Romney goes to bat for Healey
He calls contest most important
Governor Mitt Romney, in a rare political appearance on behalf of his would-be successor, insisted yesterday that Republican Kerry Healey's "campaign for governor is the most important governor's race in the country to me."
Just last month, Romney used similar language to describe the Florida governor's race. "This is the highest-priority state for us . . . We've got a couple of others that are in this category, but nobody's higher than Florida," according to news reports.
Romney has traveled the country this year to boost his presidential possibilities and to campaign for Republican candidates. He heads to Iowa today to campaign for Republican candidates there.
A Globe-CBS News poll published Oct. 1 said that 45 percent of those surveyed said they were less likely to vote for Healey because she is Romney's lieutenant governor. A new poll published today found Healey trails Democrat Deval Patrick by 25 percentage points.
Yesterday, Romney insisted he has been a faithful ally to Healey. "Everything I've been asked to do, I've done. I'm as involved as I can possibly be," he said.
He held a 9 a.m. news conference the day after an evening debate between Healey and her three rivals to present a familiar GOP argument: A Republican is needed in the Corner Office to balance the Democrats who overwhelmingly control the Legislature and other state offices.
"The two-party system works," Romney said in his pitch to unenrolled voters, who make up 49.51 percent of the state's electorate. "Even in Palestine they have Hamas and Fatah."
Romney praised Healey as smart, knowledgeable, well-spoken, and tough. "She is truly a remarkable candidate for governor," he said.
"I think she's been underestimated over the past two or three years or longer. Deval Patrick is a fine person, but philosophically he's a Mike Dukakis liberal," he said.
If Patrick becomes governor, he argued, critical decisions will be made behind closed doors.
"Taxpayers would have had higher taxes, Melanie's drunk driving bill would have been watered down beyond recognition . . . in-state tuition for illegals would have been passed, Billy Bulger would still be at the University of Massachusetts padding his pension . . . " he said, predicting events had Democrats controlled Beacon Hill in recent years .
Healey, who held a news conference yesterday with 50 female supporters, said she welcomed Romney's support. "I asked him to assist in our campaign," she said. "I was very glad to have his assistance today and his endorsement, and he's done everything I've asked of him in this campaign."
Senior Patrick campaign adviser Doug Rubin predicted the voters of Massachusetts will reject Romney's appeal.
"People in Massachusetts have seen four years of the Romney-Healey administration and they're clearly unhappy with the direction of the state right now," he said. "What they're looking for is an outsider who will bring real change to Beacon Hill, and clearly Deval Patrick is that candidate."
Healey accused Patrick yesterday of "exaggerating his credentials" by saying he was a prosecutor who put criminals behind bars when he has never appeared in a courtroom on a criminal case.
"For weeks and weeks, Deval Patrick has been belittling my record as a criminologist," said Healey. "He's been out there talking about, lecturing to me about his experience in the courtroom, and today we find out that's a fiction."
Healey was referring to a Globe story that detailed Patrick's experience as the head of the Civil Rights Division of the US Justice Department during the Clinton administration. Patrick oversaw a staff of courtroom prosecutors, but never tried a criminal case personally.
In the past few weeks, as Healey has charged increasingly that Patrick is soft on crime, Patrick has referred to himself more and more as a former prosecutor who has had the personal "experience of sending people to jail. No, I'm not a criminologist,' he said at recent Boston Common rally, "but I have been in the crucible, breaking a sweat."
Other women who spoke at yesterday's news conference also questioned Patrick's record.
"I've been on those streets that Deval Patrick claims to know," said Margot Hill, a member of the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women and a Boston police officer. "But they're in Roxbury, Mattapan, and Dorchester, not in Milton or the Berkshires. I've done the work . . . in the real crucible, not in some safe cushy office in Washington, D.C., signing off on other people's hard work and sweat. "
Patrick, who was endorsed yesterday by the Massachusetts Association of Police Chiefs, acknowledged he never personally prosecuted a criminal case, but noted that there are prosecutors who work on an administrative and policy-making level.
April Simpson of the Globe staff contributed to this report. 