Romney may announce plans in December

With healthcare legislation progressing on Beacon Hill, Governor Mitt Romney is likely to reveal his political plans sometime in early or mid-December, two Republican political strategists said.

Romney, whose advisers earlier this fall indicated he would put off his announcement to mid- or late-November, is waiting until a legislative conference committee on the healthcare legislation is well underway next month before he lets the political world know whether he will seek reelection next year, the strategists said.

''It is definitely trending that way," one of the strategists said.

Most political observers expect Romney to forgo reelection and put himself into position to run for president in 2008. Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey has been lining up donors and strategists, most recently taking on the former executive director of the state Republican Party, Tim O'Brien, to be ready to run for governor next year if Romney doesn't.

Romney has held off on an announcement for weeks, having been convinced by advisers and supporters of a healthcare overhaul that he needed maximum political advantage in the debate. An announcement during the maneuvering could have sharply diminished his clout with the Democrat-dominated Legislature.

The Senate last week enacted its version of the healthcare bill, following a House vote on its own approach earlier this month. With the formal legislative session ending Wednesday, a conference committee will hammer out the differences and issue a final compromise within the next two months. Its passage would give Romney a victory to boast about in a run for president.

It's unlikely that the House and Senate will negotiate a final healthcare bill and send it to Romney for approval before early January, said state Senator Richard T. Moore, an Uxbridge Democrat and cochairman of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Health Care Financing.

Romney insists he is leaving his options open. His aides say he has asked them to put together plans and strategies for a reelection campaign, in order to have the option ready to go. If he does run for governor, it is a clear signal he will not mount a presidential campaign.

Despite the new timetable described by other advisers, Romney spokeswoman Julie Teer said Friday that there had been no change in the governor's timetable, although his political aides had signaled last spring that the announcement would come in the early fall. A month ago, that was pushed back to mid- or late November.

''Governor Romney has said all along that he will make a decision about running for reelection sometime this fall, and that's from September to Dec. 21," Teer said.

Romney's decision to delay his revelation has left the Massachusetts political world on edge. Healey has tried to move out of his shadow and begun to put together a campaign to seek the GOP nomination. Her only potential opposition at this point is GOP gadfly Christy Mihos, a wealthy businessman who is considering running as an independent.

Healey, meanwhile, has reached what could be a telling benchmark in her fund-raising: For the first time this year, she has more money in her campaign account than Romney.

As of Oct. 31, Healey's campaign account had $674,000 to Romney's $566,000, according to the latest campaign finance records. Every other month this year ended with Romney having more money, and the gap between them has steadily narrowed.

Romney now has less than half the money in his campaign account than he did at the start of the year -- his balance at the end of January was $1.2 million. Healey, by contrast, ended January with $586,000 and her account balance has since grown by 15 percent.

Both Romney and Healey are wealthy enough to inject millions of dollars into their campaigns at any moment, so their current campaign balances don't give a full picture of their spending potential. But the fact that Healey's account has grown as Romney's has shrunk could be an indication that Romney intends to leave the governorship to his anointed successor; campaign finance rules prohibit candidates from using state campaign dollars to run for national office.

Strategists for Romney and Healey caution against reading too much into the figures.

''It's one month," said O'Brien, the former executive director of the state Republican Party who is now a political consultant for Healey's campaign committee. ''I would expect both committees to raise and spend money to compete in the upcoming election."

Healey raised more than $100,000 in October, records show, which O'Brien attributed to her having a lot of political events last month and to sluggish fund-raising in August and September.