Patrick holds big lead in fund-raising over Healey

Donors in communities close to Boston like Newton, Wellesley, and Lincoln have opened their wallets this year in support of the gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Deval Patrick, helping him to open a wide fund-raising lead over Republican Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.

In Newton alone, Patrick raised $375,184 in 2006 through mid-October, outpacing Healey by a 5 to 1 ratio. But Healey had bright spots of her own, particularly in towns farther west along the Interstate 495 corridor, significantly raising more than her opponent in towns like Hopkinton and Westborough.

Patrick, who faced a tough three-way primary battle before the general campaign, raised $891,570 in the 37 cities and towns in the Globe West circulation area, while Healey raised $461,903, according to 2006 campaign contribution records from the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

Unenrolled candidate Christy Mihos raised $22,705, and Green Party/Rainbow Party candidate Grace Ross picked up only a handful of small donations totaling $ 112.

With the election looming on Tuesday, Patrick has been leading in the polls, with Healey coming in second and Mihos and Ross trailing far behind.

Overall, residents of the western suburbs have been generous this year, contributing $1.38 million to the four candidates. That's about $2.50 per voting-age resident. The offerings ranged from the $500 maximum individual yearly contribution to a donation of $2 given to the Ross campaign by one Weston resident, the records show.

Newton, the biggest city in the area, was a bright spot in fund-raising for both candidates, the place where they raised the largest amounts. But Patrick beat Healey by more than $300,000, with the Republican picking up $73,897 in the city.

Nate Little, a Healey campaign spokesman, said Patrick's fund-raising advantage there is not surprising, given the high percentage of registered Democrats in the city.

Jeff Gulati, a Bentley College political scientist, said that given Patrick's lead in recent polls, the overall fund-raising gap is to be expected. Some polls have shown Patrick leading by more than 20 percentage points.

"It indicates a great deal of enthusiasm for Patrick and a lack of enthusiasm for Lieutenant Governor Healey," Gulati said. "Money tends to flow toward the winner, and it's been perceived for quite a while that Patrick is more likely to win than Healey. The better your campaign operates, the more favorable you look in the polls, the easier it is to raise money."

Libby DeVecchi, a spokeswoman for the Patrick campaign, said, "We have donations coming from small, medium, and large communities throughout Massachusetts. It just shows how strong the grass-roots support for Patrick is."

Healey fared better in the ring of towns along Interstate 495 from Bolton through Hopkinton south to Wrentham, where she either had a fund-raising advantage or came within a few hundred dollars of Patrick.

Healey spoke to an enthusiastic meeting of the "Arc of Innovation" Monday morning in Framingham. The Westborough-based group is a regional economic booster for 32 cities and towns along Boston's outer loop. It has hosted Mihos, Patrick, and Healey, but the lieutenant governor seemed to draw the most approval from the group of business executives and politicians who gathered.

Healey "certainly knows the issues that are important to both businesses and families along the 495 belt, in terms of affordability, housing, and the importance of having a low, predictable tax rate for companies looking to grow there," Little said.

Ken Weismantel is chairman of the Republican Town Committee in Hopkinton, where Healey has outraised Patrick, $16,305 to $4,965. He said the town tends to support Republican candidates. Taxes are a primary concern, Weismantel said.

"Less than, probably, 15 percent of any dollar that we send in taxes ever comes back in local aid," Weismantel said. He also said Healey's support for ending tolls on western portions of the Massachusetts Turnpike -- a pocketbook issue for commuters in the western suburbs -- surely hasn't hurt.

Healey campaigned in Hopkinton in late September with her running mate, Reed Hillman, who grew up in Newton and served as a Town Meeting member in Framingham. The news conference about education issues was Healey's only event in Hopkinton, and she has enjoyed strong financial support in the town despite having no major fund-raisers there, Weismantel said.

Healey has a fund-raising edge in 16 towns in the Globe West area, including a slight advantage in the wealthy suburb of Weston, which is surrounded by towns that gave more money to Patrick.

One of those adjacent towns is Lincoln. Fewer than 8,000 people call the town home, but they have been quite generous to the Democratic nominee. Patrick has raised $45,685 in the town, which is a little more than $8 per voting-age resident, by far the highest per-capita contribution rate for any candidate in the area.

Ilana Newell is co chairwoman of the Lincoln effort to elect Patrick.

"Almost every house has a Deval Patrick sign up," Newell said. "In a way, it's very fitting that we've had a grass-roots approach to fund-raising for this very grass-roots campaign."

She said that has meant making direct fund-raising appeals to voters in the town who may have never contributed to a political race before. Patrick has been to the town three times, Newell said.

"We've really stood with him every step," she said, including in the primary, where he received the unanimous support of the town's Democratic caucus.

That enthusiasm, which has led so many voters to part with their money in support of their candidate, seems to have more to do with Patrick's appeal than frustration with the current administration, said Gulati.

"There's actually a great deal of enthusiasm about Deval Patrick; it's not just anti-Romney or anti-George Bush," he said. "There is a great deal of warmth and hope that many Democrats are placing in Deval Patrick."

Mihos' s campaign said the candidate decided early in the race to not accept money from lobbyists, state contractors, state employees, or special-interest groups.

"Since we eliminated those groups, and we did not have the benefit of a party apparatus, we looked only to the voters for campaign contributions," Mihos spokeswoman Nicole Nionakis said in an e-mail to Globe West. "He is proud of the fact that his decision to not take monies from special interests will allow him the objectivity to hire the best people when he is governor."

Ross campaign manager Melissa Harrell said in an e-mail, "Grace is the only non millionaire in this race and has obviously had an uphill battle in spending money than the other candidates, but because we have focused on getting our message out, people are responding, and they're hearing about us -- which is the biggest barrier -- recognizability."