Mass. Gov. Hopeful’s Running Mate Quits

Glen Johnson

BOSTON — A day after gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Tom Reilly introduced her as his running mate, a legislator abandoned the campaign Wednesday amid revelations of tax and loan delinquency, a top aide to Reilly said.

Democratic state Rep. Marie St. Fleur reportedly owes the IRS more than $12,000 dating to 2003 and failed to pay $40,000 in student loans. In December, the Registry of Motor Vehicles barred her from renewing her driver’s license because she did not pay motor vehicle excise taxes to the City of Boston last year, records reviewed by The Associated Press show.

The lieutenant governor candidate planned to read a statement outlining her decision early Wednesday evening at Reilly’s Boston headquarters, the aide told the AP. The Reilly campaign planned to release a separate statement from the attorney general, said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement.

St. Fleur referred a call seeking comment to the campaign, which didn’t immediately respond.

Reilly’s top rival for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, Deval Patrick, responded to the disclosures with a statement that said he also had been delinquent on taxes.

More than a decade ago, Patrick said, he and his wife triggered an IRS lien by missing "one or two" payments in an installment agreement with the agency. He added, however, that they paid the $8,788 they owed in full within five months.

Reilly’s failure to conduct an adequate background check on St. Fleur is all the more embarrassing because of the emphasis he has placed on following tax law. Last month, one of his first acts as a candidate was to release his own income tax returns for the last three years.

"Every citizen who enjoys all that this state has to offer is obligated to pay taxes," Reilly said in an April 14, 2005, statement about two men accused of failing to pay state taxes. "My office will continue to investigate and prosecute those who choose to avoid the law and their responsibilities to pay taxes."

On Tuesday afternoon, Reilly stood side by side with St. Fleur to announce that he had chosen the state’s first Haitian-born lawmaker as the person he wanted to run with on his ticket.

In Massachusetts, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run separately through the primary, before being united in a common party ticket for the general election in November. Reilly’s anointment had been expected to give St. Fleur a boost at the polls.

The Boston Globe reported that records showed last April the IRS placed a tax lien of $12,711 against St. Fleur and her husband, an accountant, for failing to pay sufficient taxes in 2003.

In an interview with the newspaper, St. Fleur said she paid down the $12,711 lien to about $8,000 by making $500 monthly payments since last spring. Later, though, a campaign spokesman told the newspaper that St. Fleur had only made one $500 payment last May, and that the outstanding balance was still more than $12,000.

St. Fleur said she accumulated the student loans while attending Boston College Law School. A campaign spokesman said that starting about three years ago, she began making monthly payments of $100, increasing them to $300 about six months ago.

From the outset of his campaign, Reilly has tried to contrast his hardscrabble roots with the millions made by Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who is seeking the Republican nomination, and Patrick, a former Clinton administration official, during their careers.

(Associated Press)