Reilly renews criticism of rival

Contending that his attacks on his primary rivals are working, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly yesterday stepped up his criticism of Christopher F. Gabrieli, again accusing Gabrieli of leaking a background report on a lawmaker who was briefly Reilly's running mate.

``I always knew that Chris Gabrieli was willing to spend anything to be governor," Reilly said after a visit to a Roxbury elementary school, where he watched a class on conflict resolution. ``I never thought he was willing to do anything to be governor."

Reilly added, ``There are lines in politics and there are lines in life. There are lines you don't go over in order to win an election, in order to gain a political advantage. And that line -- Chris Gabrieli went way over that line."

Reilly's remarks came as he defended his combative performance in a live televised debate Thursday night, which some commentators and voters said backfired by making him appear mean-spirited and desperate. His harsh words for Gabrieli yesterday revived his main attack at the debate: That Gabrieli allegedly gave confidential information to the Globe about state Representative Marie St. Fleur. Reilly was forced to abandon St. Fleur as a running mate early this year after the paper reported she had been delinquent on taxes. The Globe reported Thursday that Reilly's campaign had a report on St. Fleur's finances before his January announcement that she was running for lieutenant governor on his ticket. The Globe is not disclosing the source of the report.

Gabrieli, in an interview yesterday, again denied his campaign was responsible for the leak.

``I know he's an experienced prosecutor. What does he have, a hunch?" Gabrieli said.

Asked what evidence he had that Gabrieli or his campaign was responsible, Reilly said yesterday, ``It's common sense."

``Not a motto I would suggest for his campaign," Gabrieli responded after laughing off that remark from Reilly.

Reilly yesterday also invoked his authority as attorney general to protect people's privacy, appearing to leave the door open to investigating the leak. ``We'll see where this goes," Reilly said. ``These are private, confidential financial records, OK? And to leak them in an effort to get at me and put them on the front pages of The Boston Globe is wrong. It's just wrong."

When pressed, Reilly would not say whether he is contending that the leak was illegal. ``Whether it's illegal or not isn't the issue," he said. ``It's flat out wrong."

To Gabrieli, Reilly's performance meant he was effectively conceding the primary race to him and the third Democrat on the Sept. 19 ballot, Deval L. Patrick.

``I think it's clearly a race between the two of us," said Gabrieli, a venture capitalist and founder of a nonprofit education group.

Patrick, a former assistant US attorney general for civil rights and corporate executive, was asked yesterday whether he saw it that way, too.

``I'm not going to count out anybody until the voters do," Patrick said on the ``Eagan & Braude" radio show on 96.9 FM Talk.

One senior Reilly adviser said that despite the negative press on Reilly's debate performance, the campaign is ``cautiously optimistic" about the impact of the event. The adviser said the campaign set out Thursday night to ``demonstrate that Tom is a fighter."

``The idea was to set the tone early and to have the debate change the dynamic of the race," said the adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Asked whether his aggressive approach Thursday night was the best way to win over voters less than two weeks from the primary, Reilly insisted it highlighted important differences.

What voters ``saw last night is a governor who will fight for them, stand up for them, and somebody they can count on," said Reilly.

Before speaking to reporters yesterday, Reilly watched as fourth-graders at the Tobin School got a lesson in how to avoid fights, bullying, and conflict. Reilly asked the pupils what they had learned.

``You learn how to be more friendly to people . . . and you get to solve problems without fighting," one student said.

``That's wonderful," Reilly responded, smiling.

``You're the reason I'm running for governor," Reilly told the class a few minutes later. ``I'm going to fight for you every single day -- in a nice way."

Patrick, meanwhile, unveiled a 30-second television spot yesterday that aims to blunt the criticism he's taken for opposing an income-tax rate rollback to 5 percent. In the ad, Patrick, addressing the camera in an empty campaign office, says his opponents' ``misleading, negative ads" have muddied his position, which is that reducing the income tax rate -- at least for now -- would only send local taxes higher.

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