Gubernatorial Race To Focus on Image

With one convention down and one to go, the battle for Beacon Hill’s highest office is heating up faster than the weather.

And four months away from the September primary, the governor’s race has already seen several major shake-ups.

Facing low approval ratings and lower odds of election in November, Republican Acting Gov. Jane M. Swift dropped out of the primary race last month, leaving the door wide open for the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic mastermind Mitt Romney to enter the race as the Republican challenger.

Meanwhile, five Democrats are competing for the chance to evict the GOP from the corner office—real estate the Republican party has held for 12 years.

However, with Romney in and Swift out, one of five democratic candidates will face a far more formidable challenge than they anticipated.

Given the Commonwealth’s current financial woes—a projected $2 billion budget deficit for 2003—fiscal policy has become the campaigns’ key issue.

Central to the budget question is the state legislature’s planned 0.3 percent income tax rollback, scheduled to take effect January 1, 2003—a move which not all candidates support.

Social issues, including health care reform, education and affordable public housing are also on the table for debate this fall.

But in this arena, the candidates’ stances differ only marginally within their party, rendering the campaign one of image over issues.

Facing a public disilusioned with the current Beacon Hill regime, many candidates have strived promote their ‘outsider’ status and distance themselves from current government.

The Elephant Returns

Republican gubernatorial pick W. Mitt Romney is a stranger to neither politics nor Boston, despite his attempts to cultivate a reputation as an outsider.

“People are tired of the Beacon Hill machine,” Romney told the Boston Globe.

The son of George Romney, former Michigan governor and presidential candidate, Romney graduated from Brigham Young University in 1971 and recieved his M.B.A. and J.D. from Harvard Business and Law Schools, repectively, in 1975

Romney

In 1981, Romney founded Bain Capital—the financial arm of the prominent Boston management consulting firm Bain& Co. for whom he previously worked.

Romney put his own substantial funds on the line his unsuccessful 1994 bid for the seat of long-time Massachusets politician Sen. Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy ’54-’56 (D-Mass.).

But Romney’s most acclaimed venture to date had nothing to do with state politics but with his rescue of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Mired in scandal over bribes recieved by its members, the International Olympic Committee called on Romney to take the helm of the local organizing authority, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.

At first Romney thought that the taskwas an impossible one, and he refused to take it on.

“Are you crazy? No way. This is insane,” Romney told the Globe.

But after consulting with several close colleagues and freinds, he decided to take the job.

Two years, and $40 million in profits later (with the help of a hefty government bail-out to the tune of several hundred million dollars), the Olympics had shed their gloomy past and $400 million budget deficit, turning into a major sucess.

With this success in his back pocket, Romney has a valid claim to the title of come back king—something which he will not soon let Mass. voters forget.

“I have decided to run for Governor because in this time of fiscal mismanagement, I have the experience and proven track record to lead the Commonwealth back to prosperity,” reads the opening letter on Romney’s website.

On issues, Romney has made few clear remarks, save for his indication that he will support the law which currently allows abortion in Mass.

This stance represents an important compromise between the generally conservative stance of the Church of Latter Day Saints, of which Romney is a member, and the beliefs of the primarily pro-choice Commonwealth.

Democrats: The Big Five

Ladies First

Shannon P. O’Brien, the state treasurer and receiver general, has one trait none of her opponents can match—she is a woman.

And O’Brien is not shy about using her gender courting the endorsements of women’s advocacy groups; over the course of the next month she will hold a series of four “Town Meetings for Women.”

“Getting women to have better participation within the political prcess is a very very powerful part of any campaign,” she says.

However, O’Brien’s main pitch is her record of reform as a “strong, independent leader” as state treasurer. Before O’Brien took on her post, the state treasury was wrought with insider corruption.

“It comes down to independence,” she says, dismissing the insider v. outsider debate. “I’ve gotten results for people.”

O’Brien says her budget plan has four main points: better management, moderate cuts, judicious use of reserves and new revenues.

Calling Romney’s plan a “fantasy scenario,” O’Brien says Romney won’t be able to count on the federal bailout he received during the 2002 Olympics.

O’Brien has been criticized by her opponents for her inconsistent stance on abortion during the late 1980’s. But she has since declared a firmly pro-choice stance and points to her record of pro-choice votes during her time in the state legislature.

A Yale graduate with a J.D. from Boston University, O’Brien is the first woman to hold her current office.

She is also the first woman elected to statewide office alone on the ticket in Massachusetts.

President For Governor

Veteran Beacon Hill politician Thomas F. Birmingham ’72 is about as inside an “insider” as they come.

Rather than downplaying this image, though, the president of the state senate has sought to establish himself as the insider fighting for the rights of working people.

“To the extent that I am an insider I have been fighting for the outsider,” Birmingham said. “It’s the raison d’etre for my candidacy.”

