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| Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick speaks to children, including Manuella Pedroza, 8, second from left, Sarah Ayemere, 8, third from left, and Alexis Regan, 7, right, at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Lowell. | Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey listens to Christiana Minardi, 13, of Bolton, while touring the Sawyer Middle School in Bolton on Friday during a campaign stop timed to coincide with the school’s mock presidential election in which Minardi is a candidate. |
Healey defends aide’s
work
on behalf of rapist
Associated Press
/ Oct. 28, 2006
BOLTON - Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who hammered Democrat Deval Patrick for his work on behalf of a convicted rapist who claimed his innocence, said Friday that it was irrelevant that her own administration employed a lawyer who also represented the convict.
Judith Goldberg represented Benjamin LaGuer at a failed 2000 Parole Board hearing, and also fought for a DNA test that LaGuer argued would clear him of the 1983 rape of a 59-year-old neighbor.
Goldberg later became deputy legal counsel in the Romney-Healey administration and currently works as a lawyer for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, the Boston Herald reported.
Healey has argued Patrick is both “soft on crime” and favors criminals over victims for similar efforts to win parole for LaGuer, as well as for contributing $5,000 toward the DNA test. The test later confirmed LaGuer’s guilt.
“I’ve never argued that people who are defendants don’t deserve representation,” the lieutenant governor told reporters after touring a local school. “Ms. Goldberg is not running for governor.”
Patrick visited a Boys and Girls Club in a crime-plagued section of Lowell on Friday. He said he wants to add police officers on the street to make neighborhoods safe.
“Gun and gang violence are rising in urban communities all over the commonwealth,” he said. “Things have got to change. We want to be the agents of that change.”
Patrick declined to comment on Goldberg’s involvement in the LaGuer case.
Meanwhile, Healey said she is undaunted by recent polls showing her trailing Patrick by roughly 32 points. She said polls on the eve of the 2002 primary election showed her in a dead heat with her opponent, James Rappaport. One day later, she beat Rappaport by 28 points.
Healey’s only public appearance on Friday was a visit to the Sawyer Middle School in Bolton, where she praised the students’ interest in current events. One asked her if the four gubernatorial candidates “really dislike each other as much as it looks like they do.”
Healey replied, “I don’t think so. It’s really a question of competing ideas, not personalities. I can tell you that personally, I have no animosity toward my opponents.”
Patrick held a fundraiser Friday morning in New York City attended by Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in New York. He later returned to Massachusetts to talk about public safety issues in Lowell and Haverhill.
Healey, Patrick and the two other gubernatorial candidates, independent Christy Mihos and Grace Ross of the Green-Rainbow Party, were scheduled to hold their final debate next Wednesday, but on Friday agreed to a 90-minute debate Nov. 3 at UMass-Dartmouth.
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Absent governor shows up with warning
Romney decries the dangers of 1-party government
Associated Press
/ Oct. 27, 2006
BOSTON - Gov. Mitt Romney, largely absent from the governor’s race, reached out to Independent voters by warning them that taxes would rise and businesses would avoid the state if Deval Patrick was elected and joined a State House already dominated by Democrats.
“The two-party system works,” the Republican chief executive said in his pitch to unenrolled voters, who account for 49.51 percent of the Bay State electorate. “Even in Palestine they have Hamas and Fatah.”
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Associated Press |
Gov. Mitt Romney |
Romney also tried to buck up his 2002 running mate, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who is vying to succeed him, by branding his fellow Republican as “smart,” “knowledgeable,” “well-spoken” and “a fighter.”
“She is a truly remarkable candidate for governor,” Romney said during a news conference he said was held at the request of Healey’s campaign staff. The most recent poll showed the lieutenant governor trailing Patrick by 27 points.
“I think she’s been underestimated over the past two or three years or longer. Deval Patrick is a fine person, but philosophically, he’s a Mike Dukakis liberal,” the governor said.
Patrick, speaking later across town, jabbed at Romney’s frequent out-of-state travels, saying, “Most of the time the governor’s out of town; most of the time Kerry Healey’s out of touch. What’s the difference?”
