The Associated Press October 9, 2002

Romney goes on offensive in gubernatorial debate

BOSTON Republican Mitt Romney went on the offensive in the governor's race on Wednesday, aggressively taking on Democrat Shannon O'Brien in a debate and launching a new ad that criticizes her record. Romney, the former Winter Olympic chief, accused O'Brien of raising her own salary as state treasurer, allowing the state's debt to rise on her watch, and voting for higher taxes while in the Legislature. "That's what she's doing in the past, that's what she'll do in the future if she's elected governor," Romney said. O'Brien accused Romney of continuing a pattern of attacking her. She said he had reneged on a pledge to run a positive campaign, and she criticized him for running "negative attack ads" against her. "How can the people of Massachusetts trust you?" she asked Romney in a debate on WLVI-TV. "They can't trust Mitt Romney." Romney said O'Brien and her running mate, Chris Gabrieli, had gone "up and down the state" misrepresenting his record. "Politics is not a place for whining," Romney said. The debate was the first in which all five candidates for governor took part. Libertarian Carla Howell, Green Jill Stein and independent Barbara Johnson had been excluded from two previous debates in Springfield and Worcester. The testy exchanges between Romney and O'Brien continued a pattern begun earlier in the day when Romney debuted a television ad that said O'Brien voted for "billions in higher taxes on cars, income and gas." "Shannon O'Brien has been part of the mess on Beacon Hill for 12 years," the ad says. "Mitt Romney has the independence to bring change." Adrian Durbin, O'Brien's spokesman, said, "It's a desperate move by a campaign that's struggling to gain any traction." Howell used the debate to promote her ballot question to eliminate the state's income tax, and she repeatedly mentioned her slogan, "Small government is beautiful." Howell called Romney, who does not support her ballot initiative, a "big government, high-tax Republican." She referred to a candidate who accepted money under the new Clean Elections law as a "welfare politician." "Big government never creates jobs, it only takes our money," Howell said. She said repeatedly that her ballot question would create jobs and give every working person $3,000 that could be spent, saved or given to charities. But several of the other candidates said it would also cost the state $9 billion per year, cutting spending on education, construction, and other programs. "You can't just eviscerate state government and expect you're not going to hurt some people," O'Brien said.

Stein said low-income citizens and minorities had suffered most from the economic downturn, and she said state government has done little to help because it is beholden to "big-money" special interests. "The issues before the voters are not just being a better bureaucrat or who can be a good money-manager," she said. She made a plea for expanding the political debate beyond Democrats and Republicans, saying that although Republicans have controlled the governor's office for 12 years, Democrats are also to blame, having held the Legislature by an overwhelming majority over the last decade. "The same big-money forces that were in charge of the Legislature are still very much alive and well in both political parties," Stein said. Barbara Johnson criticized the other candidates for not being specific enough in their proposals. She said she would give abandoned housing to tenants in return for a six-pack of beer. She also proposed building artificial offshore reefs, and she said the MBTA's blue line should be extended farther north to Lynn. A second debate with all five candidates is scheduled to be held in two weeks. Only Romney and O'Brien were scheduled to appear in a fifth debate on Oct. 29. Also on Wednesday, Secretary of State William Galvin issued a reminder that Oct. 16 is the deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 5 election.