More stories from
the campaign trail
Stories from Oct. 5-14, 2006
3 candidates for governor pledge support for businesses
By TOM BENNER
The Patriot Ledger / Oct. 11, 2006
BOSTON - Three of the four candidates for governor pitched business-friendly messages to the Greater Boston Chamber Commerce, each proclaiming they have what it takes to steer the state’s economic ship.
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey talked up the accomplishments of 16 years of Republican leadership in the governor’s office, saying that GOP chief executives have lowered the state income tax rate from 6.25 percent to 5.3 percent, reformed worker’s compensation, defeated a retroactive capital gains tax, and fought efforts to weaken Proposition 2½, which holds down property taxes.
Healey stressed the need for a continued Republican presence on Beacon Hill, where Democrats overwhelmingly control the Legislature.
“I believe we need a fiscal conservative on Beacon Hill who remembers that tax dollars represents someone’s hard work,” she said.
Alluding to criticism that the Romney-Healey administration raised user fees instead of taxes, Healey drew muffled laughter when she said her pledge to keep down taxes does not apply to fees.
“Taxes and fees are different things,” Healey said. “Fees should be exactly as much as it costs to provide the service and not more.”
Christy Mihos, a convenience store magnate, said he broke from the Republican Party and is running as an independent to break the partisan log jam on Beacon Hill.
“I love this state,” Mihos said. “I’m tired of these drive-by governors.”
Mihos said he is the only candidate for governor who was born in Massachusetts, attended Massachusetts public schools, married a Massachusetts native and built a business in Massachusetts.
He also added he’s the only candidate in the race who didn’t attend Harvard.
“I’m the only one who’s ever created a private-sector business,” Mihos said.
He said he’ll bring a business approach to state government.
“This is about a $25.7 billion budget, a business with 70,000-plus employees,” Mihos said. “And right now, the way I see it, our state is on her knees.”
Mihos said he would increase state aid to cities and towns to lower property taxes, and pay for that by cutting the state work force by 12 percent and allowing slot machine parlors to generate new revenues of up to $500 million in Massachusetts.
Democrat Deval Patrick touted his experience as government official and corporate executive to say he has the necessary business skills to run the state.
Patrick worked as the Clinton’s Administration’s chief civil rights enforcer and as a corporate executive with Coca-Cola and Texaco.
“No one in this state has that range of leadership experience,” Patrick said.
Patrick said the government needs to streamline the regulatory process for businesses wanting to expand in Massachusetts as well as developers wanting to build affordable housing.
Patrick also discussed his record as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney and said that Healey, a trained criminologist, “lives in the world of theory.”
The fourth candidate in the race, Green-Rainbow Party nominee Grace Ross, said she was not invited.
“I think they purposefully ignored me,” she said.
Ross said her calls for businesses to shoulder a greater share of MBTA and health insurance costs may have cost her a spot at the podium.
Tom Benner may be reached at tbenner@ledger.com
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Patrick picks up $400K in public funds
Governor candidate gets boost to help him erase Healey’s huge edge in cash
By TOM BENNER
Patriot Ledger State House Bureau / Oct. 11, 2006
BOSTON - Badly trailing Republican candidate for governor Kerry Healey in the money department, Democrat Deval Patrick has gotten a $403,000 infusion of public campaign funds.
The state Office of Campaign and Political Finance gave the money to the Patrick camp in exchange for its agreement to limit campaign spending to $1.5 million, OCPF spokesman Denis Kennedy said.
Independent Christy Mihos, who also agreed to spending limits, received $134,000 in public campaign funds.
The spending limit agreed to by Patrick and Mihos has since been declared moot, after Healey - the wife of a multimillionaire venture capitalist - opted against public funding and set a record $15 million cap for her campaign, which becomes the new cap for all candidates. With Healey essentially rewriting the rules, Patrick and Mihos qualify for public campaign funds without having to abide by their previously stated spending limits.
Healey, the biggest spender by far, spent $7.8 million on her campaign for the corner office between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, with most of it - $7.2 million - coming from her own pocket, OCPF records shows. As of Sept. 30, Healey had $2.3 million in cash on hand to spend, with the majority expected to go for TV advertising.
Including the new infusion of public campaign funds, Patrick now has about $648,000 in cash on hand, according to OCPF records. Patrick, a wealthy corporate lawyer, has put in $45,000 of his own money into his campaign since Jan. 1, and spent $4.6 million between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30.
Mihos, a multimillionaire convenience store magnate, now has about $236,000 in cash on hand. He has put $2.9 million of his own money into his campaign account since Jan. 1, and has spent about $3.2 million.
