Legislators rescind support for Reilly

Two Democratic legislators withdrew their support for the gubernatorial candidacy of Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly after he criticized a legislative move to give a dying former state representative dispensation to collect a pension from a state system he never contributed to .

Representatives Colleen M. Garry of Dracut and David M. Nangle of Lowell telephoned Reilly's campaign headquarters, and, speaking together on a conference call, declared that they planned to switch their allegiances to candidate Christopher Gabrieli. Another Democratic candidate, Deval Patrick, also had publicly criticized the House vote to qualify the former representative, Michael Ruane of Salem, for a pension.

``Reilly and Deval Patrick are using a nearly dead man as a political football," Garry said in an interview. ``There was no need to make those statements. It was inappropriate and bad form."

Ruane, who is 78 and battled cancer for years, is reportedly near death. He spent 30 years in the Legislature but did not pay into the pension system because he had been ruled ineligible.

The House voted 101-39 Thursday night to allow Ruane to collect a $44,000-a-year pension. After his death, that sum would go to his wife, who has few other means of support. The vote came after an emotional and often divisive two-hour debate. Supporters of the measure said legislators should show compassion for their former colleague, while critics asserted that the Legislature should not alter pension rules for an individual, especially when other public employees may not get the same treatment.

Reilly issued a statement exhorting lawmakers to defeat the measure.

``As much as we all feel for former Representative Ruane, I would hope the Legislature would see beyond emotion and personal relationships and recognize the dangerous precedent this would set," Reilly said in the statement.

Gabrieli is staying out of the debate, said his campaign manager, Joe Ganley.

``We have no desire to interfere in that process," he said. ``It is not an issue in the campaign."

The Reilly campaign portrayed the defections of Garry and Nangle as evidence of the attorney general's willingness to take unpopular stands.

``Tom has never been afraid to stand up to the Legislature and do what he thinks is right, regardless of the political consequences," spokesman Corey Welford said. Reilly has often been described by his rivals as the candidate of the political establishment on Beacon Hill.

Ruane, a Democrat who gave up his seat in 2004 after a 30-year career on Beacon Hill, never contributed to the state pension, saying he had been ruled ineligible because he was on a disability pension from the city of Salem. A special rider was added to a budget in the 1990s that allowed him to qualify for the pension if he contributed one time before he left the House, but he never contributed.

Ruane was a fiscal conservative who had railed against welfare recipients and social programs, a fact that some colleagues raised during the debate.

But his friend, Representative Angelo M. Scaccia, a Democrat from Readville, who is pushing the special legislation, said Ruane is caught in a bureaucratic nightmare. He said Ruane is on his deathbed, with only days to live . Under the law she would get $33,000 a year. An amendment to the bill provides that upon her death, the proceeds of the sale of their house be turned back to the pension system. Their two children are unable to provide for them, he said.

``Time is of the essence," Scaccia said, noting the bill is moot if Ruane dies before it is passed.