A taxing week for Democrats

FOR VOTERS who consider the character, convictions, and performance of the various gubernatorial candidates rather than cheering reflexively for a favored side, this week had to sow real doubts about the Democrats.

Attorney General Tom Reilly's roller coaster ride toward risibility began on Tuesday when he linked arms with state Representative Marie St. Fleur -- and ended yesterday with Reilly trying to explain away his selection of a political partner whose financial irresponsibility ended her candidacy almost before it began.

After the Globe revealed that St. Fleur had been repeatedly delinquent on taxes and financial obligations, the Dorchester lawmaker took herself out of the lieutenant governor's race with a statement that cast her derelictions as a mark of working-class solidarity.

Adding his own farcical coda to the week, Deval Patrick, Reilly's Democratic rival, used the controversy to disclose his own one-time tax delinquency. As Patrick told it, after incurring an unexpectedly large income-tax bill of $17,000 in 1993, he and his wife established a payment plan with the IRS. They then missed an installment or two, prompting the IRS to impose a tax lien until they paid up.

Rather than expressing contrition, Patrick, a successful lawyer even then, tried to make that personal failing a measure of his bond with workaday Massachusetts.

''Just like us, people find themselves in situations like this at points in their lives," he said in a statement. ''A rare few are immune from tight financial times at one time or another."

Surveying the Democratic damage, one was left dismayed by Reilly's poor judgment in offering the job to St. Fleur, amazed at St. Fleur's hubris in accepting his offer given her financial problems, and put off by the populist spin Patrick put on his own problems.

Start with Reilly. Since at least mid-December, it had been considered a fait accompli inside the campaign that Reilly would pick Chris Gabrieli, the wealthy venture capitalist and policy expert who ran as the party's number two in 2002, as his choice for lieutenant governor.

Sources say a Monday announcement had been in the works for at least 10 days, with aides busily planning the details. Then, late last week, Reilly began having second thoughts. On Sunday, he told Gabrieli he was also considering St. Fleur, prompting Gabrieli to remove himself from consideration.

When Reilly and St. Fleur officially teamed up Tuesday, some of Reilly's own confidants were obviously uneasy about the choice. Knowledgeable sources say that Reilly's camp had looked at St. Fleur and concluded she'd make a poor running mate. And there had already been a story, in April of 2001, about St. Fleur not filing state income tax returns.

That was only the tip of an iceberg, as the Globe revealed on Wednesday.

When he met the press yesterday, Reilly was in full hangdog mode. And yet, he still couldn't quite bring himself to say either that St. Fleur had done anything wrong or that he himself had messed up in a major way.

''The process certainly could have been better, more complete, more thorough," he said.

Given that there really wasn't a process, that doesn't even represent a keen grasp of the obvious. Rather, it's a formulation that clouds a large personal blunder.

''The politics of situations are not my strong suit," Reilly added. ''I recognize that and certainly have to work at that."

Truer words were never spoken. As one Democrat puts it: ''Tom Reilly listens to no one."

But it will take more than yesterday's mealy-mouthed mini mea culpa to restore confidence in Reilly's judgment. And another mistake of this magnitude will probably prove terminal.

As for Patrick's tinny spin, yes, it's true that many people face tight times, but most hard-working citizens don't have the IRS slap liens on -- particularly if they have spent the proceeding years as a partner at a prestigious Boston law firm.

Now, the Democrats aren't the only ones whose tax-averse behavior has raised eyebrows.

Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey and her husband have gone to court to reduce the property tax bills on their Vermont vacation home. And Sean Healey's company, Affiliated Managers Group, took an exceedingly dubious $1.2 million state tax break in 2001, though bad publicity has since prompted AMG to refund that money.

Still, for the Democrats, a party hoping to win its first gubernatorial election since 1986, the only good thing about this week was that it came early in the year.

Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.