldiers
Gun rally
Hundreds of demonstrators
backing tougher national
gun control laws rallied Sun-
day afternoon at Boston City
Hall Plaza to demand that
federal lawmakers expand
background checks. The ral-
ly was one of many nation-
wide this weekend spon-
sored by Moms Demand Ac-
tion for Gun Sense in
America.BUrban League
After nearly two decades,
Darnell Williams, executive
director of the Urban
League of Eastern Massa-
chusetts, is stepping down at
the end of September, orga-
nization officials said.BBy Bryan Marquard
GLOBE STAFF
Amid the caverns of culture inside her shop Disk’overy,
customers often heard Yolanda Stratter’s voice before she
emerged from an aisle, too short to be seen among the tower-
ing piles of books and racks of vinyl records.
“She would greet you — ‘Hi, sweetie.’ She called everyone
sweetie,” said Margaret O’Connell, one of many in Allston
who started out as a customer and became a longtime friend.
“Even though she was a brilliant woman, she could not re-
member names, so everyone was ‘sweetie.’ ”
Ms. Stratter, who was 78 when she died July 23 of pancre-
atic cancer that had spread, did more than just turn her shop
into an inviting, iconic place to peruse used albums, books,
STRATTER,PageBGo in for a book, go out with a friendship
Her shop was neighborhood glue
YOLANDA STRATTER1941-
MIKE POWERS/
Yolanda Stratter, with her cat, was the proprietor
of Disk’overy in Allston, then Brighton, for decades.PHOTOS BY NIC ANTAYA FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
Supported by a safety harness, Victoria Carregal, the Fisherman Feast’s “angel,’’ descended
Sunday evening during the Flight of the Angel as part of the annual North End festival.In preparation for her flight, Victoria had her
makeup applied by Stoneham’s Dianna Solimine.