Reilly picks St. Fleur as running mate
Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, after a weekend of speculation of whom he would chose as a lieutenant governor running mate, has picked state Representative Marie St. Fleur, the Dorchester Democrat and first Haitian American elected to the State House, to join him on a ticket for the September primary, a senior Reilly campaign source said today.
Reilly and St. Fleur will be appear at a press conference in Boston on Tuesday, where the attorney general will officially make his decision public.
''She is his choice and the only person he offered the position to,'' said the source. St. Fleur had worked for Reilly both when he was district attorney and later when he became attorney general in 1999. She was first elected to the House in a special election in July 1999. She has served as the House chair of the joint Committee on Education and is now the vice-chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.
''They have a strong bond,'' the source said, noting St. Fleur's work as a prosecutor under Reilly. ''They come from different places but have lived similar lives. They share the same values.''
Reilly's search for a candidate stirred considerable controversy within the Democratic ranks when the Globe first reported last week he was in serious discussions with wealthy businessman Chris Gabrieli. Those discussions ended yesterday when Gabrieli withdrew his name from contention.
St. Fleur, who must win the party nomination on her own, will join four other Democrats seeking the office. They include: Worcester Mayor Tim Murray; Deborah Goldberg, a former Brookline selectwoman whose family founded Stop & Shop; Andrea Silbert of Harwich, the cofounder of a nonprofit training center for entrepreneurs; and a Cohasset psychiatrist, Sam Kelley.
The only other Democratic candidate for governor, Deval Patrick, said he has no intention of choosing a running mate for the primary election.
In Massachusetts, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run separately through the state primary in September. The winning Democrats and Republicans are then paired on the November ballot. In 1990, though, William F. Weld began a string of Republican victories by announcing he was teaming up with then-state Sen. Paul Cellucci.
By running as a ticket, the two bolstered each others' weaknesses and allowed their campaigns to husband resources by combining operations.
The impending announcement comes as the Democratic Party heading into Saturday's caucuses, where party activists will gather to pick delegates to their state convention in June. Under party rules, anyone interested in seeking statewide office as a Democratic candidate must submit a letter of intention to party headquarters by Jan. 31 of an election year.
Any candidate winning the support of at least 15 percent of the delegates wins a spot on the party's September primary ballot, and most candidates are busily working to get their supporters to the caucuses so they can nominate enough delegates to exceed that minimum.
The selection of St. Fleur, a black woman, could also help Reilly win votes in the primary and, potentially, the general election among women who may be inclined to vote for Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, or from blacks who may be inclined to vote for Patrick, a black man who is challenging Reilly for the Democratic nomination.
Since Romney's announcement last month that he would not seek re-election, Healey has been busily assessing her own potential running mates. They include U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and state Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham.
A third gubernatorial candidate, Christy Mihos, is a millionaire. He has yet to decide if he would run as a Republican or an independent. Mihos met last Thursday with Peter Blute, the former Republican congressman who most recently worked as a radio talk show host, amid speculation he might seek his own running mate.
(Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.) 