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THREE-WAY RACE
On their own: Rivals for governor stress different issuesPatriot Ledger State House Bureau BOSTON - The candidates for governor are racing to define the issues that will dominate the race for governor over the next seven weeks. Democrat Deval Patrick wants the campaign to be about changing the culture on Beacon Hill. Patrick says politicians have been running the state with cheap gimmicks and empty slogans. He calls income tax cuts a “shell game” that have led to higher property taxes and user fees. He tries to stay above the fray, calling political attacks on him “the same-old same-old.” “Kerry Healey, if the best you have is what divides us, let me tell you something I heard from the grass roots all over the commonwealth: we have had enough of that,” Patrick said Tuesday night after winning the Democratic nomination for governor. Independent Christy Mihos, who made his name in politics fighting Big Dig cost overruns, also focuses on changing the status quo, stressing his “unbought and unbossed” campaign theme. “If you want someone who is not beholden to special interests, I’m your man,” Mihos said. Like Patrick, Mihos would rather focus on lowering property taxes than cutting the income tax. He lays out a plan to freeze commercial and residential property taxes at current levels, and ending activity and busing fees at public schools. Republican Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey is targeting three specific issues: income taxes (they’re too high), illegal immigrants (they are too many of them) and criminals (we’re too lax on them). Healey’s get-tough-on-crime proposals include posting Level 2 sex offender addresses and photographs on the Internet, and bringing back the death penalty for the murder of a law enforcement official. Healey used the morning after the primary to release a string of proposals to tighten the state's immigration policies. Included in a 50-point package of policy proposals, Healey calls for timing the expiration of legal immigrants’ driver’s licenses to the lapses of their visas, saying it would prevent people from using state documents to remain here after their federal status changes. Healey also wants “severe penalties for companies that hire illegal aliens,” and to require applicants for publicly subsidized housing to provide citizenship documentation, in contravention of a federal court ruling prohibiting such a requirement. Earlier in the year Healey helped defeat legislation that would have allowed illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at state colleges but drew criticism for suggesting that such students could go to private schools. Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, accuses Healey of playing politics with the issue of undocumented immigrants. Noorani says in-state tuition rates for the children of illegal immigrants would affect just 400 people. And that the state would eventually make money by increasing tuition and fee receipts at colleges. “Immigration is the gay marriage of this election,” Noorani said. “It is the wedge issue.” But immigration reform advocates say the issue has a legitimate place in the debate. “I’m very much upset about all the illegal workers in my town,” said Lorrie Hall of Duxbury, of the Massachusetts Citizens for Immigration Reform. “Young Americans are being put out of work and displaced by foreign workers.” Budget watchers similarly differ on the effect of a reduction of the state income tax from the current 5.3 percent to 5 percent, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2000, only to be frozen by the Legislature two years later. The resulting loss of $700 million in revenues would give an average $200-a-year tax break to residents. Michael Widmer of the watchdog group Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation says Healey would have to cut state spending elsewhere to make up for the loss in revenue. “The property tax is the tax people are really concerned about now,” Widmer said. “It’s gone up much faster than the rate of inflation. So I think the debate is focusing on the wrong tax.” But longtime antitax crusader Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation says it’s high time Beacon Hill lived up to its promise to lower the tax. “It’s not a money issue; it’s an issue of doing what the voters said,” Anderson said. “None of the Democrats are serious about it and none of the Democrats will fight for it the way Kerry Healey did.” Patrick says Healey’s 50-point plan focuses on wedge issues that have nothing to do with improving the quality of life in Massachusetts. “Kerry Healey stood by for four years while jobs and the people who once had them left our state in droves,” said Patrick communications director Richard Chacon. “Clearly, the most important issue facing our state is putting people back to work, and her 50-point plan talks about creating jobs only once.” Tom Benner may be reached at tbenner@ledger.com. |
Gay marriage issue on Healey’s hit list Patriot Ledger State House Bureau BOSTON - Republican Kerry Healey is trumpeting her opposition to gay marriage in a move aimed at drawing clear distinctions between her and the other candidates for governor. Unlike Democrat Deval Patrick, Independent Christy Mihos and Green-Rainbow candidate Grace Ross, Healey supports a proposed constitutional amendment that, if passed by the voters, would outlaw same-sex nuptials in Massachusetts. Lawmakers were careful to postpone the controversial debate over whether to put the initiative on the 2008 ballot until two days after the Nov. 7 election. Healey, the lieutenant governor, was pressing her stance on the issue, the day after Patrick, of Milton, won the Democratic primary. The measure needs 50 votes in the 200-member Legislature, and a second vote in the 2007-08 legislative session, to be placed on the November 2008 ballot. Should voters eventually pass the gay-marriage ban, Healey wants to create Vermont-style unions for same-sex couples, her campaign spokesman, Nate Little, said. “She supports traditional marriage and she supports civil unions,” Little said. Patrick and Ross both want to keep gay marriage on the books. Independent candidate Mihos says he supports the right of citizens to vote on the matter, but he hopes they vote no, because he also supports the right for same-sex couples to marry. “I think people are fair-minded and that they will vote against it,” Mihos said. Gay-rights advocates are touting the results of Tuesday’s primaries as proof that voters are comfortable with same-sex nuptials, which have been legal in Massachusetts for more than two years. Marc Solomon, campaign director for the group MassEquality, noted that eight state legislators who support gay marriage defeated opponents in the primary. In addition, nine retiring lawmakers who oppose gay marriage stand to be replaced by candidates who support it, by MassEquality’s count. “Candidates who support marriage equality win in Massachusetts elections,” Solomon said. “Even in conservative districts where seats were held by strong opponents, pro-equality candidates triumphed.” Among the retiring lawmakers is Rep. Phil Travis, D-Rehoboth, a leader in the push to ban gay marriage. Gay-marriage supporter Steve D’Amico won the Democratic primary in that district. VoteOnMarriage.org, the group pushing to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, predicts that at least 50 lawmakers will vote in November to advance the proposed gay-marriage ban. “VoteOnMarriage.org believes we have the necessary votes to allow the amendment to move forward,” said the group’s spokeswoman, Lisa Barstow. A Patrick campaign spokes-woman did not return a call seeking comment. Ross said she does not see gay marriage as a wedge issue in the governor’s race. “The vast majority of people support extending marriage rights, so it’s hard for me to believe that Healey can play this into anything like a determinant factor,” the Green-Rainbow candidate said. Tom Benner may be reached at tbenner@ledger.com.
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