Healey tells Mihos at debate: 'Keep your hands to yourself'

The campaign is almost over, and in some ways little has changed. Kerry Healey is still annoyed at Christy Mihos. Deval Patrick is still trying to play the peacemaker. And Mihos just doesn't quit.

At one point during a debate last week in Dartmouth, Healey mentioned that she had gone cranberry-picking in bogs along the South Coast.

"When I go out into the cranberry bogs, as I recently did, I think, 'What a beautiful resource we have here from Massachusetts,' " Healey said.

"I'd love to see you out there harvesting cranberries, you know that," Mihos said. "That is a vision. That is a wonderful vision."

"I was there," Healey replied.

Mihos then patted her on the back, prompting Healey to say: "Keep your hands to yourself."

"You're my hero," Mihos said.

After the debate, Mihos told reporters, "It's like, what, touching a porcupine or something like that?"

Minutes later, Patrick surveyed his opponents and said, "Despite the wisecracks and the sanctimony, and the distortions, I'm going to miss you all."

"So where you going?" asked Mihos.

"All the way to Beacon Hill, my friend," Patrick said.

MATT VISER

Weld vs. Weld staffers
Call it Weld vs. Weld's best and brightest.

On Thursday, there was former governor William F. Weld, Big Red himself, stumping for Healey and warning, with his trademark whimsy, about the perils of electing a Democrat to the Corner Office.

"There's not too many things you have to get right in terms of blocking and tackling if you're a governor," Weld said. "But one of them is preventing tax increases in a high-tax state like this."

But to some of Weld's former top aides, their old boss has got it all wrong on this year's governor's race.

Mark Robinson, Weld's former chief of staff and secretary of administration of finance, joined Gloria Larson, Weld's former economic affairs secretary, and Richard Taylor, his former transportation secretary, to plug Patrick on a blustery morning last week.

Robinson, explaining his reasoning, likened 2006 to 1990, when Weld captured the governorship after many years of Democratic rule.

"I remember being up here about this time of year. You could feel the change in the air, and you can feel it here again," Robinson said. "I think it's the right thing to do."

Weld brushed aside questions on Thursday about the defection of his former staffers, but his appearance at Healey's side prompted Patrick's campaign to release a statement from Robinson later that day.

"Bill Weld would agree that this election is about leadership, not party affiliation," the statement quoted Robinson as saying. "Deval Patrick is by far the most qualified candidate to lead Massachusetts.

SCOTT HELMAN
Senators seethe over Patrick

First it was US Senator Edward M. Kennedy who was quickly steamed about Patrick. Now Massachusetts' other US senator, John F. Kerry, is burning over Patrick's public posturing at his expense.

As Kerry licked his wounds in self-exile last week, Patrick, at a gubernatorial debate in Boston, was telling Massachusetts voters that the senator's much-maligned attempt at humor was "dumb." At the time, the senator's flubbed joke at a California political event was the talk of the political world, targeted by President Bush and many Democrats, too.

A senior Democratic source said Kerry and his staff were quite unhappy over Patrick's statement. Kerry canceled his scheduled campaign tour for Patrick this weekend, but it is not clear whether the Democratic gubernatorial nominee's comments had anything to do with his decision. Kerry is lying low anyway after the political beating he took.

Although it hasn't stopped him from working hard for Patrick's election, Kennedy, through intermediaries, has let the candidate know that he is none too happy to see Patrick touting his strong support for the Cape Wind project to place 120 turbines in Nantucket Sound. Patrick has pointed to his support of the project to demonstrate he is free from the influence of his political allies.

FRANK PHILLIPS

Lynch pays up
US Representative Stephen F. Lynch must have figured out that his opponent on Tuesday, GOP gadfly Jack E. Robinson, is no threat to his winning a new term. But the fact that he is looking at the national polls showing House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will soon be the speaker may have helped. She and her leadership are asking House Democrats for contributions from $100,000 to $300,000, depending on their ranking and committee posts.

All the Bay State members, except for Lynch, had paid in full. He said he had a race on his hands and could make only a fraction of his $150,000 assessment. But last week he paid up, after saying $50,000 was his limit.

FRANK PHILLIPS