Above the fray

Patrick picks his spots, stays in lead after first debate

Dan Devine

Plenty of punches were thrown in the first debate between the four candidates running for governor of Massachusetts. Green-Rainbow Party candidate Grace Ross tossed jabs amidst the heavyweights. More often than not, Republican Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey found herself ducking roundhouses heaved by Independent challenger Christy Mihos. But when the final bell sounded, many viewers felt that the contender who mixed it up least, Democratic nominee Deval Patrick, walked away the winner.

The debate started with moderator and Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace addressing a proposed rollback in the state income tax rate from 5.3 percent to 5 percent, approved by voters six years ago, supported by Mihos and Healey and opposed by Ross and Patrick.

Clarifying his opposition, Patrick said the rollback could be done after the economy grows to support it. Asked to respond to Healey’s claim that Patrick “will be the biggest tax and spender since [former Gov.] Mike Dukakis,” Patrick countered that during Healey’s stint as Gov. Mitt Romney’s lieutenant, the administration has increased property taxes by $1.8 billion and proposed $985 million in taxes and fees.

Patrick called the administration’s tax policy “a fiscal shell game,” shifting financial burdens from one area to another while taxpayers still suffer. Healey disagreed, saying Massachusetts has had billion dollar budget surpluses in each of the last two years, which the Democratic state Legislature wasted.

Healey focused on the Legislature throughout the debate, arguing that maintaining Republican control of the governor’s chair kept the Commonwealth from being a one-party system as it was during Dukakis’ tenure. Patrick responded by questioning what kind of balance voters desire.

“I think the balance that people want is between a fairly entrenched, inward-looking political establishment and an outsider in the corner office, someone whose experience is broader, who didn’t grow up in Beacon Hill culture,” he said.

Monday’s debate, sponsored by FOX25 and the Boston Herald, gave outsider candidates Mihos and Ross the opportunity to take part in what is largely seen as a two-horse race between the two major party nominees. While Ross acknowledged having little chance to win and used her time to highlight issues like a progressive taxation system, Mihos’ repeatedly and energetically attacked Healey, threatening to make him a millstone around her neck throughout the campaign.

The convenience store magnate peppered the lieutenant governor, blaming her administration for political gridlock, the flight of citizens from the state and what he called a change in her stance on illegal immigration. But he reserved his most virulent attacks for their handling of the Big Dig.

The former Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board member said that Healey and Gov. Mitt Romney chose “intentional indifference,” violating the public trust by remaining silent and looking the other way on necessary reforms.

“You ran away from your responsibilities,” Mihos said. “I gave you the documents and you people did nothing with it, and as a result, we’re the laughing stock of the nation. Two people are dead today because you did nothing.”

According to the Boston Globe, a Mihos campaign official said he was referring to the death of Milena Del Valle and a man who died when an ambulance transporting him took 50 minutes from Logan Airport to the Boston Medical Center. Officials said afterward that the delay may not have contributed to the man’s death.

Healey contested Mihos’s facts, saying that people are “very pleased that today Governor Romney is in charge of that project.” She cited a budget filed in January of 2003 and defeated by the Legislature that would have merged the Turnpike Authority with the Massachusetts Highway Department and given control to the governor’s office at the start of the Romney administration.

“We went to the Legislature repeatedly and asked them to merge these two entities so that the governor could have control over it. Finally, it took a tragedy to have them allow us to do that. We’re finally getting that stem-to-stern review done,” Healey said.

“That stem-to-stern review was promised when you ran for lieutenant governor, and when the governor, the sitting governor, ran for lieutenant governor — it was owed the people of Massachusetts,” Patrick rebutted. “The question always seems to come back to your not taking responsibility when it is your responsibility.”

When Patrick laid out a plan for appointing an independent special inspector general to analyze the integrity of the project, Healey interrupted, saying, “Because that’s precisely what we’ve done.”

“And it took a tragedy in June, and that is a shocking shame,” replied Patrick.

Healey’s continued assertions that the Beacon Hill stalemate rendered Dig progress impossible brought a reprimand from Ross.

“The day that tunnel fell in, the next morning you should have had every contractor, the CEO of every contractor, every sub-contractor in your office saying, ‘OK, you all know where you cut the corners. Deal with me now, or deal with the courts later. Tell us now,’” Ross said.

The fray continued, each candidate weighing in. After Wallace regained control, he ceded the floor to Patrick, who commended the administration for its work after the collapse, but took Healey to task for a failure in management.

“My point is that leadership means you take responsibility from the first day on the job and not explain it away because of not cooperating with the Legislature,” Patrick said. “That’s the job — to go build those bridges and get the control you need to exercise the authority you should have to steward the public’s money and the public’s trust.”

Many analysts said Healey needed to score decisively in the debate to reduce Patrick’s lead in the polls. But with attacks coming from all fronts, she couldn’t connect with any power shots. When she did launch an offensive, referencing a pre-debate Patrick press conference on Beacon Hill featuring Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry in an attempt to tie her opponent to special interests, Patrick parried and responded with a thrust of his own.

“Well, the ‘special interests,’ so called, that I was standing with are our congressional delegation, the people I want to partner with to help Massachusetts forward again,” Patrick said. “The people, frankly, that you and your administration, Lieutenant Governor, should have been partnering with … so I think it’s a little disrespectful of their role to refer to them as ‘special interests.’”

And while Healey came away with perhaps the debate’s best sound bite — “Let’s just say that if cutting taxes is the question, Deval Patrick is not the answer” — she didn’t raise her Democratic rival’s reticence to take the “no new taxes” pledge, which some believe would have put him in a tough position in upcoming debates before the Nov. 7 general election.

Following the debate, a FOX25 web poll asked which candidate viewers thought did the best job during the debate. By 9 a.m. Tuesday, 1,296 votes had been cast, with Patrick garnering 53 percent and holding a commanding advantage over Mihos (26 percent), Healey (15 percent) and Ross (6 percent). Patrick also dominated a similar poll on Boston.com asking which candidate voters felt won the debate, taking 61.7 percent of the 7,347 votes cast while Healey earned 20.5 percent. Mihos ran third with 13.8 and Ross placed a distant fourth with 4.0.