Romney draws Democrats' ire

With Governor Mitt Romney's suggestion that they move their national convention, Democratic leaders are lashing out at Romney, accusing him of playing politics with the event to harm Senator John F. Kerry's campaign for president.

The comments mark the first time that Democratic elected leaders -- including Mayor Thomas M. Menino and US Representative Michael E. Capuano -- are publicly accusing Romney of standing in the way of a successful Democratic National Convention. Menino said the Romney administration has recently begun to put up "roadblocks" to convention planning.

"It's political mischief," Menino said. "I wish that some of the agreements we had in the past were continued. Everybody said it was great to have it in the city, but to continue to put roadblocks up doesn't help."

Convention organizers say the MBTA and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority have hampered planning efforts by threatening to back off several agreements to supply buses for the convention and remove the aging elevated Green Line near the FleetCenter. Several people involved in planning meetings said yesterday that the turnpike authority also began in January to put up obstacles to the Democrats' use of a crucial sliver of turnpike land near the FleetCenter. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is controlled by Romney, and the turnpike authority is under the purview of chairman Matthew J. Amorello, a Republican who was once a state senator and a congressional candidate.

Romney's comments on Tuesday -- that angry commuters would have Democrats to blame for downtown gridlock if they stick with the FleetCenter instead of holding the convention at the sprawling new facility in South Boston -- are only the latest example of him trying to hurt Democrats and their planning efforts, Capuano said.

"He wants to make the convention worse for the Democratic Party and the nominee," said Capuano, a Somerville Democrat whose district includes much of Boston. He has been involved in convention planning and is widely discussed as a potential Romney opponent in 2006.

"He's trying to deny any assistance by the state that would make this convention a success," Capuano continued. "Is he a politician trying to help a candidate, or is he a governor of the Commonwealth trying to help make this a success? Which comes first? The answer should be obvious."

Romney's spokeswoman, Shawn Feddeman, said the governor has been supportive of Democrats' planning efforts from the start and will work to achieve a successful convention no matter where Democrats choose to have it. Several Romney Cabinet secretaries and administration officials have been consistently attending planning sessions and are in regular contact with city officials regarding the convention, Feddeman said.

The governor is leaving the logistical agreements to experts at the MBTA, she said. She noted that he has no control over operations at the turnpike authority.

Turnpike authority officials had promised to let the city control a swath of land that once held the elevated Central Artery for protest space and bus parking in the cramped area around the FleetCenter, convention planners said. Yesterday, however, several people involved in planning meetings said that in January, authority representatives began raising questions about that informal agreement, saying that the paperwork was not in order.

Sean O'Neill, a turnpike authority spokesman, said the authority still hopes to be able to make that land available to the city for convention-related uses. The area is now a construction zone, with Central Artery demolition and surface road construction taking place, he said.

"While the site in question sits amidst an active construction zone, the turnpike authority will do what it can to assist the city of Boston in hosting a successful public event," O'Neill said.

Democrats' anger at Romney erupted this week after he went public with his suggestion that the FleetCenter be abandoned in favor of the new Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on the South Boston waterfront.

"I anticipate that when people find it difficult to come in and out of the city they're going to ask a question: `Why wasn't this held at the new convention center?" Romney told reporters Tuesday. "And the answer is, `This is where the party chose to have their convention.' "

Many Democrats concede that the idea has merit in the abstract. But they contend that Romney knew it had been bounced around by convention planners and was rejected as untenable. The Democratic National Convention Committee signed a contract with the FleetCenter in 2002. Now, with just four months before the convention, moving the event would be a logistical and financial nightmare, planners say.

Some Democrats said they were disturbed by the manner in which Romney made his views known. Word was leaked in a television news broadcast Monday night, ensuring that reporters would ask the governor about it at an unrelated event -- the announcement of the new Department of Correction commissioner -- the next morning. Romney then talked about his idea in a National Public Radio interview Tuesday morning.

When Romney addressed the issue in front of television cameras in the Governor's Council chamber, two of his top political advisers -- Rob Gray and Charles Manning -- were in attendance. The governor's political aides rarely attend press conferences held to announce routine appointments.

"He's not the first to propose it, but he was the first to run to the media with it," Capuano said. "He's getting a cheap headline and wants to insulate himself from any criticism, instead of trying to come to the table like a good leader."

Dan Payne, a Democratic political consultant, said Romney is making convention planning difficult as part of his "contribution" to the national Republican Party and the Bush-Cheney ticket. But he said that move comes with a price, since Romney could suffer politically if he serves as governor during a chaotic, poorly planned convention.

"He's going to do his best to make this a messy occasion," said Payne, who helped run the 1988 presidential campaign of then-governor Michael S. Dukakis. "He has done nothing to make it easier for the state to host the convention. If the Republicans were coming to Boston, Romney's attitude would be 180 degrees different."

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a cochairman of the Kerry campaign and a driving force behind Boston's bid to land the convention, dismissed the idea of moving the convention at this stage as "impractical." But he joked that Kerry would keep it in mind for 2008.

A spokesman for Kerry's campaign declined to comment yesterday.

Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.