Thursday, 4:30 PM
Kerry Healey spins Clinton fundraising visit with a cartoon spoof
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
Bill Clinton is in Boston today to raise money for the Democratic coffers, but that didn’t stop Republican Kerry Healey from trying to milk some political points from the former president's visit.
Healey launched a cartoon television ad today that lampoons Deval Patrick as a liberal whose policies are out of sync with the positions of her opponent's one-time boss. The 45-second spot showed a mock debate between Clinton and Patrick, who served as chief civil rights prosecutor for the 42nd president.
The commercial highlighted what it said were differences between Patrick and Clinton on the death penalty for the killers of police officers, driver’s licenses for immigrants, welfare reforms and tax cuts.
"Deval Patrick: Way out of step with Bill Clinton, way out of step with us,'' a voice over on the video concludes. The Healey campaign touted the new commercial in a press release.
"Any Democrats that are yearning for a return to the Clinton years would be shocked to see how far to the left Deval Patrick is from Clinton's centrist line that appealed to so many Democrats here in Massachusetts," said campaign manager Tim O’Brien in a written statement.
Clinton, who in 1994 appointed Patrick Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, is scheduled to speak at a ballroom in the Westin Copley Place hotel shortly after 5 p.m.
"Rather than talk about her record or her ideas, sadly, it seems that Kerry Healey's campaign is focusing on negative attacks," said Libby DeVecchi, a spokesperson for Patrick, in a written statement.
DeVecchi pointed to a speech Patrick made Sunday at a rally of more than 5,000 people on Boston Common.
"The Healey campaign is up to tired old tricks –- change the subject, say anything and do anything to tear the other candidate down," Patrick said, according to a transcript provided by his campaign. "Because she has not a single reason for why she should be governor that doesn't turn on why she thinks I should not be governor."
