Romney turns up heat on former ally Amorello

Nearly three years after he forced William M. Bulger out as president of the University of Massachusetts, Governor Mitt Romney is at the throat of another politically connected honcho: Turnpike Authority chairman Matthew J. Amorello, whom Romney has blamed indirectly for the horrific death of a Jamaica Plain woman in a Big Dig tunnel Monday night.

To Romney, a shrewd former business executive with little tolerance for ineptitude, Amorello personifies the failings of the Big Dig, just as Bulger became a figurehead for a culture of Beacon Hill patronage that Romney vowed to fight when he took office in 2003.

``There are some parallels, of course, between the Bulger leadership and the Amorello leadership," the governor said in an interview yesterday. ``Both came from the Legislature, and my personal preference in choosing a candidate to run a university or to run a highway department is to find someone with the directly applicable skills, rather than political connections."

But to Amorello's defenders and other observers, Romney's strategy appears designed to divert responsibility for the Big Dig's many shortcomings away from his administration and insulate him from any potential political damage after the first fatality of a driver caused by the massive project.

Romney's sobering comments this week that he no longer trusts the Big Dig tunnels represent a remarkable shift from the celebratory air of a January 2003 ceremony honoring the completion of the Interstate 90 tunnel to Logan International Airport. Romney, just a few weeks into his tenure, saluted the ``great inventiveness" of the project's designers and said that ``even the crustiest Boston driver has to respect" what had been accomplished.

Romney and Amorello were once even political allies. In 1994, Amorello, then a Republican state senator from Grafton, endorsed Romney in his unsuccessful bid to unseat Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Four years later, Romney returned the favor, contributing heavily to Amorello's failed run for Congress.

Fast-forward to this week when for at least the third time in less than two years Romney has said that Amorello needs to go. The governor told reporters Tuesday that he holds Amorello responsible for a litany of failures on the Big Dig, including extensive leaks in the tunnels, a ``botched cost-recovery process," unjustified secrecy about costs and operations, and, now, a death on its roads.

``While I think he was a fine senator, I think it was a wrong fit to put a senator in charge of what's literally the largest public works project in the nation," Romney said in the interview, explaining that as problems with the Big Dig mounted, Amorello's ``lack of experience became more and more clear and ultimately led me to conclude that he really needed to step aside."

Romney first called for Amorello's resignation in November 2004, after the Globe reported that there were hundreds of leaks in Big Dig tunnels. The governor renewed that call in January 2005, after project managers were allegedly impeding a retired judge's investigation into the leaks. Romney later asked the Supreme Judicial Court if he could demote Amorello from the chairmanship, but the court said the governor's request lacked urgency.

This week, Romney said he would try again to remove Amorello through the courts.

Amorello has so far resisted all calls to step down, despite mounting pressure for him to do so.

Yesterday, the influential Senate chairman of the Legislature's Transportation Committee, Steven A. Baddour of Methuen, added his voice to the chorus.

Romney's fixation on Amorello has prompted some critics to say the governor is playing politics when he should be focused on what exactly caused the concrete panels to fall on the I-90 connector, who is directly to blame, and whether the Romney administration itself could have scrutinized the $14.6 billion project more closely.

``They're trying to personalize it at this point, politicize it, as opposed to governing, taking control . . . where there's been a fatality and there is the potential for many, many more," said former Turnpike Authority board member Christy Mihos, who is running for governor this year as an independent.

Mihos also said the Big Dig was, at the end of the day, a state project that state leaders, under Romney's leadership, had control over, despite the governor's contentions to the contrary.

Current Turnpike Authority board member Jordan Levy, who has been loyal to Amorello, also criticized Romney for singling out Amorello.

``It's easy to blame everybody else," Levy said yesterday, adding that since Romney became governor, neither he nor anyone from the administration ever sought information about the Big Dig from him. ``Nobody, nobody, nobody talked to me."

Levy said Romney ought to be raising questions about the project manager, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, and a leading contractor, Modern Continental Corp.

Romney maintains that he has tried to impose more accountability on the Turnpike Authority many times and been thwarted by the Legislature, where Amorello has many friends. (It is unclear, though, after Monday's accident, if Amorello still has those reservoirs of support.) Legislators rebuffed Romney's calls to merge the Turnpike Authority with the state Highway Department and to appoint an independent body to lead cost-recovery efforts.

``I feel a responsibility to provide for the public safety and to manage all public infrastructure," Romney said yesterday. ``I'm frustrated by the lack of ability to do so at the Turnpike Authority." Romney said he did not have similar problems at independent agencies such as Massport and the MBTA.

Romney also said that while it was too early to single out a particular construction or engineering firm for responsibility for this week's accident, the investigation should cast a wide net.

``Everybody is going to be under the microscope and should be," Romney said.

Amorello, speaking at a news conference yesterday, acknowledged the tension between him and the governor. ``I've been doing this job for over four years now, and I'll tell you quite honestly, for the three years I have been here in a co-term along with Governor Romney, that it has been a challenging time to work between the administration and the Turnpike Authority," he said.

``There's obviously a lot of politics involved, and my job has always been public safety," Amorello continued, saying he has ``tried to put politics aside."

For his part, Romney said his crusade to get rid of Amorello is ``not a personal issue."

He said much the same thing about Bulger in early 2003, when the governor began what was ultimately a successful push to oust the former Senate president as UMass president.

``The decision was not a political calculation or a personal one," Romney said in February 2003, after unveiling his plan to eliminate the president's job. Bulger later resigned as criticism grew over his role in the federal investigation of his fugitive mobster brother, James ``Whitey" Bulger.

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.