“I’m not running to be the governor of the Democrats,” he said. “I’m running to be the governor of the whole state. And that means taking the best ideas from wherever they come. We need to be about problem-solving and not just partisanship.”
Healey has largely avoided big-name surrogate campaigners. She avoided all media coverage when she attended a fundraiser with Vice President Dick Cheney last month, and she has not received the help of any popular Republicans such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., or former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Even Romney’s involvement was suspect, given the same poll that showed her trailing Patrick said her negative rating was exceeded only by Romney’s. He was at 54 percent; she was at 53 percent.
Nonetheless, the governor harkened back to a theme from his own campaign four years ago, when he warned the state against electing Democrat Shannon O’Brien by raising the specter of a “gang of three” taking control of Beacon Hill if there were a governor, House speaker and Senate president all from the same party.
Electing Patrick, Romney said, would be detrimental to the state because CEOs would be fearful of locating in a place with such unbalanced leadership, taxes would rise without the check of a Republican opposed to them, and Massachusetts would lose support from the Republican administration in Washington.
“If Massachusetts were to elect a Democratic governor, it would have truly succumbed to one-party rule,” he said, noting the Democratic hold on both U.S. Senate seats, all 10 House seats, 87 percent of the Legislature and constitutional offices such as attorney general and secretary of state.
“It would mean that all debates are held behind closed doors,” Romney added.
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Sharp words as homestretch beckons
Healey insists she has time to makeupground
Ledger State House Bureau / Oct. 26, 2006
BOSTON - Trailing in the polls and seeking to soften her image, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey emerged from last night’s gubernatorial debate claiming that she still can beat Democrat Deval Patrick on Nov. 7.
“The race is just starting,” Healey said. “Listen, 13 days is an eternity in politics.”
“Well if it is, good thing,” Patrick said, “because she’s been responsible for the nastiest, most negative campaign that many of us can remember here in Massachusetts. What people want and what they deserve is a dignified exchange of views, even if we differ.”
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Associated Press |
| Gubernatorial candidates Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and Deval Patrick get ready before the debate in Boston. |
Patrick, Healey, Independent Christy Mihos and Green-Rainbow candidate Grace Ross held their third of four debates at CBS4-TV studios.
Mihos said Healey’s negative campaigning has cost her so much good will among voters that she cannot win the election, and touts himself as the best alternative.
“We’ve got a shot at this thing, nothing happens with an independent campaign until the last eight to 10 days,” Mihos said. “I’m coming on, I’m coming on.”
Ross said she will continue in her efforts to steer the campaign dialogue toward issues that matter to low-and moderate-income residents. She continues to chide Healey for championing an income tax cut that she says will benefit the wealthiest residents.
“It’s very hard to get them to actually focus on the needs of everybody,” Ross said. “They keep talking about the taxpayers that they want to give the money back to, but they don’t look at the taxpayers who aren’t paying the same as the rest of us, and I assume it’s because they’re folks like them.”
Healey did not mention in last night’s debate her past attacks on Patrick for defending an accused rapist’s right to a fair trial, and for representing an cop killer while working as a defense lawyer.
But she did continue to accuse Patrick of being soft on illegal immigration and of planning to raise taxes, and baited him for not knowing what percentage of the state budget goes toward local aid, and for not remembering on the spot how he voted on a 2000 ballot question calling for an income tax cut. She also paid Mihos a backhanded compliment for his proposal to freeze commercial and residential property taxes at current levels.
“What we’re seeing is a lack of specifics,” Healey said. “I’m the only candidate in this race who actually has a plan that’s been laid out for the future of the commonwealth. I have 50 new ideas for Massachusetts, Christy has one, and so far Deval has zero.”
Healey also acknowledged slipping in opinion polls. A WHDH-TV/Suffolk University poll released Tuesday shows frontrunner Patrick leading Healey by 53 to 26 percent, after narrowing the gap earlier in the month.
“All around the State House this week, there has just been a buzz, which is, ‘You know, we’re so excited that Deval Patrick will be our next governor, because he is going to be a rubber stamp for every single spending proposal that we have,’” Healey said.
