Category — Christy Mihos

The Lowell Sun endorsed Kerry Healey today:

We have no doubt that Kerry Healey is the best candidate in the Massachusetts gubernatorial race. She is intelligent, articulate, thoughtful and exceptionally qualified to lead the Bay State toward a bright future.

Unfortunately, Healey’s qualities have been blurred by a campaign that did well to expose Patrick’s weaknesses on key issues but did not work hard enough to highlight Healey’s many strengths. Healey the governor will be far superior to Healey the candidate.

Her 50-point plan is a detailed blueprint for how she will govern, while her Democratic opponent, Deval Patrick, has been evasive about what he will actually do and how he means to do it. He speaks generally of bringing “hope,” but we can’t help but wonder how expensive that hope will be to the taxpayers of Massachusetts.

On education, Healey supports merit pay for the best teachers, particularly for those working in underperforming schools and those teaching math and science. She wants to lift the cap on charter schools to give parents and students more options, raise the mandatory age of school attendance to 18 to keep kids from dropping out, and retain the MCAS as a graduation requirement.

Unlike other candidates, Healey won’t water down public education in Massachusetts. She understands that a solid academic foundation will allow students to attend college, excel in their careers and boost the state’s economic growth.

Healey supports rolling back the income tax to 5 percent, as approved by voters in 2000. She took a no-new-taxes pledge, will work to reform the state’s pension system to eliminate fraud and abuse, will penalize businesses that hire illegal immigrants and will push to allow municipalities to purchase health-care insurance through the state, a move that would save struggling communities millions.

It is clear Healey understands the concerns and needs of Massachusetts taxpayers and municipalities. She knows residents need good schools, lower taxes and safe neighborhoods, and she will strive to provide those necessities.

Healey would fight for lifetime parole for Level 2 sex offenders, to reinstate the death penalty for felons convicted of killing law-enforcement personnel, provide loan forgiveness for students pursuing in-demand careers like engineering and forensic sciences, and to make housing more affordable for first-time home buyers. Unlike Patrick, Healey has concrete plans that, with the support of the Legislature, will allow such changes to occur without piling more taxes on overburdened residents.

There’s a lot to be said for checks and balances in government. It’s the reason the GOP has held a lock on the corner office for 16 years. The people of Massachusetts know that the Democrat-dominated Legislature is less inclined to bust open the piggy bank and reach for the taxpayers’ wallets with a Republican governor standing guard.

Taking office amid a recession in 2002, Gov. Mitt Romney and Lt. Gov. Healey refused to tax their way out of a fiscal crisis, and for the past two years the state budget has included a $1 billion surplus.

Although Patrick claims that the state has lost 148,000 jobs under Romney-Healey, his numbers are just plain wrong. The state has 148,000 fewer jobs now than when the state reached its peak, but that peak was reached in February 2001 — nearly two years before Romney and Healey took office. According to the Department of Workforce Development, the state’s job market has rebounded by 61,000 jobs since it bottomed out in December 2003.

A moderate Republican, Healey will continue to halt some of the Legislature’s financial extravagance while reaching out across party lines to get things done and unify our polarized political arena.

The Sun is pleased to endorse Kerry Healey to be Massachusetts’ next governor.

I voted for Healey today since I will be at a conference in Edmonton on election day.

I urge everyone to vote for her on Tuesday so that we can have some check on the Democratic legislature. Without that check, you might as well just hand over your wallet at the polls.

PLEASE don’t waste your vote on Mihos!!! He has no chance of winning and anyone who votes for him is effectively voting for four years of Deval Patrick.

Dean Barnett on Christy Mihos:

“Mihos is a bitter enemy of the Romney administration the same way a bug is a bitter enemy of the shoe that squashes it.”

Jesse Legg at Idea Critic doesn’t appreciate my efforts to get Christy Mihos voters to consider Kerry Healey. Jesse challenges the notion that a vote for Mihos is a vote for Deval and appeals for positive marketing in political campaigns, which he illustrates with an automotive analogy.

But there is an important missing ingredient in Jesse’s analogy. If Jesse buys a Honda on Monday, does that affect my car buying decision on Tuesday? No, it has no effect at all. I can select a Honda, Porsche, or Toyota, and both of us can be very happy about our individual decisions.

However, in politics, we can only select one candidate. Everyone gets Patrick after the election even if a majority of us didn’t pick him. And worst of all, everyone lives with his decisions. You can vote for Mihos, but the reality is you are getting Deval. So, although a conscientiously cast vote is never wasted, you do have to consider the other outcomes when your candidate is a distant 3rd.

What some might see as fear mongering is a reality check. Do Mihos supporters really want further Democratic dominance of the state? What I’m suggesting is a more pragmatic vote given that Mihos really isn’t a viable candidate.

