Romney to name replacements for three departing advisers

With his presidential ambitions creating uncertainty about his future here in Massachusetts, Governor Mitt Romney plans tomorrow to fill three Cabinet openings that have emerged as he weighs whether to run for reelection.

In a major reshuffling, Romney aides said yesterday, the governor will announce replacements for Environmental Secretary Ellen Roy Herzfelder, Human Services Secretary Ronald Preston, and Administration and Finance Secretary Eric Kriss.

The leading candidate for the Health and Human Services post, according to a Romney administration official, is Timothy Murphy, who is Romney's point person on healthcare. Murphy had earlier been mentioned by other Beacon Hill strategists as Kriss's successor.

The Globe reported Saturday that Herzfelder is stepping aside to spend more time with her children and to work in a lower-profile role as an adviser to Romney. The pending departures of Kriss, who plans to leave by October, and Preston were reported this spring.

The three Cabinet posts are among the most important and influential in state government, creating an unusual challenge for Romney as he decides whether to run for reelection in 2006 or seek the presidential nomination in 2008. Romney has insisted he has not made up his mind.

One former governor who pursued the presidency, Michael Dukakis, said that recruiting good talent to top levels of state government is very difficult when there is a short period left in the administration.

''It is virtually impossible to recruit anybody who is top notch when you are not running for reelection and you have a year and a half left," said Dukakis, a three-term governor and the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee. ''What's the point? The guy is not going to be around if he is running for president and won't be running for reelection. Why would anyone want a job under those circumstances?"

But Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's communications director, insisted yesterday that finding new talent is not an issue as the governor goes about filling the posts. He said Romney had put a ''high-powered team" together after his 2002 election and is confident that he can continue to recruit the same sort of people.

''We have never had a problem filling top positions in the Romney administration," Fehrnstrom said. ''Democrats as well as Republicans filled these top posts. Of course, at some point, these individuals are going to move on. As they do, they will be replaced by individuals of similar caliber."

Kriss, a longtime Romney confidant and former business partner, said in May that he planned to leave his post by early fall as the governor's top budget official, the most powerful Cabinet position. Kriss, one of the few administration officials who has developed relationships with the Democratic legislative leadership, played a key role in shaping Romney's fiscal policies, a particularly tough task in the first days of the administration when the state faced a serious budget deficit.

Preston revealed in May that he was seeking a new job. He has insisted his departure is voluntary. But in an interview with the Globe, one of Preston's close associates said that Romney asked him for his resignation. The associate said Romney and Preston had differences over the way Preston handled the state's efforts to secure a $585 million Medicaid waiver.

Richard Powers, Preston's press aide, denied the allegation.

''That's not true," Powers said. ''He has accomplished much in the 2 1/2 years he has been here, particularly the reorganization of health and human services."

Preston is expected to leave this summer.

Asked if the governor had asked for Preston's resignation, Fehrnstrom said: ''The average tenure of a health and human services secretary is about two years, so he's already beat the average. The governor thinks very highly of Ron, and is very appreciative of his accomplishments."

The governor's press secretary, Shawn Feddeman, left last month to become vice president for public relations for the New England division of the cable giant Comcast.

In her place, Romney appointed Julie Teer, who ran the Bush presidential reelection campaign in New Hampshire last year. She is a protege of his chief political consultant Michael Murphy, who is steering Romney's efforts to test the presidential waters.

Meanwhile, Spencer Zwick, Romney's deputy chief of staff, may transfer out of the State House and onto Romney's political payroll if Romney runs for president, according to two Republican sources. Another deputy chief of staff, Peter Flaherty, is eyeing a potential run for Middlesex district attorney, but is far from making a decision, Republicans said.