As Bain Capital co-founder Mitt Romney spends his final months as Massachusetts governor mulling a run for the White House, another financier has his eye on Romney’s job. Chris Gabrieli, a 46-year-old venture capitalist, last month entered the race for the Democratic candidacy in November’s gubernatorial election. Gabrieli spent 15 years at Bessemer Venture Partners, mostly funding health care start-ups, before leaving in 2001 to chair Massachusetts 2020, a nonprofit group that supports after-school programs. Four years ago he joined Ironwood Capital, a small Avon, Connecticutbased firm that invests in New England businesses.
“My background is an enormous positive because it allows me to offer a track record of proven results and accomplishments,” Gabrieli says, citing the jobs that his investing activities have helped to create in and around the state.
But Gabrieli needs to close a substantial gap between himself and the two front-runners in the Democratic primary, scheduled for September. Deval Patrick, a former general counsel of Texaco and Coca-Cola and an assistant attorney general in the Clinton administration, last month had the support of 36 percent of likely Democratic voters, according to polling firm SurveyUSA. State Attorney General Tom Reilly was close behind with 31 percent. Gabrieli registered just 19 percent.
Whoever winds up with the nomination faces a tough contest in the general election against popular lieutenant governor and Romney loyalist Kerry Healey. She won her job by defeating Gabrieli, who was then the Democratic nominee, in 2002.