Patrick faulted Healey for proposing to curb local police chiefs’ authority to grant or refuse handgun carrying permits and for proposing to make it easier for ex-cons to get a firearms license.
“The notion of taking that deciding authority away from people who are closest to those who are making those applications, who know the community, I think is a mistake and I think most police chiefs do as well,” Patrick said.
Patrick also criticized Healey and Gov. Mitt Romney for this week’s revelation that Big Dig project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff was hired to investigate shoddy workmanship on the well-over-budget $14.6 billion project.
“If that is not an example of failed leadership and failed oversight, I don’t know what is,” Patrick said.
Patrick also returned Healey’s charge that he is soft on illegal immigration, saying the Romney-Healey administration has failed to weed out state contractors who hire undocumented workers.
“Your administration has been giving millions of dollars in contracts to construction companies who do this very thing,” he said. “The question, I think, is, who’s in charge? When are you going to take responsibility for that?”
Mihos also chided Healey over the state’s failure to reduce the income tax to 5 percent.
“You’ve been there for 3½ years, you can’t get anything done,” Mihos told Healey, saying an average income tax cut of $150 pales in comparison to school and user fee hikes raised by the current administration.
The final debate before Election Day takes place at New England Conservatory on Nov. 1.
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Hillman: No licenses for illegals
GOP candidate joins Hedlund at press conference
The Patriot Ledger / Oct. 26, 2006
PLYMOUTH - With Republican Kerry Healey behind in the polls with the election only 12 days away, her camp is hammering Democratic candidate Deval Patrick’s position regarding illegal aliens.
Lieutenant governor candidate Reed Hillman, Healey’s running mate, says Massachusetts should stick with its policy of not giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.
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The Patriot Ledger |
Reed Hillman |
He also says state universities and subsidized-housing agencies should screen for illegal aliens.
“People who are here illegally should not be rewarded with taxpayer-subsidized in-state tuition rates at our universities and colleges or benefit from subsidized housing,” Hillman said during a press conference with state Sen. Robert Hedlund, R-Weymouth, yesterday at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility.
Hillman said driver’s licenses would give illegal aliens the appearance of legality and allow them to board airplanes, collect welfare, vote, and qualify for in-state tuition.
Patrick has said he favors issuing driver’s licenses to illegals, arguing that having photo identification with an address would be better than nothing.
Hillman, a former State Police colonel, says illegal aliens would not give their real names and addresses for fear of being arrested in a crackdown.
Patrick favors granting in-state tuition to illegal aliens. If a student has obeyed the rules, he or she should not be punished just because their parents brought them into the country illegally, he has said.
Patrick spokesman Libby DeVecchi says the Romney-Healey record on immigration is dismal and that the administration gave lucrative state contracts to companies that hired undocumented workers.
Hedlund, running against Democrat Stephen Lynch of Marshfield, says the state should screen applicants for subsidized housing.
“We have 100,000 residents on the waiting list for subsidized housing,” Hedlund said. “Federal housing officials are allowed to screen for illegals, but the state is not. I think our law should mirror the federal housing law.”
Hedlund also thinks driver’s licenses should be required for registering a car.
Illegals can now purchase, register and insure a car without a valid driver’s license, he said.
The penalty for driving without a license is a $100 fine, and some towns do not even bother to prosecute, he said.
Hedlund says there are an estimated 5,000 illegal aliens in Weymouth.
Tamara Race can be reached at trace@ledger.com
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Cellucci: Keeping a Republican in corner office can maintain a two-party system
BSC's Canadian Studies Program sponsored the half-day conference, which also included a panel of U.S. and Canadian representatives.
Enterprise special correspondent / Oct. 26, 2006
BROCKTON — Former Gov. Paul A. Cellucci, during a visit to Brockton on Wednesday, weighed in on the hotly contested governor's race, saying voters should keep a Republican in the corner office on Beacon Hill to help maintain a two-party system in the state.
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J. KIELY JR./THE ENTERPRISE |
| Former United States Ambassador to Canada and former Massachusetts Gov. A. Paul Cellucci speaks at length about North American trade relations between the United States and Canada, as well as tourism, as the keynote speaker in the Bridgewater State College Canadian Studies Program seminar titled “Trade, Tourism and the Border,” which was held at the Shaw’s Center in Brockton on Oct. 25. |
“It's very dangerous for Massachusetts to go back to a one-party government,” Cellucci said in a brief interview before giving a speech on trade at the Shaw's Center.
