Category — Kerry Healey

MA residents are rejecting Proposition 2 ½ overrides in greater numbers.  These overrides are so common now that the Boston Globe has a blog dedicated to tracking them.  Governor Patrick has 2 solutions (Well, technically 1 since he stole the other from Kerry Healey):

Governor Deval Patrick has invoked the increasing failure rate of Proposition 2 1/2 overrides as he stumps for proposed legislation that would allow towns to assess a new local tax on meals and hotels, and give them access to reduced-cost state pension and health insurance networks. Dozens of select boards and other local officials have endorsed the proposals, collectively called the Municipal Partnership Act. 

I’m still wondering where the $700+ million in efficiencies the governor saw during the campaign went.  There hasn’t been a lot of talk about them since he took office.  However, government is an inefficient beast, so numerous opportunities, like those highlighted by the Healey campaign in pension and health insurance consolidation, are available to a politician with guts.

As for the governor’s options tax push, there are a number of flaws that I haven’t seen addressed yet.  1^st, taxing meals and hotel rooms in Boston would raise substantial revenue, but what about the Western portions of the state?  Many communities simply won’t benefit substantially from this change.  2^nd, the “option” in these taxes really means at the option of local politicians and not the voters.  Creating government efficiencies takes a back seat to giving local governments tax sources that don’t require voter approval.  3^rd, none of the proposals I’ve seen provides offsets for traditional property taxes from the proposed options taxes.  There should be a dollar for dollar offset in property taxes with revenues generated by options taxes otherwise this becomes just another way for our politicians to get their hands in our pockets.

The above quote from Deval Patrick along with this front page from the Boston Herald tells you everything you need to know before pulling the lever on Tuesday.

If you still don’t get it, Howie Carr spells it out for you:

Mike Dukakis was a good governor. And if you don’t believe me, just ask Deval Patrick. Here’s the exchange from the final televised debate Wednesday night.

Kerry Healey: “I’d like to ask you, do you think Dukakis was a good governor, and why?”

Deval: “I think that Mike Dukakis was a good governor in many ways, and we had challenges then.”

We sure did, Deval, and the biggest challenge of all, at least to us taxpayers, was named M. Stanley Dukakis.

Sure, Deval’s lead in the polls is most likely insurmountable, and tossing a bouquet to the henpecked wimp Mike Dukakis isn’t nearly as boneheaded as Liveshot Kerry’s “stuck in Iraq” crack.

Still, you can’t say now you haven’t been warned.

[snip]

For those with short memories, let’s consider some of the accomplishments of Mike Dukakis:

• Phony Social Security numbers issued by the state to illegal aliens so that they could go onto welfare immediately upon arrival in Massachusetts.
• Forty-four murderers had their sentences commuted by the Duke in his first four years.
• Weekend furloughs for first-degree murderers so they can rape and be inducted into the mafia.
• Hiring of gangsters and their relatives at the Mass. Convention Center Authority after Dukakis turned over control of the board to Whitey Bulger’s brother Billy (now a confidant of Deval Patrick).
• Increased Turnpike tolls at Allston and Weston from 25 cents to 50 cents, and then held a press conference announcing “a 20 percent increase.”
• Left-wing judges such as Robert Bonin, Margaret Burnham, Maria Lopez and Suzanne “Let ’em Go” DelVecchio, not to mention Bulger cronies too numerous to mention.
• A proposal for a sales tax on four services, which went down in flames after a state rep who is now the state inspector general began publicly reading a list of all of the hundreds of affected industries.
• Medicaid-funded sex-change operations for New Hampshire residents, followed by taxpayer-funded post-op therapy in Montreal
• DOR tax audits on political opponents.
• Lt. Gov. John Kerry; House committee chairman John McNeil, a convicted child pornographer; crooked Dukakis education adviser Gerry Indelicato; Big Dig creator Freddy Salvucci and Massport hack Dave Davis
• A temporary surcharge on the state income tax, now 17 years old and still in effect.
• Annual banquets at the prisons for members of the Lifers Club, i.e., murderers.
• Blaming all of the state’s problems on talk radio (sounds like a Globe editorial endorsing Deval).

I’m out of space, but there was more, so much more in those 12 rotten years. Mike Dukakis was special, as Deval put it so well, in many ways.

As I said yesterday, 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 (possibly many more) years of Mike Dukakis Deval Patrick.

Update: Be sure to also read Virginia Buckingham’s column to see what Deval Patrick will owe the unions for their support.

The election is only a few days away, and today’s news brings us an important reminder—low tax environments spur economic growth.  That fact is confirmed by today’s unemployment rate as it hits a 5 ½ year low at 4.4%.  Deval Patrick and big government liberals can drone on about our “shared responsibility” all they want, but outrageous taxes and spending will not stimulate the economy.

