AMHERST — An Amherst School Committee member who served in state government during Deval Patrick’s tenure is in Ohio this week working on the former Massachusetts governor’s fledgling presidential campaign.
“I’m organizing volunteers and helping us to get set up across the state of Ohio, and to build support,” Eric Nakajima said on Friday as he was driving near Cleveland.
But Nakajima, chairman of the Amherst Regional School Committee, said his immediate focus is on collecting enough signatures so Patrick’s name can appear on the primary ballot alongside other Democrats running for president.
Because of his late entry into the race last month, Patrick has been playing catch up in many of the early primary states. The deadline for candidates to have their names on Ohio’s March 17 ballot is Dec. 18.
Nakajima was the director of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute and a leader of Patrick’s housing and economic development team.
His efforts to get signatures in Ohio comes the same week that Patrick campaign officials announced that the candidate would likely be kept off the Michigan primary ballot barring, as campaign manager Abe Rakov put it, an “onerous number” of signatures needed to collect. Other candidates were able to access the ballot by simply making the request to state officials.
Nakajima said his work on Ohio will continue for the next several days, and that he otherwise remains committed to serving on the Amherst School Committee, observing he is excited Amherst was selected to begin going through the Massachusetts School Building Authority process for a new elementary school.
Politico’s Massachusetts Playbook reported Thursday that Nakajima would also be among several Patrick alumni, including former deputy chief of staff Sydney Asbury, former press secretary Alex Goldstein and former campaign field director Clare Kelly, co-hosting a campaign fundraiser at the Central Wharf Co. in Boston on Monday.
Though he has deep ties to the Pioneer Valley, including graduating from Amherst Regional High School in 1985, Nakajima is no stranger to Ohio. Many of his relatives have made the Buckeye state their home and he spent many summers and holidays on his mother’s family farm in the town of Otway.
“My family are Ohioans going back generations,” Nakajima said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