Cellucci said he has helped with fundraisers and events for Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who is running for governor on the GOP ticket, and despite her trailing in the polls to Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Deval Patrick, Cellucci is hoping she will come out on top in the Nov. 7 election.
“I think Kerry Healey's trying to swim against the tide,” he said. “I hope she can make it.”
A key issue in the race has been so-called negative ads in which Healey portrays Patrick as soft on crime. Cellucci said battling over ads is not unusual.
“Every year they complain about negativity in ads,” he said in the interview. “It's part of political life. You've got to define your opponent and define yourself.”
If Patrick does win, Cellucci predicted he will run into problems.
“He's going to have a very tough time holding the lid on spending and taxes,” he said.
At the conference on “Trade, Tourism and the Border,” Dana Mohler-Faria, president of Bridgewater State College, introduced Cellucci, the former U.S. ambassador to Canada, as the breakfast's keynote speaker.
“This is a great occasion for Bridgewater and for southeastern Massachusetts,” Mohler-Faria said.
BSC's Canadian Studies Program sponsored the half-day conference, which also included a panel of U.S. and Canadian representatives and a luncheon speech by Neil Le Blanc, Canadian consul general to New England.
Cellucci spoke about the trade relationship between the United States and Canada.
“The jobs that result from these trade relationships are what puts food on the table,” Cellucci said.
Cellucci said he believes trade will get even better because of Canada's “smart border,” with enough law enforcement and intelligence agencies on both sides to protect both countries from terrorism. He also touched upon the United States acquiring crude oil from Canada.
“A lot of people don't realize this,” he said, “but we get a lot more crude oil from Canada than from Saudi Arabia.”
Cellucci said that in addition to trade, tourism between the two countries will continue to grow.
He said he opposes building a 700-mile fence to close off the border of Mexico and said there should be labor mobility. That would mean any citizen of Mexico, Canada or the United States would have the freedom to work in any of the three countries.
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Healey hedges on LNG terminal off Hull
South Shore pols blast governor hopeful
Patriot Ledger State House Bureau / Oct. 25, 2006
BOSTON - Kerry Healey’s supportive words for building an LNG terminal two miles off the coast of Hull have drawn a barrage of criticism. A Healey spokeswoman now says the Republican gubernatorial candidate still thinks it’s the best plan she’s seen, but would not sign a bill to make it happen, if she is elected governor.
South Shore lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have been criticizing Healey since her comments last week on the proposal of a private company to site a liquefied natural gas terminal on Outer Brewster Island in Boston Harbor.
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LISA BÜL/The Patriot Ledger |
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey |
“This is a very unpopular project,” said Sen. Robert Hedlund, a Weymouth Republican and a Healey campaign supporter. “In the Legislature, it’s a disgusting, blatant special-interest bill for one company being pushed by a group of mercenaries.”
Hedlund and other South Shore officials have been fuming since Healey told The Patriot Ledger’s editorial board last week that the proposal by energy giant AES. Corp., of Arlington, Va., to site an LNG terminal in the state and federal harbor islands park is the best of four LNG proposals under consideration in Massachusetts.
Healey said last week: “Of all of the various proposals to expand access to LNG, that one seems to be one that is least damaging to the fishing industry, the least problematic from a public safety standpoint.”
“The Brewster Island proposal has the virtue of not being around a population center and not being in a fishing ground,” Healey said. “Does that mean it’s my favorite? It means that it’s the least objectionable of the four proposals which I have seen so far.”
A Healey spokeswoman, Amy Lambiaso, said yesterday the lieutenant governor calls the Outer Brewster proposal “the least objectionable,” but stops short of endorsing it.
“While she finds this proposal to be the least objectionable of those currently on the table, if a bill authorizing this project ultimately came to her desk as governor, she would not sign it,” Lambiaso said.
Calls to Healey yesterday for further comment on her position were not immediately returned.
