Healey plans to spend up to $15m on campaign

Republican gubernatorial candidate Kerry Healey yesterday notified the state that she intends to spend up to $15 million in her general election campaign for governor, setting the stage for the Commonwealth's most expensive statewide political contest in history.

Her decision frees her opponents, including her chief rival, Democratic nominee Deval L. Patrick, to spend up to $15 million in the general election and still collect public funding. If either candidate exceeds that amount, they will be fined the amount they spend over $15 million.

The announcement makes clear that the state is on track to exceed both overall and individual spending records. Election spending for the entire gubernatorial campaign will probably surpass the record total of $30.6 million set by six campaigns in 2002.

Yesterday, Healey said the cap was realistic and that she had to spend a lot of money to counter independent political committees, called 527 organizations,including a union-backed group that has run a television ad against her.

``Right now, we don't know how much money is going to be dumped into this campaign by outside organizations," she said. `We have to play it safe."

`It's too much money," Patrick said, arguing that the state's restrictive campaign finance laws had ``created a game for incumbents and millionaires."

Patrick spent heavily in his primary run against Christopher F. Gabrieli and Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, while Healey, who was unopposed, has been able to stockpile campaign money. Yesterday's announcement mirrored developments in the Democratic gubernatorial primary race, in which Gabrieli signaled his intention to spend up to $15.36 million, freeing the other candidates to exceed the $1.5 million threshold set by state law.

Yesterday was the deadline for declaring a campaign-spending limit. If Healey had not made her intentions clear in a letter to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, the spending cap would have been set at $1.5 million for each candidate.

Along with Patrick and Healey, the other candidates for governor are Christy Mihos, who is running as an independent, and Grace Ross of the Green Rainbow Party.

Andrea Estes of the Globe staff contributed to this report.