This weekend marks the end of caucus sessions in deep-blue Boston and elsewhere as Democrats gear up for their June 3 convention in Worcester.

While the caucuses work on picking delegates, who must be registered Democrats, to send to the convention, candidates swarm attendees, or pile into a virtual call to get some face time rather than handshakes and slaps on the back, all in an effort to garner support and momentum.

Darryl Smith chairs one of the city’s 22 Democratic ward committees, No. 14, which includes both Dorchester and Mattapan along the Blue Hill Avenue corridor. His panel is offering a virtual option, coupled with an in-person caucus this Saturday, March 12, at The Guild, 260 Washington St. Doors open at 12 noon and voting starts at 1 p.m.

“The hottest tickets in town are the governor’s race, [attorney general’s] race, and the auditor’s race,” Smith said. “Locally, there’s major interest in the DA’s race, the sheriff’s race, and the Second Suffolk Senate race. There’s going to be a ton of activity.”

The caucuses are an early test of organizing skill for the candidates, though in Dorchester a number of delegates remain unaffiliated heading in and out of the caucus and before they journey to Worcester. Candidates must get 15 percent of convention delegates to get onto the Democratic primary ballot in September.

“Everyone’s willing to listen,” Smith said. “Right now, it’s still open.”

That’s good news for candidates in contested races: State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz is battling Attorney General Maura Healey for the Democratic nomination for governor, with caucus observers saying that delegates have been impressed with Healey.

The two-term attorney general raised $412,500 in February and had $4.2 million in cash on hand at the end of the month, while Chang-Diaz, a Jamaica Plain Democrat first elected in 2008, raised $106,600 and has $351,060 in cash on hand.

“I’ll say from casual conversation, I have a sense that Maura Healey has the upper hand in the governor’s race,” said Ed Cook of Dorchester’s Ward 15, whose Democrats caucused in mid-February.

Healey and Chang-Diaz’s decisions to run for higher office have opened up their seats for the winning, creating additional contested races down ballot. Suzanne Bump’s retirement as auditor has moved state Sen. Diana DiZoglio of Methuen and Chris Dempsey, who years ago helped marshal opposition to the Boston 2024 Olympics, to jump into the race to succeed her. On the attorney general front, former District 4 City Councillor Andrea Campbell is running against labor Shannon Liss-Riordan and Quentin Palfrey, an attorney and 2018 lieutenant governor candidate.

“It’s really going to be incumbent on the candidates to come to caucus and connect back with those delegates and express why they are the best candidate for the seat that’s open,” Smith told the Reporter.

Ward 17 chairperson Joyce Linehan said her caucus saw some competition for its delegates slots, with the Healey campaign putting together a slate of supportive delegates that includes Linehan, who previously served as a top aide to Mayor Marty Walsh in City Hall. She is on Healey’s fundraising committee, and she’s backing Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll for lieutenant governor, and Campbell, a Ward 17 member, for attorney general.

Ward 17 covers parts of Dorchester like Codman Square, Ashmont Hill, Lower Mills and nearby precincts in Mattapan.
Linehan noted that Palfrey has attended Ward 17 get-togethers and Liss-Riordan was scheduled to meet with ward committee members this week, leading her to say, “I don’t think anyone is ceding Ward 17.”

The caucus process has its critics, among them Danielle Allen, a Harvard professor who announced her run for governor in June, raised $1.3 million, and then bowed out mid-way through the caucuses.

“Through both simple math in a winner-takes-all process, and limited engagement access for the broader Democratic electorate, the current ballot access procedure through the current caucus system is leading to a serious impoverishment of our democracy — fewer choices on the ballot, fewer non-traditional candidates able to enter the pipeline,” she said in a statement.

Participants in the caucuses and longtime Democrats point to Deval Patrick, a former civil rights prosecutor, as an example of an outsider candidate who swept the caucuses in 2006 and triumphed over then-Attorney General Tom Reilly. Patrick went on to win Boston in the primary, despite Mayor Thomas Menino support of Reilly.

Ward 15’s Cook called Allen “well-intentioned” and said he hopes she stays involved in politics. But he questioned “the idea that a Harvard professor can just walk onto the stage and compete with people who have spent years telling people, showing people who they are, what they stand for, and have a record of some kind. He added: “I’ve never figured out what she was selling.”

Linehan said she is sympathetic to Allen’s situation, but added: “I also think it’s really important that Democrats recapture the office,” she said, after eight years of Republican Gov. Baker. A strong “ground game” is needed to do that, according to Linehan, and the caucuses serve as a practice run of the type of organization a candidate is able to build.

Dorchester state Rep. Dan Hunt, whose 28-member Ward 16 Democratic Ward Committee elected 17 delegates, agreed. Pointing to the threshold of 15 percent of convention delegates, Hunt said, “If you can’t get there, you’re not going to be successful in September.”

Ward 16 held its caucus inside Florian Hall on Sat., Feb. 26, with a virtual option available. Candidates for lieutenant governor worked the room for signatures, while others, like Tanisha Sullivan, who is challenging longtime incumbent Bill Galvin for the post of secretary of state, called in virtually. Galvin appeared in person.

Elected officials who are not on ballot this year also swung through Florian Hall and other caucuses across the city. For Michelle Wu, who was elected and sworn into office four months ago with 64 percent of the citywide vote, it was enemy territory. Florian Hall is the headquarters of the Firefighters union Local 718, which is challenging her vaccine mandate in court, and Ward 16 was one of the few wards she lost to mayoral contender Annissa Essaibi George.

Wu came in as Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins was speaking to the Ward 16 crowd. Tompkins, who is facing a challenge from former staffer Sandy Zamor Calixte, made his pitch and said that he had considered running for mayor himself, but felt he has unfinished business in the sheriff’s office. He backed Wu in the mayoral election.

Hunt, getting up to introduce Wu, good-naturedly said it was a good thing Tompkins didn’t try out for City Hall. “Michelle would have cleaned your clock, too,” he quipped.