Candidate Blames Newspaper Leak on Opponent

Published: October 13, 2006 2:40 PM ET

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial nominee Deval Patrick blamed Kerry Healey for newspaper stories on Friday that revealed his brother-in-law had raped his sister in California in 1993 and is now being required to register as a sex offender.

"It's pathetic and it's wrong," Patrick said in a statement he read to reporters his campaign had assembled to talk about stem cell research matters. "By no rules of common decency should their private struggles become a public issue, but this is the politics of Kerry Healey and it disgusts me and it has to stop."

Patrick took no questions and his staff did not detail why he linked Healey to the revelation, made in stories printed in Friday's editions of the Boston Herald and The Boston Globe.

Healey, the state's lieutenant governor and the Republican candidate for governor, said neither she nor her campaign was involved in the revelation, something she said she checked with her staff after learning of the stories.

"I think this is a personal, family matter for Deval Patrick," Healey said after presiding over a police officer awards ceremony at the Statehouse. "I don't consider this a campaign issue, and I will not be using it in my campaign."

The newspapers reported that Bernard Sigh was convicted in 1993 of raping his wife, the former Rhonda Patrick, in San Diego. Sigh pleaded guilty, served a short prison sentence and was put on five years probation.

Sigh, 54, reunited with Patrick's sister after he served his prison time. The couple moved to Milton in 1997.

The Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board sent Sigh a letter this week alerting him he is required to register. The board is part of the Executive Office of Public Safety, a state agency overseen by the Romney administration.

Patrick said the couple's two children were unaware of the incident until the stories were printed. Patrick's sister, now 51, was described as an avid churchgoer who, along with her husband, now counsels couples in crisis.

Healey has been hammering Patrick over criminal justice matters since the two emerged as their respective party's general election contestants. She has labeled her opponent, who headed the Justice Department's civil rights division under President Clinton, as "soft on crime,"

In particular, she has accused him of favoring criminals over victims, citing his work handling a death penalty appeal for a cop killer and also his advocacy on behalf of a convicted rapist who was seeking parole.

Patrick has criticized the administration for local aid cuts that have forced a reduction in police officers at a time when violent crime has surged. He has also derided Healey as a "theorist" who has a doctorate in criminal justice matters but no practical experience.

On Friday, Healey opened a fresh line of attack, criticizing Worcester Mayor Tim Murray, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor and Patrick's running mate, for handling appeals of people challenging their classification by the Sex Offender Registry Board. Murray is a defense attorney, but he said he took some of the cases at the request of the court.

"I know that the court needs people to take these cases, and that it's part of our adversarial system," Healey said. "The question is, simply, is that the priority that you want to have your next governor and lieutenant governor to have?"

She said such appeals delay the public from learning the whereabouts of the most dangerous sex offenders.

Arguing that Healey has "launched an assault" on the legal profession, the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly announced Friday that it was endorsing a candidate for governor for the first time, and would back Patrick.

"What is Healey's message? That criminal-defense attorneys somehow should be associated with, or blamed for, the actions of their clients? That protecting important constitutional rights is somehow a seedy business?" the newspaper said in an editorial that will be published Monday.

"Healey has resorted to the worst form of pandering, openly inviting voters to think of Patrick as someone who associates with criminals. Her finger-pointing has a flavor of McCarthyism, suggesting that anyone who has spent time in the criminal-defense arena should be identified, called out and avoided," the newspaper said.

Healey's Hail Mary 
Trailing in the polls, will the LG try an "October Surprise" of her own?

By: ADAM REILLY
10/4/2006 2:29:30 PM

In the Massachusetts governor’s race, it’s looking like Republican nominee and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey will need a doozy of an October surprise to catch Democratic nominee Deval Patrick, who’s running far ahead of the LG in every poll taken to date.

