Big Dig crisis tests candidates

This was not how Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey was intending to spend her summer. After four years as a loyal second in command, she was hoping to step out of the governor's shadow as the Republican gubernatorial nominee, while he explored a presidential run.

But in the past week, when she has appeared in public, she has mostly been standing behind the man who is in charge: Governor Mitt Romney.

Healey said she has been working on the Big Dig crisis.

``I'm doing my job," she said in a brief interview yesterday.

The Big Dig barely amounted to a side issue in the governor's race until falling concrete killed a 38-year-old woman in the Interstate 90 connector a week ago. The crisis opened new political risks and opportunities for Romney, who wants to display his leadership ability to voters across the country. But it also presented a charged set of problems and possibilities for Healey and the other five people who want to succeed Romney.

``Campaigns are unpredictable; there are always events that crowd center stage unexpectedly," said Jeffrey M. Berry, a political science professor at Tufts University. ``It really tests the skills of campaigns to take advantage or to recover if they're pushed off stride."

Berry said that Thomas F. Reilly, a Democrat, might find himself in the most enviable position, at least in the short term. As attorney general, his job is to find out who, if anyone, can be held responsible for the falling tiles. This weekend, he looked somber at a memorial service for the victim, Milena Del Valle, and later revealed that inspectors had found bolts without epoxy on them, suggesting the origin of the accident that killed Del Valle.

Yesterday, Reilly sought to downplay the implications for his campaign.

``There is no place for politics here, and that's the way we're operating," he said in an interview by cellphone from the connector tunnel, where he said that he had spent hours meeting with engineers and investigators.

On the other hand, Reilly has already faced questions from his rivals about his previous oversight of the Big Dig; now those questions could intensify. In the long term, Berry said he was not sure how much Reilly would benefit, because of the difficulty of bringing an indictment for work done years ago on a complex project.

Democrats Christopher F. Gabrieli, a former venture capitalist, and Deval L. Patrick , a former corporate and civil rights lawyer, and Grace Ross , the Green Rainbow Party candidate, have no official role in the investigation. That means they can all make use of their status as outsiders as public skepticism about government is high, but they also have to figure out how to stay in the news.

``It doesn't change my message, which from the beginning has been that we need a different attitude, a governor who can get results," Gabrieli said in an interview yesterday.

Then there is independent gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos, an outspoken critic of the Big Dig and a former member of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board. Since the tragedy, Mihos has seized on his credentials as gadfly in chief, holding press conferences, issuing statements, and giving interviews. He said by phone yesterday that he is drawing up a list of issues an independent investigation should review.

``Right now, the entire project is suspect and screams out for credibility," he said.

All but one of the candidates for governor agree with Romney that Matthew J. Amorello, chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, should go. Ross said she did not have an opinion. But they differed on how they would respond if they were governor.

Healey and Reilly had only praise for Romney's handling of the crisis.

``I think he's headed in the right direction," Healey said. ``The administration has long needed the ability to oversee both the safety and the recovery effort for the Big Dig, and this is the first step. We are now going to be able to personally inspect and have our engineers at MassHighway look at all of the various aspects of safety relative to the Central Artery project; that's what's needed."

``I'd do exactly the same thing," Reilly said. ``I'm doing it right now."

Mihos said he wanted to see a top-to-bottom inspection of the Big Dig conducted entirely by engineers unconnected to the Big Dig or state government. He added that he would seize documents from the Turnpike Authority.

``All of the proof is in the documents that exist," he said. ``Who signed off on what?"

Gabrieli said his appointees to the Turnpike Authority would have ``unquestionable expertise and independence." He also said he would bring in outside safety specialists from academia and private industry to advise him on when to reopen the connector.

Ross said she would demand that Big Dig contractors reveal any shortcuts that could have compromised safety. ``Let's see who's going to come clean, and let's work with those folks," she said.

Patrick, who months ago called for the appointment of a special inspector general to review Big Dig cost overruns and engineering flaws, was not available for an interview yesterday.

But on NECN's ``This Week in Business" yesterday he said that whoever was responsible for the problems should pay to fix them. Reilly said he agreed.

``We're going to find out who is responsible before this is over," Patrick said, ``and it's not the taxpayers."

Lisa Wangsness can be reached at lwangsness@globe.com.