Green-Rainbow candidate Grace Ross had $4,593 cash on hand as of Sept. 30, and has spent $8,204 on her campaign since Jan. 1. Most of the contributions to her campaign came from Cambridge and Somerville; she had no South Shore donors.
Analysts say Patrick can compete with Healey in the expensive television ad wars, despite having a smaller war chest. Patrick enjoys a vibrant fundraising campaign, collecting nearly $300,000 during the last two weeks of September alone, OCPF records show. Patrick’s one-time boss, former President Bill Clinton, is expected to help with an appearance at a fundraiser later this month.
In addition, both the Democratic and Republican parties and independent so-called 527 political action committees are underwriting television ads on behalf of the major party candidates.
“We feel we will be able to be competitive with Kerry Healey on TV ads and will have a strong statewide grassroots network,” Patrick spokeswoman Libby DeVecchi said.
A Healey spokeswoman did not immediately respond for comment.
Patrick running mate Timothy Murray had $39,755 in his campaign account as of Sept. 30, and has spent $901,000 on his lieutenant governor bid since Jan. 1. Healey running mate Reed Hillman had $337,786 cash on hand as of Sept. 30, and has spent $292,000 since Jan. 1.
Mihos running mate John Sullivan had $8,588 cash on hand as of Sept, 1. Ross running mate Martina Robinson has no active campaign account.
Tom Benner may be reached at tbenner@ledger.com.
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ABINGTON’S HAPPY WARRIOR
Patrick campaign manager counting the days
By ELAINE ALLEGRINI
SouthofBoston.com / Oct. 9, 2006
John Walsh is a political junkie, but amid the excitement of managing Deval Patrick’s gubernatorial campaign, the Abington native longs for the comforts of home.
But for now, Walsh has given up the short drive to his insurance office, lunch at Emmy’s Deli and his son’s basketball practice - all in Abington.
Instead, he drives north on Route 3 each day to Patrick’s campaign headquarters in a technology park on the Charlestown-Somerville line. He seldom sees daylight at home and misses the companionship of his son Coleman, who at 12, already has a keen interest in politics.
Walsh, 48, began his political career on the Abington Finance Committee. He was 26 when he was elected to the board of selectmen, where he served for 10 years before bowing out to await the birth of his son.
A photograph of Coleman and a panorama of the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston hang on the wall alongside the folding table that serves as his desk at the Patrick campaign headquarters.
Walsh, who served as Democratic campaign manager during the 2000 gubernatorial race, entertained Patrick’s offer to run his campaign for three days before “punching out” of his insurance business in April of 2005, to take the helm. That was six days after he met Patrick at the Plymouth County Democratic League’s St. Patrick’s Day dinner and 10 days before Patrick publicly announced his campaign for governor.
Walsh, who remained active in the Democratic Party at the county after leaving local office, said he was set on seeing a Democrat back in the governor’s seat and interested in learning more about Patrick.
“Deval was different, intriguing to me,” Walsh said. “He was never elected before, had a business background and had government experience in the Clinton administration.”
Walsh’s emergence as a key Democratic organizer does not surprise fellow Democrat Kevin Donovan of Abington.
In the mid-1980s, Walsh developed a voter-tracking computer program that put Walsh on the political radar screen, Donovan said.
“When he got to the county league, a lot of people recognized his expertise for field organization. He became the go-to person,” Donovan said. “Deval Patrick, by hiring John, obviously got the best in the field.”
Now, Patrick and an entourage of advisers crisscross the state in a campaign that Walsh says is purely grass-roots. Walsh runs the engine from his white-walled office at the Patrick headquarters, in a brick building close to the Zakim-Bunker Hill Bridge.
Walsh was late for a senior staff meeting but eager to talk about his candidate - someone he may not see in the course of a workday but with whom he speaks many times a day.
As campaign manager, his primary responsibility is to delegate the work, Walsh said.
There are about 200 campaign workers at headquarters at any given time; 70 are on the payroll and the rest are volunteers. Some open mail or collect trash, others work on the finer points of finances, schedules and speeches.
Walsh is one of those people who is on track seven days a week, beginning with an 8 a.m. conference call during his drive through rush-hour traffic. The first call is to discuss the campaign budget; a half-hour later, the second conference call focuses on the press.
There are meetings all day and often late into the night, with occasional appearances at debates and other campaign events. Walsh said he is there to cheer his candidate on, just as he was earlier in the campaign, when he held signs at the Falmouth Road Race.
Right now, Walsh is lost in the sea of politics - the signs, the speeches, the media - but time has not escaped him.
“Five weeks,” he said this past Tuesday. “Five weeks.” -
So, if Patrick wins, will Walsh accompany him to Beacon Hill?
