Small differences
IT'S BEEN a long campaign, and it showed last night, as the three Democratic candidates for governor recited their stands on the issues on the last televised debate before the primary Tuesday. Their similarities outweighed their disagreements and suggested that the party will unite behind the winning candidate when he faces Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey in the general election.
As usual, the income tax was the most important difference, with Reilly favoring an immediate rollback, Deval Patrick opposed, and Chris Gabrieli in the middle. From the discussion last night, viewers would have no inkling that the Legislature, not the governor, will have the most say in that decision. And the electorate shows no inclination to change the legislative balance that favors the current 5.3 percent rate, barring an economic miracle that increases revenues more than expected.
The other differences presented were exceedingly small. Reilly favored merit pay for teachers, Patrick would offer it on a schoolwide basis, and Gabrieli favored payments for innovation plans offered by individual districts. Patrick wants to tweak the payment for charter schools, while Gabrieli wants to increase their number.
On economic development, healthcare benefits for state employees, the need to trim healthcare costs, and hiring quotas, they were nearly identical. And even though Patrick is leading in the polls, neither of his opponents sought to barrage him with negative comments -- a big difference from the last debate, when Reilly attacked Gabrieli . With Reilly and Gabrieli acting civil, Patrick looked oversensitive when he sought to criticize his opponents for past negative campaigning.
Gabrieli did make a crack about Patrick's spending millions on his vacation home, an odd comment from a multimillionaire who has hardly forsworn luxuries. But that was a ripple on the waters of reasoned though occasionally impassioned discourse.
Patrick, whom we on this page endorsed Sunday, made the best case for his candidacy at the beginning and end of the debate, when he eloquently spoke of his successes in public and private life and of the impressive grass - roots organization he has created. By contrast, Reilly has relied during the campaign on established interests for support, and Gabrieli counted on his fortune to make up for his late start.
As with tax cuts, the Legislature will have final say on just about all the other issues mentioned in this debate -- unless the governor can build a popular base and claim a mandate. Patrick, for his part, has persuaded thousands of people to work for him in his campaign. When the differences on issues are slight, the performance outside the debating studio counts the most.