Hedlund and other South Shore officials maintain Healey is on the wrong side of the issue, saying the fishing industry, the environment, and a state and national recreation area would be threatened by an LNG terminal on Outer Brewster.
“She has absolutely no idea what she’s talking about regarding Outer Brewster,” said Rep. Garrett Bradley, a Hingham Democrat. “She could not have looked at this issue with any depth to say Outer Brewster is the least objectionable.”
Bradley said another proposal to site LNG terminals 10 miles off the coast of Gloucester is less of a threat than proposals to site terminals either in Fall River or in Boston Harbor. He added that there are 17 proposals for LNG terminals between Nova Scotia and Long Island in New York, and they may make an LNG terminal in Massachusetts unnecessary.
“There are 17 that can meet the criteria for the Northeast region’s needs,” Bradley said.
Hedlund said he hoped Healey’s position on the issue wasn’t influenced by AES Corp. consultant Rob Gray, who doubles as a paid Healey campaign adviser. “I think it would be a shame if he was furthering the aims of one client at the expense of another,” Hedlund said.
Gray, whose firm Gray Media of Boston has been paid $87,500 by the Healey campaign so far this year, said yesterday his contract with AES Corp. expired at the end of the formal legislative session July 31. He also said he hasn’t discussed the LNG proposal with Healey.
“I haven’t discussed the issue at all with her,” Gray said. “Our corporate practice and our political practice are separate.”
Hedlund’s state Senate opponent, Democrat Stephen A. Lynch of Marshfield, agreed that an LNG plant in Boston Harbor would hurt fishermen.
“Fishermen have already paid the price of losing too many fishing grounds,” said Lynch, who sells marine engines to boaters and fishermen. “They can’t afford to lose any more.”
The other three candidates running for governor - Democrat Deval Patrick, independent Christy Mihos, and Green-Rainbow candidate Grace Ross - are opposed to siting an LNG terminal in Boston Harbor.
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Mihos plan to slash state payroll derided
Not much to cut, says Sen. Morrissey; others say specifics needed
Patriot Ledger State House Bureau / Oct. 25, 2006
BOSTON - Sen. Michael Morrissey, D-Quincy, says there isn’t much to cut in state government staffing, despite what Christy Mihos says.
Morrissey cites a Federal Reserve study that ranks Massachusetts 1 percent below the national average in the number of state employees per capita, and the lowest in New England.
“We provide more services than many states with much larger payrolls,” Morrissey said.
If Mihos, an independent candidate for governor, has his way, however, up to 12 percent of the state work force would be cut to save the state about $400 million.
Mihos told The Patriot Ledger editorial board Monday that if elected governor, he plans to eliminate about 8,000 state jobs in senior and middle management.
But some legislators, taxpayer advocates and labor organizations wonder just how and what Mihos would cut. The devil, they say, is in the details.
Mihos said that before raising taxes the state government needs to cut jobs to become lean and tight.
But Morrissey and other Mihos critics say the state has not recovered from the fiscal crisis of the 1990s, when the Swift and Romney administrations cut 8,000 employees from the state payroll.
“Some of the highly employed areas are higher education, prisons and mental health care. These are areas where we can’t afford cuts,” Morrissey said.
Morrissey said business principles are fine, but referring to Mihos’ ownership of a chain of convenience stores, he said selling produce and selling services is like apples and oranges.
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, does not dispute Mihos’ numbers as far as the budget benefits are concerned, but he says Mihos’ plan is unrealistic.
“The scale of the cuts would clearly have an impact on our ability to run programs,” Widmer said. “We need more specifics in terms of the organizations that would be affected.”
Widmer said the level of cuts Mihos is suggesting could mean major reductions in the number of college professors, prison workers and environmental workers, taking out 50 percent of state workers at that level.
Sen. Robert Hedlund, R-Weymouth, a one-time Mihos supporter, says there is waste in government but that he is not sure if Mihos is on the right track.
Massachusetts AFL-CIO spokesman Tim Sullivan said reacting to a plan is difficult when you do not know the specifics.