When casting your vote, remember to give credit where it’s due.  The national economy is sound thanks to Republican low tax and pro-growth policies.  Vote Republican to keep the economic momentum going, and vote Kerry Healey to replicate those results in Massachusetts.

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.

Deval Patrick thinks Mike Dukakis was a good governor:

I think that Mike Dukakis was a good governor in many ways, and that we had challenges then.

Mike Dukakis can’t get arrested at most Democratic Conventions. Democratic politicians, although sympathetic to his causes, know that people understand how disastrous that brand of liberalism was for the state. The last thing they want is to be branded a Dukakis liberal, but Deval Patrick thinks that he was a “good governor” with “challenges”.

I wasn’t a resident of the state during the Dukakis era, but not many who were pine for its return. Help us ensure the Dukakis/Patrick era does not resurface by voting for Kerry Healey on Election Day.

Not much of a surprise, but here’s an excerpt that every MA voter should read before choosing who they will vote for:

It is even more unfortunate that this campaign hardly ever focused on issues, because there Healey is clearly the strongest candidate. Not only does she support the voter-approved tax rollback of the state income tax to 5 percent, she also took a no new taxes pledge. It doesn’t get much clearer than that. Contrast that with the utter arrogance of a candidate who thinks it’s perfectly fine to ignore the will of the voters. The Democratic-dominated Legislature has already done that. Do we really want someone in the Corner Office openly enabling that kind of behavior even before an election?

On every education issue that is important to the parents and students of Massachusetts Healey sides with them and not with the teachers’ unions, which have opposed everything about education reform except pay raises.

Healey is for lifting the cap on the number of charter schools, often citing the more than 15,000 students on waiting lists for existing schools. She is for merit pay for individual teachers, especially those in hard-to-find specialties like math and sciences. And she supports MCAS as a graduation requirement. All of this she has done without reservation - and without a laundry list of qualifying phrases.

Her 50-point plan lets voters know exactly where she stands on a variety of other issues. Her proposals for freeing cities and towns from the financial burden of their own pension systems and allowing them to contract with the state’s Group Insurance Commission for health care would mean a cost savings of millions of dollars at the local level.

That’s what we mean about her thoughtful, clear and principled stands on the issues. You can agree or disgree, but at least voters know what kind of administration Kerry Healey would preside over. And, at the end of the day, she would indeed be a brake on the free-spending ways of the Democratic leadership of the Legislature. Or do we really want a gazebo on every town green, courtesy of the taxpayers?

While things certainly don’t look good for Healey at this point, it is important that everyone get out there and vote for her. Polls have been wrong before, so don’t let them stop you from casting your vote.

On a related note, head on over to Bay State Showdown and read his reasons for why this race might be closer than people think.

It’s no great shocker to see the Boston Globe endorse Deval Patrick for governor. The Globe is populated by big government Democrats, and Deval is their man. However, as an academic exercise, it is interesting to examine the world through a liberal prism so let’s take a look.

The Globe wastes no time in going after people with the temerity to examine Deval Patrick’s advocacy for violent felons. The most important takeaway here, according to the Globe, is Patrick’s grace under fire and his refusal to get involved in the “mudslinging”. Not worth mentioning is Patrick’s refusal to rule out helping Benjamin LaGuer if elected even after the DNA tests Mr. Patrick paid for proved LaGuer’s guilt. Nor is the Globe concerned by the pride Mr. Patrick takes in getting a cop killer’s sentence reduced. And none of that should cause any concern about a Patrick administration’s commitment to protecting us.

Now the Globe moves on to make the diversity argument. An African-American governor from an impoverished background is better on the diversity scale than a woman governor when the scale is properly weighted for party affiliation (Democrats are good; Republicans are evil). We aren’t looking for the best qualified governor as much as we are looking for the best minority candidate to be governor. Interestingly enough, Martin Luther King Jr. advised us to the judge the content of one’s character and not the color of their skin, which is a lesson holding little sway in the editorial room of the Globe.

Having ignored the law and order issue and pushed their diversity argument, the Globe rejects the idea that Patrick will bankrupt the state with large government programs. They claim his plans are modest, but they add this contradictory disclaimer:

Other more sweeping investments, in universal early education, for example, will have to wait until the economy rebounds.

Now this is really interesting when you consider the Globe’s writers are declaring a recovery in the Massachusetts economy today. I suspect the editorial board will recognize the recovery the day after the election and declare the time ripe for “more sweeping investments”.

The Globe then claims that Patrick doesn’t have “detailed” plans for governing, but only a fool doesn’t see where this is going. Patrick is going to lavish more of your tax dollars on broken government institutions like public education. He’ll continue to claim property taxes are high, but no concrete plan for lowering them will emerge while he raises the state income tax rate and makes MA an even less friendly business environment than it is today.