So what might Healey try? Look for Patrick’s time at the US Department of Justice (DOJ), where he headed civil-rights enforcement for then-president Bill Clinton, to get some serious scrutiny — especially aspects of his résumé that bring race into the equation and, as an added plus, remind people Patrick is African-American. For example, a poster on the liberal, pro-Patrick blog Blue Mass Group has already reported receiving an automated phone poll that posed this question: “When working for the US government, Deval Patrick got two cop-killers off the hook. Would that make you more or less likely to vote for him?” (As an NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney, Patrick got one man convicted of killing a police officer off death row and fought unsuccessfully to do the same for another.) Meanwhile, liberal blogger Sam Seidel reported receiving another automated poll that asked: “If you knew that Deval Patrick had been referred to as a ‘quota king’ in one of his previous jobs, would this impact your view of the candidate?” (During his time at the DOJ, Patrick was a steadfast defender of affirmative action; anti-affirmative-action crusader Clint Bolick seems to have created the label in question.)

Of course, “push polls” — which focus on changing the perception of a given candidate rather than soliciting information — are used by candidates of all ideological stripes. And Healey is trailing so badly that she probably needs something more dramatic. As the election approaches, look for the LG to hold a press conference or two aimed at putting a human face on Patrick’s allegedly flawed past. One possibility: get Sharon Taxman, a white teacher who was fired from the Piscataway, New Jersey, public schools during a budget crunch while another teacher, Debra Williams — who is African-American, was hired on the same day as Taxman, and taught the same subject (business skills) — was retained. As the DOJ’s civil-rights chief, Patrick backed Williams’s retention; playing this up could increase Healey’s Angry White Male vote.

Kerry, come on in for a moment. Take off your sneer and stay a while.

I need to tell you something that your staff apparently isn't willing to say: You've already gotten further in Massachusetts politics than you ever had a right to expect. You're already playing with the house money in this campaign.

Think about it. You got trounced in the only political race you ever ran on your own, and that was for, what, state representative?

Your private-sector career pretty much involved working in a cubicle at a Cambridge consulting company and teaching a couple of courses at colleges that are hardly a threat to anything on the Charles.

And then you became lieutenant governor for Mitt Romney because -- and let's be especially honest here -- pretty much every black or female Republican of any prominence told him no. For the last four years, you stood dutifully by his side, speaking only when spoken to, which was pretty much never, because, as everyone knows by now, Mitt is all about Mitt.

For the past four years, Kerry Healey, the lieutenant governor, usually stood behind Mitt Romney, the governor. Now running for governor, Healey is trying to alter her image from decorative bystander to accomplished second banana.

It isn't easy. The best advocates can do is move her from the back of the stage to a spot behind Romney's shoulder. An ad by the Republican Governors Association, which Romney heads, included a shot of Healey looming behind Romney, while a super-imposed headline links the event to a healthcare reform bill-signing. At the actual event, Healey stood back in the second row, as Romney laughed it up front with key political players who worked on the landmark legislation -- US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Senate President Robert Travaglini, and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi.

During the recent Big Dig crisis, Romney relegated Healey to a non speaking role at high-profile press conferences. One Republican consultant considers Healey's decision to continue showing up at those summer media events a campaign misstep. Once, she was photographed helping the governor adjust his orange safety vest.

The Romney-Healey ticket, like most, was a ``marriage of convenience." Like all marriages, this one has its own dynamic.

``They seem to walk in different spheres, even when they're together. It's not the coziest relationship," said one Bay State Republican who has watched the two interact.

When Romney swooped into Massachusetts from the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, he first shoved aside acting governor Jane Swift. Then he shoved aside James Rappaport, a wealthy businessman who was running for lieutenant governor. After courting several potential running mates, he settled on Healey. As Republicans tell the story, Healey was ultra-rich, smart, and -- unlike other prospects -- available. At the time, she was state Republican Party chairwoman, after losing two bids for legislative office.

Healey wants Dennis Hastert to babysit your children.

Healey wants Dennis Hastert to babysit your children.

Healey races to bottom

By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist  |  October 23, 2006

The Rev. Jeffrey Brown is not a man given to fits of temper or flights of hyperbole.

It was telling, then, to hear him vent his rage yesterday with the Kerry Healey campaign over "the ad."

