Gabrieli campaign is accused of repeatedly twisting the facts

If you believe Christopher F. Gabrieli's glossy new campaign flier, the state has shed tens of thousands of jobs under the Republican administration of Mitt Romney and Kerry Healey.

``148,000 lost jobs," says the first bullet point under a box that says ``The Romney-Healey Record on Jobs."

But that assertion is, at best, misleading. Since Romney and Healey took office, the state has added more than 10,000 jobs, according to state figures.

The flier is the latest instance in which Gabrieli is under fire from rivals, who say he has stretched the truth, leaving out key details of his proposals or overstating his accomplishments. Republican strategists are poring over his statements in the event Gabrieli wins the Sept. 19 primary and faces off against Healey.

Offering a window into Healey's potential strategy, her campaign manager, Tim O'Brien, accused Gabrieli of bending the truth on several occasions. O'Brien said Gabrieli also had been deceptive about his support for an income tax rate rollback to 5 percent, and exaggerated the number of jobs he helped create as a venture capitalist.

``Chris clearly struggles with the truth," O'Brien said.

O'Brien's words suggest the GOP wants to instill public doubts about Gabrieli , who has millions to match Healey's money and has taken positions aimed at attracting moderate voters. (In his campaign pitches, Gabrieli has touted his ability to defeat Healey as he looks to beat Thomas F. Reilly and Deval L. Patrick.)

``There will be time once the Democratic primary is sorted out that we'll have a chance to lay out a vision and to outline some of the holes in their stories," O'Brien said. ``Right now it's just a lot of political hot air."

To be sure, Gabrieli is not the only candidate spinning the facts for his own advantage.

On Saturday, Patrick e-mailed supporters saying Gabrieli, in last Thursday's debate, had advocated ``excluding" public universities from proposed new state investments in stem-cell research. Gabrieli's actual remark during the debate was: ``I'm not suggesting that it be all about Harvard."

Reilly's campaign is running ads implying he's the only Democrat who supports a tax rollback; Gabrieli backs a gradual rollback under certain conditions.

As for Gabrieli, the 148,000 figure he cites in his flier is the number of jobs Massachusetts is down from its pre-recession peak in February 2001. From the time Romney and Healey took office, in January 2003 to July this year, the state has added 10,400 jobs, according to the Department of Workforce Development, which compiles monthly employment figures.

Just a few weeks ago, Gabrieli's campaign, in releasing his economic development plan, characterized the job-loss figures correctly, blaming the Romney-Healey administration for failing to revitalize the economy.

Asked if the new flier is misleading, Gabrieli spokesman Dan Cence said: ``The state of Massachusetts is down 148,000 jobs under Republican governors and their watch," Cence said. ``There's nothing misleading about that."

Cence added that during Romney and Healey's term, property taxes have increased and the state has lost population.

Like Reilly, Gabrieli wasn't always in favor of the rollback. In 2000, he donated more than $15,000 to a group that fought against the successful referendum that year calling for a reduction .

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.