Reilly dives into race from his home turf

SPRINGFIELD -- Here, he's just Tom. Tommy to some. An unpretentious Irish kid from the neighborhood who beat the odds of an unfortunate childhood.

And yesterday, he came home.

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, seen on Beacon Hill as shy and somewhat stiff, returned to the city of his humble upbringing to formally launch his campaign for governor. In the gym of his alma mater, American International College, Reilly beamed from the embrace of his friends and supporters. College cheerleaders hailed him like the home team.

The emotional scene also served a useful political purpose: to present Reilly as a guy who knows where he comes from, and knows what it means to struggle.

''You know he's going to reach for the stars but keep his two feet on the ground," said Hampden County Sheriff Michael J. Ashe Jr. ''You've got to have idealism and realism, and he's got both."

To a soundtrack of Bruce Springsteen and U2, Reilly, 63, told the crowd he will avoid a strict allegiance to the Democratic Party in an effort to appeal to independent voters and Republicans.

''To me, independence has nothing to do with party," Reilly told the audience, which the campaign said numbered more than 300 people. ''It has everything to do with who you are and what you believe."

Advisers cite Reilly's positions on some of the biggest issues to back their assertion that he will have wide appeal: He supports abortion rights, access to emergency contraception, and stem-cell research -- all reliably Democratic positions -- but he also wants to lower the income tax rate to 5 percent, which many Democrats oppose.

''Tom Reilly is a different kind of Democrat," said US Representative Martin T. Meehan, bringing up, almost as a badge of honor, the time Reilly was booed at the state Democratic Party convention in 2003 for calling for William Bulger to step down as president of the University of Massachusetts. ''Tom Reilly is a Democrat who can win a general election."

But Reilly will not win over disaffected voters and independents without a fight. His Democratic opponent, Deval L. Patrick, also grew up poor -- on the South Side of Chicago -- before rising to the top levels of government and business. And the leading Republican candidate, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, could find wide support among the same unenrolled voters Governor Mitt Romney won with in 2002, particularly as she articulates social views more moderate than Romney's.

In his address, Reilly, 63, summoned painful memories from his childhood -- he lost two brothers and his father by 16 -- and spoke of barely finding redemption at American International College with the help of his mother, who worked as a maid, and a forgiving college official who admitted him to night school despite a poor academic record.

Perhaps no one yesterday knew more about how far Reilly had come than Octavia Budd, the mother of his longtime friend Wayne Budd, whose family helped raise Reilly in Springfield. After his speech, Reilly walked over to her, clutched both her arms, looked her straight in the eyes, and repeated, ''You did so much for me." (Octavia Budd added in an interview that she talks him up ''every place I go," including a planned bingo game last night at nearby Sacred Heart Church.)

Reilly also sought to connect his own lack of direction as a youth with what he said is the state's waywardness today.

''Folks, my story really is the story of Massachusetts," said Reilly, who was introduced by his wife of 39 years, Ruth, a retired Belmont school teacher. ''It's a story about opportunity. It's a story about hope."

Reilly called building the state economy and creating jobs his top priorities, promising to devote more attention to public higher education institutions than any past governor and to work to make Massachusetts a national leader in stem-cell research, the development of clean-energy technology, and math and science education. He fretted about how the state has lost tens of thousands of jobs over the past five years, and how Massachusetts is the only state to lose population the last two years in a row.

''Everything he said up there, people wanted to hear," said Jay Clune, a retired school guidance counselor at the event.

Though yesterday's event was billed as the official kickoff of his campaign, Reilly has delivered similar addresses in recent weeks, prompting the state Republican Party to suggest that his campaign was flagging and desperate for a jumpstart. ''Tom Reilly's handling his campaign like a frozen computer -- all he can do is hit restart and pray," said Matt Wylie, executive director of the state GOP.

As at other events, Reilly focused his attack on Healey and Romney, ignoring Patrick.

Patrick issued a statement yesterday saying he welcomes a ''spirited debate that gives people a sense of what's possible in our state."

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