Candidates sharpen messages for stretch

Patrick will focus on jobs and the economy this week, his campaign said yesterday. Patrick will highlight his experience as a corporate executive and his proposals to spur business growth, especially in the renewable-energy industry. He will also intensify his critique of the Romney-Healey administration's economic record, the campaign said.

"This is one of the top issues on the minds of most voters in this state," said Doug Rubin, a spokesman for Patrick. "And I think it's critical for voters to understand the failed record of the Romney-Healey administration on this issue and the kind of positive change that Deval Patrick will bring."

Healey will spend the next two weeks driving home her message that Patrick is too liberal on issues ranging from taxes to immigration to education, said Tim O'Brien , her campaign manager. O'Brien said Healey will also argue that Patrick's complaints about her negative ads are hypocritical, because outside groups that support Patrick, such as the Massachusetts Teachers Association , are running ads that attack her.

"He hides behind the shield of `They're running a nasty campaign' while at the same time his friends and allies are running a smear campaign," O'Brien said.

The Healey campaign will also continue criticizing Patrick for advocating on behalf of convicted rapist Benjamin LaGuer , O'Brien said. Last week, it began running a controversial television ad featuring a woman walking alone in a dark parking garage as a woman narrator criticizes Patrick for calling LaGuer "eloquent" and "thoughtful." The negative tone of the ad has drawn rebukes locally and nationally, but Healey strategists say voters' distaste for Patrick will grow the more they think about his words.

The Patrick campaign, however, said its internal polling suggests the ad has hurt Healey .

Patrick plans to focus on the economy at seven events on the economy over the next six days, including speeches at the MetroWest Business Partnership in Framingham today , a large tourism promotion event in Boston tomorrow, and the Newton-Needham Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. Patrick will use an appearance with Bill Clinton at a rally in Worcester on Wednesday to address Healey's economic record and his plans to do better, according to the campaign.

Patrick will say that Massachusetts ranks 42d in the nation in creating new jobs, the campaign said. Patrick has long argued that major corporations have left the state over the last four years, even as Governor Mitt Romney has made derisive jokes about Massachusetts in his travels while exploring a presidential run.

"This campaign was always going to be about the incumbent administration versus the need for change, and I think that the Kerry Healey campaign has done a pretty cynical job of trying to shift focus away from their four-year record," Rubin said.

O'Brien said Massachusetts has thousands more jobs today than it did when Romney and Healey took office in January 2003 .

Healey, meeting with Billerica residents in a coffee shop yesterday, warned about changes she said Patrick would make. People nodded as she said Patrick would make Massachusetts more expensive, and that his support for giving illegal immigrants drivers' licenses and in-state tuition rates was dangerous and unfair.

"We need to get the truth out," she said.

Lisa Wangsness can be reached at lwangsness@globe.com.

(Correction: Because of a reporting error, the name of the 495/MetroWest Corridor Partnership was incorrect in a story about the gubernatorial campaign in yesterday's City & Region section.)