“Christy Mihos has been bemoaning the lack of core government services throughout his campaign,” Sullivan said. “The government is a good thing, providing services in a civil society, but when I don’t know the specifics of what’s on the chopping block, it would be ill-advised for me to comment on the plan.”
Where Mihos’ argument is light on specifics, it is heavy on philosophy.
Mihos said he is looking to set priorities and bring accountability and responsibility back to government, but he did not identify any specific agencies where he sees a need for cuts. He said that as governor, he would work with the Legislature to find waste and would veto any efforts to increase fees or taxes.
“We need to look at middle management and senior managers,” Mihos said. “I’m not looking to cut services for seniors and local aid. I want to fund these things, but we need to cut back and find other sources of revenue.”
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8,000 state jobs must go, Mihos asserts
Candidate for governor sees lots of opportunities to cut wasteful spending
Patriot Ledger State House Bureau / Oct. 24, 2006
QUINCY - Christy Mihos is vowing to slash the state work force by 12 percent - or about 8,000 jobs - if he is elected governor Nov. 7.
Meeting yesterday with The Patriot Ledger’s editorial board, Mihos, the multimillionaire owner of a convenience-store chain, said state spending could be reduced by $400 million by eliminating unnecessary senior and middle managers. Gov. Mitt Romney made a similar assertion when he was a candidate four years ago: that hundreds of millions in spending on “waste” could be eliminated.
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AMELIA KUNHARDT/The Patriot Ledger |
| Gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos speaks with the Patriot Ledger editorial board. |
Mihos is repeating it as he criticizes the Republican Romney-Healey administration for raising fees by some $750 million.
Mihos said he also would cut state spending by reining in costs incurred by the state’s independent turnpike, port and water authorities. He said neither Republican nor Democratic officials on Beacon Hill have been serious about making substantial cuts at the politically wired authorities. He has not explained how he would convince them to start.
“What have the two traditional parties given you, decade after decade after decade?” Mihos said. “You just keep finding yourself funding these types of operations. They are these bureaucracies that are addicted to fees and patronage-laden jobs.”
Mihos, a longtime champion of doing away with tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike, said Romney and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey - his Republican opponent in the governor’s race - never backed his call to eliminate tolls. He faulted Healey for her election-eve endorsement last week of a plan to eliminate tolls west of Route 128.
“Are people that stupid to accept this at its face value?” Mihos said. “They’ll never get it done. They don’t want to get it done.”
A former turnpike authority board member, Mihos said waste and inefficiency added $6 billion to the Big Dig’s price tag of $14.6 billion. He predicts that the bottom line will increase by $500 million to $1 billion after the Nov. 7 election.
Mihos said he would boost state revenues by $500 million by allowing slot machines at the state’s four race tracks. He estimates that the change would help save 4,000 to 5,000 jobs. He does not favor allowing a Foxwoods-style casino in Massachusetts; he said a full-fledged casino would bring social costs such as crime and gambling addiction.
The centerpiece of the Mihos campaign is a plan the candidate calls “Christy’s Proposition One.” It would freeze commercial and residential property taxes at current levels. Property would be reassessed when it is sold; a new tax rate would be set then.
Healey favors a rollback of the income tax rate from 5.3 percent to 5 percent.
“We (the state) are eminently unaffordable,” said Mihos, a Brockton native who now lives on Cape Cod. “People are moving out in record numbers.”
Mihos pledges to increase from 28 percent to 40 percent over four years the amount of money going back to cities and towns in the form of local aid - at an estimated cost of about $1.7 billion annually to the state.
He also pledges to make tuition free in the state’s community college system. There are 15 community colleges in the state; eliminating tuition would cost about $25 million to $30 million, he said.
Mihos said he agrees with Healey that a state board, not individual local police chiefs, should decide who gets permits to carry firearms.
Mihos, whose animated “Heads Up” television advertisement faulted government obliviousness to Big Dig cost overruns, said he will, next week, unveil new ads critical of negative advertising
“Kerry Healey and Deval Patrick are doing God’s work for our campaign in doing what they’re doing,” said Mihos, saying negative ads are hurting his opponents’ poll showings. “I’m sick of the negative ads.”
Tom Benner may be reached at tbenner@ledger.com.
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