Romney tie may cripple Healey

He has been the state's most prominent politician over the last four years, but now Governor Mitt Romney finds himself in an awkward position -- he may be a political liability.

His popularity in Massachusetts is at an ebb, and a recent poll suggested that his association with his lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey, is dragging down her chances of beating Democratic nominee Deval L. Patrick.

Yesterday, the Republican Governors Association that Romney leads began airing an ad that seems as much designed to boost his own legacy in Massachusetts as it is to help Healey. Romney appears in many of the scenes in the commercial, which talks about the ``Romney-Healey team" and how voters said ``no to one-party rule" in 2002.

Romney insisted yesterday that he would have been reelected had he chosen to run.

``If I were running for reelection, I'd be running ads about my record," he told a reporter. ``That's not what's going on. No, I'd have no problem being reelected, as has been pointed out in the past. But that's not relevant because I'm not running. But I'm proud of my record, I'd be happy to defend it."

The governor offered a spirited defense of Healey last week and yesterday talked up their record when asked if he thought he was a weight on Healey's candidacy. He emphasized education and argued that the state's ``huge deficits" had become ``billion-dollar surpluses."

``I'm very proud of the things we've accomplished, and I'm convinced that as the record is clearer and as people focus on the truth, they'll recognize that what Kerry Healey has accomplished is extraordinary, and she deserves a chance to serve as governor," said Romney, who is eyeing a run for the White House in 2008.

A Globe-CBS4 poll published Sunday said that Romney's popularity in Massachusetts has plummeted, and that Healey may be suffering for it.

Forty-eight percent of voters viewed Romney unfavorably, while 40 percent viewed him favorably. Forty-five percent of those surveyed said Healey's role as Romney's lieutenant governor made them less likely to vote for her; 25 percent considered it a point in her favor.

Healey has spent little time campaigning with Romney this fall. She has distanced herself from him on some social issues -- she favors abortion rights and he opposes them, for example -- and she said she would seek to establish her own identity in the campaign.

She insisted she was proud of their administration's accomplishments, but she said voters ``have to understand that I will be a new governor, I will be a different kind of governor than we've had in the past."

The new RGA ad does not emphasize Healey's independence. Instead, it describes how ``the Romney-Healey team" transformed the Massachusetts of 2002, with ``an economy in a tailspin, a $3 billion deficit, people out of work," to the Massachusetts of 2006, with a $1 billion budget surplus , more jobs, and, soon, healthcare for everyone.

Healey appears by Romney's side through most of the ad, except for a few seconds at the end where she is on her own.

A media consultant for Patrick's campaign said the RGA bought about $741,000 in air time on the major networks in Springfield and Boston this week. On top of that, Healey is spending about $750,000 this week on her own television ad featuring Democrats praising her work, according to her campaign.

Romney dominated media coverage in the weeks after a fatal ceiling collapse in a Big Dig tunnel this summer, and yesterday announced the state's new healthcare law.

But he also faces political troubles in the state that elected him in 2002. In Sunday's poll, 57 percent of voters believe the state is seriously off-track, while 34 percent believe Massachusetts is heading in the right direction.

Last week, a stubborn Massa chusetts Port Authority Board refused to heed his call to reform a controversial sick pay policy. He also was forced to accept a court decision that could allow gay couples from Rhode Island to marry in Massachusetts.

Yesterday, a Healey strategist said the campaign welcomed the RGA ad because it would help counter the millions of dollars' worth of ads attacking the Romney-Healey administration run by Democrats before the primary.

RGA political director Gentry Collins said in an e-mail: ``The ad seeks to set the record straight after years of partisan attacks and remind the voters of the Commonwealth about the record of achievement that Healey has been a part of."

But William G. Mayer , a political science professor at Northeastern University who had not yet seen the ad, said he doubted that highlighting Healey's partnership with Romney would help her, with his stance on abortion and his extended travel out of state making him ``essentially unelectable in Massachusetts from here on in."