Christy Mihos says he’d vote for Deval Patrick if he couldn’t vote for himself? Not to worry, Christy. By staying in the race and sapping Healey’s support, you are voting for Deval. But you’ve known for quite some time winning wasn’t an option so sticking it to the Massachusetts Republican Party is the next best thing. It’s just a shame the people of Massachusetts have to go along for the ride.

It’s time for Christy Mihos to quit the governor’s race.  Why?  Take this quote from last night’s debate:

I was on the UMass board for five years, appointed by Bill Well, until Jane Swift removed me from that board too. And I can you, I loved that board, I loved being on there because I really learned how-

Yes, Christy, we know that Jane Swift fired you from your rich guy boards.  You mention it a lot although I haven’t a clue how it’s germane in the gubernatorial debates.  But believe it or not, the average Bay State resident isn’t all that concerned about your unceremonious dismissal from those boards.

You’ll get no argument from me that Swift was a disastrous acting governor.  And I’m sure it wasn’t much fun getting slapped around by her, but must you burry that hatchet in our heads by helping Deval Patrick get elected?  It’s time to face the facts—you aren’t going to win this race.  Your poll numbers have not moved significantly enough to even consider yourself a distant option.

It’s time to drop out and save us from the Legislature by supporting Healey and keeping the last buffer we have between us and total moonbat rule.  You remember the Legislature, right?  They are the people you used to rail against before the TV cameras were turned on.

Good move by Healey to seek a Patrick only debate.  Grace Ross makes Patrick look like a flaming moderate.  And you really have to wonder why Christy Mihos is starring as Deval Patrick’s attack dog.  With only 5 weeks to the election, how does Mihos gain by taking on the #2 candidate in Kerry Healey?  If he really wants to win and his motivation isn’t just grinding an axe with the Mass. GOP, shouldn’t he be challenging Patrick?

In a related note, the Democrats have an interesting strategy.  Having spent the last 4 years obstructing progress, now they want to pin all the blame on the Romney/Healey administration.  It might work this year, but what about 2010?  Patrick’s plan to turn the state around is to work real hard and craft solutions that all parties can agree on.  Good luck executing that strategy, Deval.

Sadly, Patrick isn’t going to volunteer any details about his plans either.  As the frontrunner with about a month to the election, he just wants to run the clock out.  Healey needs to get him gabbing, but that’s difficult with Doberman Mihos and moonbat Ross protecting his flanks.  It’ll be interesting to see what Patrick does here.

I didn’t see all of the debate last night but I did hear most of it on the radio as well as saw some video clips on the news. My overall impression is that the format sucked. A one minute response time for one candidate followed by only 30 seconds for rebuttal for the other 3 candidates was not enough time to dig into the issues and get past all the fluffy campaign slogans and usual sound bites. It was especially annoying when one candidate talked (or yelled) repeatedly during another candidate’s turn.

That of course brings me to Christy Mihos. I’ve listened to Christy Mihos many times on the Howie Carr show over the last few years and respected his take on the Big Dig and thought he got the shaft from Jane Swift. But after last nights debate I have lost all respect for him. He came across like Howard Dean on steroids. It is clear to me now that he is in this race to settle a score with the Mass GOP. He has no chance of winning but if his goal is to take out Healey, he might just be successful. That of course would be bad news for the rest of us. If he truly cared about this state, he would get out of this race and work to prevent a return to the Dukakis years. Instead he focused all of his energy on Healey and practically ignored Patrick.

Kerry Healey did as well as could be expected in these circumstances. She was composed, kept her cool and for the most part stayed on message. She is going to have to be more forceful though in future debates.

Deval Patrick was able to sit back and watch. He threw out things that sound great on paper like lowering property taxes but failed to say how he would accomplish that. It is extremely naive to assume that cities and towns would lower their property tax rates just because the state decided to send more money their way. It’s much more likely that the cities and towns would spend all of the money from both sources. After all, how often does a government voluntarily return money to the people? They always find a way to spend that money. Of all people, Deval Patrick should know that since he won’t commit to lowering the income tax to the voter approved rate of 5%.

As for Grace Ross, who really cares how she did?

The remaining debates should between the two candidates who actually have a chance of winning this race so that the voters can get a clear airing of the candidate’s views and make their choice. Heck, even the Boston Globe agrees with me on that point.

Last night’s gubernatorial debate succeeded in an odd contortion: It demonstrated both the value of including all the candidates on the ballot in at least one televised forum and also the argument for narrowing the field. Voters will definitely be best served if the next debate is for contenders only.

***

Although lively, this was a warm-up for a debate between the contenders. Mihos might qualify some day. But last night, only Healey and Patrick met that standard.