Healey strives to cast self as leader

For the lieutenant governor, there were no embarrassments that night -- except for the report about the tourney that appeared on a local television station. Instead of Healey, it featured an archived video of Romney bowling a year earlier at the same event.

It's not easy being Romney's understudy.

As a candidate to succeed him, the Beverly Republican has struggled to create her own identity, with some notable difficulty. When the Big Dig ceiling collapsed in July, she stood silently behind the telegenic governor during his frequent news conferences. And as Romney has struck increasingly conservative stances on abortion rights and other issues in preparation for a run for president, her relationship with abortion rights advocates has suffered.

Partly, her trouble comes from the nature of the office, the quintessential second banana relegated to limited appearances in the spotlight. But it also is because Healey has had to cherry-pick issues as she struggles to differentiate herself from Romney, who has dominated the administration with a choreographed media operation.

``There was never any question that this was Governor Romney's administration," said Edward A. Flynn, public safety secretary under Romney until he became police commissioner in Springfield last March. ``This was not a hyphenated administration, as it was during the Weld-Cellucci years," he said, referring to what Republicans William F. Weld and his lieutenant and successor, Paul Cellucci, billed as their co governorship. Romney delegates to Healey a portfolio of responsibilities, Flynn said, including much of the public safety sphere. ``She was very engaged in the issues of effective urban policing, prisoner reentry, sex offender laws, and so on, and a lot of her interests and engagements were reflected in the state budget," Flynn said.

Healey said she and Romney schedule at least one meeting a week for about a half-hour in his office or hers, which are at opposite ends of the suite of executive offices on the third floor of the State House. They communicate frequently by telephone or e-mail, she said. They rarely socialize together. ``He's very close to his family and has an extremely busy schedule," Healey said in an interview with the Globe. ``He's been to my home, probably twice, maybe . . . I'm not sure," she said.

Until she began to prepare a campaign to succeed Romney, Healey never aired her differences with him, even at high-level staff or Cabinet meetings. ``Where she can't be supportive, she does it privately at meetings with the governor," a Romney aide said.

Healey would not discuss those instances. ``I'm not in the habit of discussing private discussions," she said. ``It's not ever appropriate to talk about them in public."

But since she began to lay the foundation for her candidacy, she has publicly broken with Romney on same-sex civil unions, abortion rights, the contraceptive known as the ``morning-after pill," and stem cell research, all of which she supports and Romney opposes or would severely restrict.

In a not-so-subtle effort to distance herself from Romney, and blunt the appeal of Democratic rival Deval Patrick, Healey is airing an ad that notes she agrees with Patrick on abortion rights and stem cell research but disagrees with him on others.

Romney calls Healey ``a partner" in his administration and says they enjoy a close working relationship. In an interview with the Globe, he downplayed the ``co governor" model under Weld and Cellucci.

``Co governor is a wonderful phrase, but, look, Bill Weld was the governor," Romney said. ``Paul Cellucci was an excellent lieutenant governor, but Bill Weld wasn't half a governor; he was a full governor."

For months, Romney has been politicking all over the country for Republican candidates, usually in his capacity as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. But in Healey's campaign he is a nonfactor, evidently considered a liability because his unfavorable ratings have been spiking in recent polls.

``The governor will be there to support me in any way I ask him to," Healey said. She doesn't ask often. Romney has raised money privately for her and will appear at a fund-raiser later this month that will be closed to the media.

``He certainly has helped," Healey said. ``People know that I've been part of this administration for the last four years. They need to know what kind of governor I'd be on my own. It's important to see me on my own speaking about my own agenda."

The governor's home-state popularity has sagged badly, a byproduct of the carpet bombing of his administration's record by Democratic ad makers this political season (``millions of dollars worth of unanswered attack ads," Romney calls them), not to mention his frequent absences from the state as he explores running for president.

In many ways, Healey owes her political status to Romney. In 2002, she was an obscure figure with unfulfilled political ambition after being drubbed twice in campaigns for state representative. Newly installed as chairwoman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, Healey was tapped by Romney to become his running mate by challenging James Rappaport, a wealthy businessman and former party chairman, in the primary. With heavy-duty help from Romney, she won, sparing the GOP a ticket of two rich, white men running against a woman, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Shannon O'Brien.

Once in office, Romney sparred with the Democratic Legislature, and his list of legislative accomplishments was spotty until the landmark compulsory health insurance law that was hammered out earlier this year.

But the governor gives Healey a large share of the credit for some of the administration's achievements on criminal justice issues, including tougher laws on sex offenders, drunk drivers, and witness intimidators.

``She took the lead on the drafting, working with the legal department, and she took the lead on lobbying," Romney said last week. ``It's hard for me to conceive of a closer working relationship than we have."

Moreover, she was a force behind state funding for three new ``sobriety high schools" for teens recovering from drug or alcohol abuse, and she led the effort to move homeless families out of expensive motels and into facilities that provide a support system.

Romney said he has tried to be helpful to Healey when possible, as he did by making sure she was acting governor so she could preside at a signing ceremony of a law extending the statute of limitations for sexual crimes against children. ``I've made a point to be out of town, across the border, to allow her to do the signing and take the primary credit for that," Romney said. ``She doesn't get as much credit as she deserves."

Brian C. Mooney can be reached at bmooney@globe.com.