2 unions spending big for Patrick
Labor unions have poured about $4 million into their efforts to boost Deval L. Patrick in the closing weeks of the campaign. The spending gives the front-running Democrat a financial edge over Republican Kerry Healey, his chief rival, down the stretch.
Led by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which has bought nearly $2.3 million in advertising time, labor unions' messages have been highly critical of the lieutenant governor and Mitt Romney, the governor she is attempting to succeed.
Healey has heavily outspent Patrick on ads since the Sept. 19 primary, by about a 2-to-1 margin, but the Democrats' allies have been an equalizer.
Healey has been tagged for the tone of her ads, many of them starkly negative in an attempt to cut into a Patrick lead that exceeded 30 points in some polls after the primary. Patrick and his proxies, however, have put up some tough spots in recent weeks. Moreover, his campaign has reinforced the image of Healey's attack ads by crafting several ads that slam her for negativity.
"There's been an onslaught of negative ads or comparative ads by both sides, and this characterization that the tone of this campaign is negative just because of the Healey campaign is false," said Tim O'Brien, campaign manager for Healey.
"Deval Patrick and his special-interest allies have launched millions of dollars in negative attacks, and it is disingenuous for him to claim the high road," O'Brien said.
Doug Rubin, a senior strategist for Patrick's campaign, asserted: "We always said that if Deval Patrick was attacked, we would respond, and that's what we tried to do with our TV ads."
The statewide teachers union has reported spending about $2.26 million on a series of ads plus $137,000 for mail on behalf of Patrick. Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union reported spending $397,000 on radio ads, $300,000 on mail, and almost $20,000 in salaries for canvassers.
Those two unions have contributed most of the funding for an independent organization, the Patriot Majority Fund, which is spending about $225,000 per week on television ads. The first two ads slammed Healey; the final one touts Patrick's agenda.
The teachers' union expenditure backing Patrick is significantly more than the union spent to support the Democratic ticket four years ago, MTA spokesman James Sacks said.
MTA president Anne Wass said that though Patrick does not agree with the union's positions on every issue, "he is willing to listen to educators" before reaching decisions on education policy.
In early October, Healey's candidacy was buttressed by more than $800,000 in ads by the Republican Governors Association.
A poll conducted last week for the Globe and CBS4 found that 54 percent of those surveyed believed that Healey's ads "crossed over the line" with their strong criticism of Patrick's past legal advocacy for convicted rapist Benjamin LaGuer and a police killer in Florida.
But Healey's campaign manager maintained that Healey and Romney have been under assault from Democratic ads since summer. That's when the Healey camp's polling began to show more voters saying the state is on the wrong track.
The most incendiary of the negative ads was Healey's commercial, titled "Garage." It featured a grainy, dark depiction of a lone woman in a parking garage as a narrator says that Patrick "praised a convicted rapist" and that he should be "ashamed, not governor." It was her second spot devoted entirely to Patrick's role in the LaGuer case.
Some observers said the Healey ad strategy clearly backfired.
"If you are the one candidate seen as going the most negative, that is likely to be a detriment," said Marion Just, a political science professor at Wellesley College. "So you have the factor in this race of more negative ads on one side, Kerry Healey, than the other." 