Raised in Chelsea, Birmingham is a Rhodes Scholar, a graduate of Harvard Law School and a labor lawyer before entering the Mass. Senate in 1991.

As senate president, Birmingham is working with Swift and House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran to close the budget gap.

Birmingham says he would be willing to raise the income tax rate to 5.6 percent in order to solve the budget crisis—the only Democratic candidate to do so.

“I think trying to accomodate the biggest tax cut in the history of the state

in the middle of a recession is pure madness,” he says. “I am not prone to tell the people of Massachusetts a fairy tale.”

Birmingham seeks to further deconstruct his image as part of the state political machine by emphasizing his record of legislative leadership in core issues such as education, health care, housing and the environment.

Making New Rules

At 6-foot-4 inches tall, Warren E. Tolman looks every inch the part of Mr. Clean—and that is just fine with him.

The former state senator and 1998 contender for Lt. Governor is the only democrat running as a Clean Elections candidate—a 1998 ballot initiative passed in a state referendum to decrease the influence of money in politics.

Tolman’s court battle to make the state release the public funds owed to him has kept his name in the press, but clean election statutes have restricted his ability to raise a competitive war chest.

Still, while Tolman acknowledges his name recognition is low, he insists he will have enough money to get his message out

“Am I surprised that I am where I am in the polls? No,” Tolman says. “I have been playing by a different set of rules from everybody else.”

Tolman portrays himself as the common man—a former substitute teacher who regularly recycles and walks his kids to school every day. He jokes he is the only democratic candidate who has been to Mitt Romney’s home—as a UPS delivery person.

Looking ahead to November, Tolman’s goal is to translate his common man, clean politics image into broader support for his platform

Tolman’s plan for the the state is unique in specifically addressing the needs of rural western Mass., a plank spokesperson Karen G. Blackburn says is a reflection on his undergraduate years at Amherst.

Tolman, a lifelong resident of Watertown, worked his way through Boston College Law School and until the campaign taught at the law schools of both Boston College and Northeastern University.

From D.C. to Mass., With Love

Steve Grossman, former Democratic National Committee Chairman, wants to translate his skills as a business executive into executive leadership for the Commonwealth.

As the C.E.O. of the family-owned MassEnvelopePlus, Grossman is quick to point out his Somerville-based printing firm’s perfect labor record—no strikes, lockouts or arbitrations in 50 years as a union shop.

Grossman believes that his almost 30 years of experience in the business world is what the fiscally-hamstrung state needs.

Grossman says that as governor he will “hit the deck running,” and has developed a plan to solve the budget crisis while decreasing income taxes.

Grossman also wants to “build partnerships between working families and the business community.”

He wants the state to become the home of techonological innovation and also wants to develop an economy that incorporates all income levels.

Heading into the June convention, Grossman is confident of his chances.

“I want to make it clear that I am the best Democrat to beat Mitt Romney in November,” he says. “I think we will surprise a lot of people by how well I do.”

Short and Sweet

Robert B. Reich, former U.S. Labor Secretary in the Clinton administration and a late-comer to the race, was also the first candidate to present his 10,000 qualifying signatures to the Mass. secretary of state earlier this month—a display of his grassroots popularity.

Reich, like competitor Steve Grossman, has situated himself as a Beacon Hill outsider.

“I don’t owe anybody anything in the sense that I am not part of Beacon Hill,” Reich says. “I think the public wants someone who is fresh.”

But Reich does stress his prior experience at the federal level as beneficial training for fulfilling the duties of the corner office—running a federal department with an annual budget larger than that of Massachusetts.

Addressing the budget crisis, Reich has put forward specific numbers and a long-term economic plan for the state.

“The budget hole can be filled without cutting social services, human services or education,” says Reich, who has also said he would postpone the 0.3 percent tax rollback.

Reich is a graduate of Dartmouth College, is a Rhodes Scholar, and holds a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Left on Green

Green Party gubernatorial candidate Jill E. Stein ’73 is hoping to build on the Green’s success in 2000.

Ralph Nader and the Greens earned 6.5 percent of the vote in Mass.

2000, earning them a place on the ballot as an official political party in the state. The Greens also picked up a few seats in local elections last November.

Stein, a medical doctor and environmental reform activist, joins Warren E.

Tolman (D) as one of two Clean Elections candidates in the gubernatorial

race.

Stein is over two-thirds of the way to gaining the 6,000 qualifying contributions necessary to receive Clean Elections funding and could receive over $2 million in public monies.

With this funding, Stein’s grass-roots effort—which spent less than $15,000 in March—would receive a considerable boost.

Despite trailing in the polls, Stein remainsoptimistic about her chances.

“I think we do potentially have a very win-able election.,” she said in a talk at Harvard last month. “If you have a message that resonates, it’s powerful.”