“I am looking forward to getting back to my three-minute commute, Emmy’s Deli for lunch and going to Coleman’s basketball practice,” he said without hesitation.
And, he said, his wife, Donna, is waiting for when Walsh gets back to arriving at home before midnight.
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ANALYSIS
Patrick fumbled
the explanation
By GLEN JOHNSON
Associated Press / Oct. 6, 2006
BOSTON - Deval Patrick’s work to help a convicted rapist win parole became a political issue not so much because of his actions as his evolutionary explanation of them.
The Democratic candidate for governor started by offering generalizations that placed great distance between him and the prisoner, Benjamin LaGuer.
He then conceded a closer relationship only after being confronted with letters showing correspondence not only from him to the state’s Parole Board, but also to LaGuer in jail.
Finally, Patrick acknowledged contributing to a fund to pay for a DNA test that LaGuer contended would prove his innocence, but only after LaGuer publicized the donation.
Patrick’s handling of the LaGuer case has fueled a Clintonian criticism that dogged him through the primary campaign, but which has taken full bloom in his general election matchup against Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, the Republican nominee.
It is that Patrick has a penchant for nuanced answers and contradictory behavior.
Yesterday, he sought to dispel any questions about his forthrightness.
“We screwed up in terms of how we have handled the doing the homework before we answered questions about this issue,” he said at Holy Cross College in Worcester. “There’s no question about that, and I take responsibility for that. On policy issues, I have worked very, very hard to make sure that I don’t spout off without doing my homework.”
Even then, Patrick offered up an arm’s-length concession similar to one previously used in his campaign.
He said he had been shown a letter thanking him for his donation to LaGuer’s DNA fund, but he had not been able to retrieve any bank records independently verifying it.
Two weeks ago, when Patrick was confronted with evidence showing he did not vote in a series of recent elections, he replied: “I remember sending in absentee ballots regularly, but if there are no records, shame on me.”
During the primary campaign, rivals Tom Reilly and Chris Gabrieli pounded Patrick for refusing to back rolling back the state’s income tax rate from 5.3 percent to 5 percent. Patrick maintained that the state could not afford it, but he also emphasized he could support a rollback when the economy improved.
When his primary and general election critics accused him of failing to back the MCAS test as a high school graduation requirement, Patrick flatly declared his support for the requirement. But he also emphasized education had to be about “the whole child,” so he would also support other means of measurement.
During his half-hour news conference at Holy Cross, Patrick sought to restore faith not only in his judgment, but also his integrity - particularly in light of the donation revelation.
“I appreciate that people are very skeptical of that, but I have a lot of stuff on my plate, and have, and certainly there was no intent to mislead the press.”
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Healey rips Patrick on crime
By GLEN JOHNSON
Associated Press / Oct. 5, 2006
BOSTON - Deval Patrick has conceded he had more frequent and more recent contact than he previously acknowledged with a convicted rapist for whom he sought parole, prompting Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey to question not only his truthfulness, but also his firmness with criminals.
She later buttressed her argument with a new TV commercial highlighting Patrick’s work to overturn the death sentence for a Florida prison escapee who murdered a highway patrolman.
“While lawyers have a right to defend admitted cop killers, do we really want one as governor?” the ad asks.
Healey believes Patrick has not leveled with voters about his record and his political agenda should he win Nov. 7.
Last week, Patrick told reporters he wrote one letter, “maybe 15 years ago,” to the state Parole Board on behalf of Benjamin LaGuer, who has relentlessly maintained he is innocent of tying up and raping a 59-year-old Leominster neighbor in 1983. The Boston Globe reported Patrick had written at least two letters, one six years ago and the other eight years ago, and that he gave money to help pay for a DNA test.
And while Patrick maintains he had an arm’s-length relationship with LaGuer, the Globe cited two letters he had sent to LaGuer in prison, as well as one to the Parole Board in which Patrick stated, “I have never met Mr. LaGuer in person. But, thanks to a lively exchange of correspondence over the years, I do feel I know him.”
Healey said: “When questioned on this subject this past week, Deval Patrick hasn’t been forthcoming.”
Patrick, who headed the Justice Department’s civil rights division under President Clinton, acknowledged advocating on behalf of LaGuer. He said he did so because he believed LaGuer - who is black - may have been victimized by racism within his jury.
He noted that intellectuals including historian Elie Wiesel made similar appeals.
Patrick said that based on recent DNA evidence, he now believes LaGuer is guilty, he will no longer seek his release and he would not support his parole should he become governor when LaGuer appears before the board again in 2008.
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Previous coverage - from Sept. 20
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