The Globe is correct in stating that the choice is clear. If you don’t pay enough taxes, aren’t concerned about public safety, and you want more government mandates taking away your freedom, vote Deval Patrick. If you want to put a speed bump in our legislature’s march toward socialism, vote Kerry Healey.

The Boston Herald reports that some Democrat’s have got their panties all in a bunch over Mitt Romney being out of state and Kerry Healey campaigning while acting governor. They complain that this leaves nobody in charge.

But Democrats say Romney’s travels and Healey’s own campaigning have left the state essentially without a leader, leaving crucial executive business undone.

“When you have Romney flying around the country and Healey on the campaign trail, who’s in charge?” asked state Democratic Party spokeswoman Cyndi Roy, pointing to the incomplete Big Dig probe, impending budget gap and reports of wasteful management at MassPort.

Funny, I don’t remember seeing any of them complain in 2004 when John Kerry missed 92% of his votes in the Senate.

What’s the matter, Colonel Sanders? Chickennn?!

Take that line from the great movie Spaceballs and substitute Colonel Sanders with Deval Patrick and you basically have the letter that Kerry Healey sent today challenging Deval to a one on one debate.

“You have never struck me as someone who has backed down from a challenge, so I’d be surprised if you chose to stand on the sidelines now,” Healey wrote. “With four candidates on stage and limited time, a wide-ranging policy discussion has been largely crowded out.”

Patrick has so far refused using the excuse that it would disrespect the minor candidates. But as Howie Carr points out, it’s the voters that Deval is disrespecting.

Let’s have a one-on-one debate, Deval. Forget about disrespecting the two minor candidates. What about disrespecting the voters?

Update: Also check out Virginia Buckingham’s column.

The first question in last night’s debate was a softball question lobbed by Boston Globe Reporter Frank Phillips.

Mr. Patrick your opponent Kerry Healey is airing an aid that shows a woman walking to her car in a dark garage and then refers to your support of convicted rapist Ben Leguer. We know what you’ve said about attack ads so I don’t you to repeat that response, but please tell us your personal response to the ad and whether you think there’s a racial subtext to the emphasis to images of crime in this campaign.

If you haven’t seen the ad in question, it’s posted here. There is absolutely no mention or even implication of race in the ad unless of course it is now wrong to show or quote Deval Patrick himself in any way.

So when Frank Phillips watches this commercial about rape, he apparently automatically thinks the rapist must be black. Maybe he should look in the mirror and ask himself why that is.

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.

The new CBS4 Fast Track (Survey USA) poll released today shows Deval Patrick with an 18 point lead over Kerry Healey:

• Patrick - 52%
• Healey - 34%
• Mihos - 9%
• Ross - 1%
• Undecided - 4%

The good news is that their previous poll showed Patrick with a 39 point lead that she has now cut by more than half. Also on the positive side Healey has made significant inroads among moderates and independents. On the negative side, there is a large gender gap with Patrick having a large lead among women; the people you would think would most be affected by the news of his support for rapists and other violent criminals.

Patrick’s lead comes entirely from women voters, who prefer him by 36 points. Men favor Healey by 2 points, a 38-point “gender gap.”

“There should be no question that Healey is succeeding in two key areas: consolidating her natural base, and raising doubts about Patrick among swing voters, mainly the unenrolled,” said Keller. “Patrick’s 24 point lead among independents has shrunk to five percent, a real warning sign that the “soft on crime” tag is hurting him.”

Keller also notes that Patrick is losing support among moderates. “He has to maintain his huge lead among women to stay in command of this race. Will they fall prey to the Healey assault on his positions on crime?”

The poll also shows that if Healey closes the gap further, Mihos could play the role of spoiler and throw the election to Patrick.

As I have previously stated, Mihos and Ross have no chance of winning this election. Therefore the remaining debates should be limited to the two people voters will realistically be choosing from.

In case you missed it (which would be understandable considering how little press it got), the family of the victim that Ben LaGuer violently raped has endorsed Kerry Healey after receiving a non-apology from Deval Patrick.

When the family called Deval Patrick back to try and get an actual apology for his attempts to free LaGuer, they were at first ignored, then told to look back on Patrick’s sound bites for an answer.

“He chose to walk down the side of the convict. Convicted. Brutally raped and beaten, my mother in law. Not the side of the victim’s family. No empathy, no further calls, no nothing,” said Bob Barry, the victim’s son-in-law.

“And for this man to run for governor is a crime, it’s a crime. And I support Kerry Healey 100 percent. I wish I could do more. I wish I could do more,” said Beth Barry, the victims daughter.

