Jamie Eldridge Is Going to Endorse Don Berwick for Governor

State senator Jamie Eldridge will endorse Don Berwick for governor on Friday, joining fellow progressive leader Sonia Chang-Diaz, who endorsed Berwick last month.

“I really have great respect for Don Berwick and the strong progressive positions he’s taken on key issues,” Eldridge told me today. He specifically cites Berwick’s support for single-payer health care, progressive state income tax, and a carbon tax to address climate change.

Eldridge also praised Berwick’s managerial experience; but the importance of endorsements from Eldridge and Chang-Diaz, as well as state representative Denise Provost, is the message it sends to liberals who disproportionately populate the state’s Democratic convention-goers and primary voters.

Eldridge says that his observations at caucuses so far suggests that Berwick has “a strong likelihood to reach the 15 percent threshhold” at the state convention this spring, to qualify for the primary ballot. Endorsements from liberal leaders like Eldridge and Chang-Diaz should help make that happen.