You know the one: It's the commercial that shows a woman in a dark parking garage. It then cuts to Deval Patrick talking about convicted rapist Benjamin LaGuer, and ends by asserting that Patrick should be "ashamed, not governor."

"When I first saw it, the effect for me as a black male, it just killed me," Brown said yesterday. "It's the kind of race-baiting ad that plays to the worst fears of suburban America. It has crossed the line, as far as I'm concerned."

Brown, pastor of Union Baptist Church in Cambridge, called on Healey to pull the ad. There wouldn't seem to be much chance of that, since the Healey camp has said they believe their ad is working and "closing the gap." Both claims are debatable at best.

Brown is far from the first critic of the commercial. However, he is a man who has enjoyed a solid working relationship with the Romney-Healey administration.

A founding member of the Ten Point Coalition, he was the man Governor Mitt Romney appointed to be "governor" of the site that was set up to house Hurricane Katrina victims at Camp Edwards, and he has worked with Romney and Healey on anticrime efforts.

Healey's commercial is not the only bone he has to pick with her these days.

A coalition of community groups, including the Ten Point Coalition, the Black Ministerial Alliance, and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, has sought for months to get the two major candidates to agree to a forum to discuss crime and health care. Though Healey insists in debates that both topics are dear to her, she declined to take the groups up on their offer, Brown said.

The forum, which is scheduled for Thursday in Roxbury without Healey's involvement, is the sort of thing you might expect the career criminologist to be interested in. But she has apparently decided that there is little benefit to her in participating. She refused to meet last Monday with the Black Ministerial Alliance, as well.

The odd thing is that the African-American clergy who made both invitations have been among the Romney administration's strongest black supporters. While such groups do not endorse candidates, they have made it clear that on such social issues as gay marriage, they are much more comfortable with Republicans than with many Democrats.

Brown, a registered independent, said Healey's decision smacks of an anti urban strategy. "It just confirms to me that she is cutting us out of her equation entirely," he said.

Healey has made a crusade of painting her opponent as soft on crime. Yet when representatives of some of the city neighborhoods most affected by crime seek an audience, they get rebuffed. Perhaps she was busy overseeing another smear ad. A call to Healey spokesman Nate Little wasn't returned yesterday.

"We have been working with the Romney-Healey administration, and it would seem obvious as the hand in front of my face that she would want to continue that work," Brown said. "It is so strange that she has refused to do so."

But back to the ad Brown wants pulled. "It's one thing to talk about a candidate's record around crime and another to use black males as a foil to get the corner office," Brown said in obvious disgust.

By widespread agreement, this campaign is the ugliest in Massachusetts history. Worse, it continues to deteriorate. Even if the strategy were working -- and polls say it isn't -- no one should want to become governor this way.

If Healey loses, you can expect to hear a lot of brooding about how she took bad advice from those around her. Spare me. Candidates are not robots; they are grown-up, ambitious people who own the things that are done in their names. Kerry Healey's desperate campaign is nothing but a race to the bottom, and that seems to be exactly where it's taking her.

Healey wants to ban Halloween! :bat:
oops, an echo?

   

Running on angry

By Brian McGrory, Globe Columnist  |  October 13, 2006
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/...nning_on_angry/
Healey's back-row image

By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist  |  October 8, 2006

Kerry Healey is a pathetic slime-monger. She has learned well at Romney's side for the last 4 years. 

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/ne...t_id=1003254182

During our election for governor a year ago the Republican candidate, Jerry Kilgore, tried a similar tactic, knocking Democrat Tim Kaine for "defending murderers" as a public defender.  I recall that they pretty much used the same logic, sure everyone has a right to a lawyer in a criminal case, but do we want someone who represented murderers to be our governor?  Well Kilgore lost, and most commentators said that these ads backfired. 

So if it didn't work here in Virginia, I suspect that it won't work in Massachusetts. 

BTW, I have to mention that my sister is a public defender in Massachusetts, so I take this kind of thing personally.