Scotto has the video of the press conference. It’s a little long but very powerful and every voter should take the time to watch it before they consider voting for Deval Patrick for governor.

This endorsement comes a day after many victims of violent crime sent an open letter to Deval Patrick assailing him for his lack of concern for victims while repeatedly trying to free or lessen the sentences of violent criminals.

“We challenge you to take a hard look at your own conduct in this case and ask yourself why at every opportunity you took the side of the violent offender over that of the victim,”

[snip]

Yesterday’s letter alleged that Patrick “never thought it was worth your time and effort to contact the family of the victim until it became a ‘political’ issue. This reflects as poorly on your character as it does on your judgment.”

The signers of the letter included:

“John and Magi Bish, whose daughter, Molly, disappeared from her lifeguard post at Comins Pond in Warren in June 2000, when she was 16. Her remains were found three years later in a wooded area a few miles away.”

[snip]

“Annette and Peter Presti, whose daughter, Joanne, was raped and killed, and whose granddaughter Alyssa, 12, was also killed in their Woburn home in 2004. The suspect in the case is a man who had previously been convicted of rape. The other signer was Debbie Savoia, a victims’ rights advocate.”

The contrast between Kerry Healey’s work for crime victims opposed to Deval Patrick’s work for violent criminals couldn’t be more stark.

The Kerry Healey campaign released a new ad yesterday that looks at Deval Patrick’s work on a case that spared a convicted cop killer from the death penalty.

Hat tip to WRKO morning host Scott Allen Miller for putting the ad up on YouTube. I have added his blog, The Scotto Blog, to our blogroll.

A little over a month ago, the Boston Herald reported that Deval Patrick had sent a letter to a Parole Board urging the release of Ben LaGuer who was convicted in 1984 of tying up and viciously raping a 59-year-old Leominster woman for over 8 hours.

At the time the story didn’t get much traction and fell off the map as Patrick went on to win the Democratic primary. Last week, reporters started asking more questions and Patrick and responded with “I know who he is. He is someone on whose behalf I wrote, I think, maybe 15 years ago”. Deval Patrick’s spokesman followed up with a statement saying that the letter had been sent while he was working as a lawyer for the NAACP in the 1980’s. A statement from last Thursday stated “My sole involvement in this case was more than 10 years ago, when I wrote a letter on Mr. LaGuer’s behalf.”

The above statements have now been shown to be outright lies:

But letters obtained by the Globe indicate Patrick’s involvement was more recent and more significant than he has suggested. He wrote the Parole Board in 1998 and again in 2000. He also wrote at least twice to LaGuer himself, addressing the notes “Dear Ben.”

“I am sorry not to have written sooner,” Patrick, then a lawyer in private practice, wrote in a letter to LaGuer dated July 16, 1998. “It’s not that it wasn’t `appropriate,’ just the overwhelming press of other business. Given the significance of events in your life, I am embarrassed that I did not make the time.”

On Aug. 5, 1998, and again on April 3, 2000, Patrick asked the Parole Board to set LaGuer free.

“I have never met Mr. LaGuer in person,” wrote Patrick to the Parole Board. “But, thanks to a lively exchange of correspondence over the years, I do feel I know him. I receive a crushing volume of mail, much of it from prisoners in facilities all over this country. None of it is as thoughtful, insightful, eloquent, or humane as that I receive from Mr. LaGuer. . . . I urge you and your colleagues on the Parole Board to act favorably on his application.”

Patrick first wrote the Parole Board while he was a lawyer in private practice. The second time he contacted the board, he was working for Texaco.

***

Yesterday, when asked about the letters obtained by the Globe, Chacon modified his description of when Patrick got involved in the case.

“Deval Patrick has already said that almost 10 years ago he wrote a letter on Mr. LaGuer’s behalf,” Chacon said. “He was not alone in expressing concern about the case at the time.”

So what was Deval Patrick’s response to all this? He of course accused Kerry Healey of taking a “cheap political shot”.

Maybe it’s just me, but the fact that Deval Patrick spoke glowingly about and urged the early release of a person convicted of violently raping an elderly woman would seem to be a relevant point of discussion as regards to his judgment.

So what were his reasons for writing the Parole Board on this rapist’s behalf. He had heard that racism may have played a part in the jury’s decision. Apparently he didn’t bother to actually investigate the case or talk to the victim or her family to learn more about the case before telling the Parole Board what a upstanding citizen LaGuer was. The racial accusation was all he needed.

This lack of investigation and judgment on Deval’s part makes Tom Reilly’s Lt. Governor gaffe look like child’s play. Is this the type of man we want as Governor? No wonder the police unions are lining up behind Kerry Healey. It’s Michael Dukakis and Willie Horton all over again.