Gubernatorial campaigns have testy exchange over use of state insignias
Another ad, another fight over a seal. No, not the slippery marine mammal -- the official state insignia.
Hours after Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly went live Friday with a new TV spot about his work on behalf of senior citizens, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey's campaign pointed out that in the 17th second, Reilly is shown speaking at a lectern in front of an official seal.
Why do they care? Because candidates aren't allowed to use state property in political campaigns, and just a few weeks ago, state Democratic Party chairman Philip W. Johnston announced he was filing a complaint with the state Ethics Commission over Healey's use of the official state seal in one of her ads.
Johnston's announcement prompted Healey's campaign manager, Tim O'Brien, to send a letter to Johnston that contained a dose of sarcasm. ``Your reputation for setting politics aside to benefit the common good is well known, and I can only surmise that this was again the case with your recent complaint to the Massachusetts Ethics Commission," O'Brien wrote.
It turns out that Reilly's new ad doesn't feature the official state seal, but the seal of the attorney general's office.
``It's not a state seal," said Reilly spokesman Corey Welford.
Nonetheless, state law prohibits anyone from using his or her official position for unfair advantage. (That law led the Ethics Commission in 1992 to say the state seal could not be used in campaign activity.)
Late last week, O'Brien said Reilly's new ad presented the state Democratic Party with two choices.
``Either file an ethics complaint against the attorney general, or pull theirs against us," he said.
Cyndi Roy, a spokeswoman for the Democrats, dismissed the call.
``I'm glad that Kerry Healey and her campaign are paying such close attention to our candidates' ads," she said. ``Maybe she'll pick up a few things along the way."
Will the Democrats heed O'Brien's advice?
``I think they need to stop playing games and start focusing on their candidates," Roy said.
But it's the Democrats, O'Brien said, who initiated the game-playing.
``I think the Democratic state party should admit it was a baseless political attack and move on," he said.
Goldberg deposits another $1m
Deborah Goldberg, the Brookline selectwoman and heir to the Stop & Shop fortune, dropped another $1 million of her personal funds into her race for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor -- sending major shockwaves into her rivals' camps. She now has about $2 million in her campaign account, dwarfing the $380,000 that Mayor Tim Murray of Worcester and the $480,000 that Andrea Silbert have in their accounts, according to their mid-July reports. Goldberg has told Democratic leaders privately she is prepared to spend what it takes to win the race, and this latest deposit is proving her point. Goldberg, whose funky video presentation at the June party convention fell embarrassingly flat, is not saying what she plans to do with her fortune. Her campaign aides said no firm decisions have been made about the extent of her TV ad blitz. But her rivals and top Democratic leaders expect the television-watching public is going to be exposed to a lot of Goldberg ads between now and the Sept. 19 primary.
If only he could give at the office
As chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Governor Mitt Romney has millions of dollars at his disposal to disburse to prospective GOP governors around the country. At times, he's been very generous with the checkbook -- he sent $250,000 to Pennsylvania candidate Lynn Swann a few months back. But, alas, those pesky campaign finance rules in Massachusetts prevent the association from dishing dough to the campaign of Romney's lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey. Massachusetts candidates cannot take in corporate dollars, and the association raises much of its money from companies. So Romney has given what he could: He and his wife, Ann, each wrote personal checks for $500, the maximum allowed, to Healey's campaign.
Scott Helman and Frank Phillips of the Globe Staff compiled this report. 
