For better or worse, they stuck to the script
CAN WE vote now?
After four debates, the candidates for governor are married to their talking points. That leaves the rest of us contemplating divorce, even before we finally get to pick a partner on Election Day.
Tax policy and illegal immigration were the main topics of last night's showdown.
The biggest surprise came when Democrat Deval Patrick said he could not remember how he voted on the tax rollback referendum question, saying, "I can tell you, I have no idea what my vote was on that." His amnesia is a little hard to fathom, since a key part of his platform is the argument that the state cannot afford to roll back the state income tax level to 5 percent.
Beyond that, everyone stayed pretty much on script. Republican Kerry Healey repeated as often as she could that the tax money belongs to the people. Patrick called the rollback a gimmick and talked about broken roads and overcrowded schools and the need to invest in the Commonwealth. Independent Christy Mihos used the occasion, as always, to drag Mitt Romney into the debate, telling Healey he would never do "what you people did." And Green Rainbow candidate Grace Ross reminded us that everyone needs a job and rich people should pay more taxes.
When the subject was illegal immigration, staying on script meant the following: Healey insisted that giving college tuition parity to the children of illegal immigrants is "a wrong use of taxpayer money." Patrick pontificated that illegal immigrants "come here for jobs," not for public housing, driver's licenses, or college educations. Mihos announced that "illegal immigration is illegal." And Ross reminded us that everyone needs a job and rich people should pay more taxes.
Patrick had some good prosecutorial moments, especially when he pressed Healey on why the Romney administration continued to award state contracts to employers who hire illegal immigrants. "Who's in charge? . . . When are you going to take responsibility?" he asked, when Healey answered that it was the job of the attorney general to investigate such cases.
Healey's best moments came when she reminded listeners of the one-party rule that would prevail under Governor Deval Patrick. "He will be a rubber stamp," she warned, as she related the buzz on Beacon Hill, following polls that give Patrick a commanding lead in the final campaign stretch.
That's Healey's biggest opponent right now -- the growing sense of inevitability that is building around a Patrick victory. As Mihos said at one point to Patrick, "you may be the next governor."
Healey needs to shake up the sense of inevitability. Patrick, of course, wants to build on it. And voters just want to vote.
Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com. 
