Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

What does Kerry Healey bring to the table?

By

As far as campaigns are concerned, her record is mixed. She ran for

State Rep twice, twice losing to Michael Cahill. She became head of the

MA Republican State Committee, and was hand-picked by Romney as a

running mate. So her single election victory was not her own doing. Not

much to go on there.

The LG’s role is pretty vague: In the current Administration, Healey is

said to have acted as “liaison” to cities and towns. What does that

actually mean? <a

href=”http://www.healeycommittee.com/releases/20051211.html”>This

Globe article from last year indicated that she has listened well,

gaining credibility with mayors. However, does that translate to

support? Unless she acknowledges local leaders’ bitterness about the <a

href=”http://davideisenthal.typepad.com/the_eisenthal_report/2005/09/bizarre_and_out.html”>Romney

administration’s dismissive attitude, and backs that up with

substance, I suspect that even the mayors who have praised her

heretofore will be looking for another option.

She also seems to make much of her support of Melanie’s Law; it can’t

hurt that certain members of the overwhelmingly Democratic legislature <a

href=”http://www.statehousenews.com/public/roundup.htm”>made asses of

themselves opposing what is mostly a justifiable law. I have little

doubt that she will try to pin the intransigence of certain members on

the “Democratic Legislature” as a whole, deserved or not. As a

criminologist, she’s been strangely quiet regarding the upsurge in

violence in Boston. Maybe she doesn’t see herself getting many votes in

Boston anyway, but that’s a lousy reason not to share one’s expertise,

not to mention burnish credentials.

Does Healey have charisma? Of a sort: she’s tall, blond, and

possesses a manner with elements of both soccer-mom and heiress.

However, <a

href=”http://bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1116″>we’ve

had our fun with her brittleness: She’s been impolitic

at times, sounding like a Harvard-know-it-all dispensing simplistic

“solutions” to entrenched problems, famously saying that <a

href=”http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/03/22/healey_rapped_on_senior_tax_issue/”>seniors

in MA were, uh, “overhoused”. This glibness seems to be a <a

href=”http://davideisenthal.typepad.com/the_eisenthal_report/2005/09/bizarre_and_out.html”>common

quality in the Romney circle.

Through her husband Sean, head of the investment group AMG, Kerry

Healey is extremely rich, and she is likely to spend a good chunk of

change: in ’05 <a

href=”http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/10/healey_democrats_painting_competing_portraits_of_the_republican_candidate/”>Sean

cashed in $13 million in AMG stock options. That is some serious

scratch. Now, in 2001, Sean took a $1.2 million tax credit he probably

shouldn’t have. In the end, she will likely have

highest dollar/vote ratio of anyone, win or lose.

She has stated she won’t collect a salary if elected. I don’t like the

implication of that: If you’re working for the taxpayers, take a

salary; give it to charity of you like, but at least it’s a periodic

reminder of whom you work for.

What does she offer as a candidate? Judging by her announcement speech,

it seems that she’s following a long Republican tradition: Promise

the moon. <a

href=”http://bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1434″>Big

spending proposals and tax cuts! You can have it

all. And it’s still craven and

dishonest, but let’s not kid ourselves: it’s been an effective strategy

for conservatives for a long time. In order to counter this central

strategy, the bluff needs to be called, early and often: What do

you plan to cut? Since we’ve tried everything else, we might start

standing up for the principle of, like, arithmetic.

Ideologically, she’s clearly not “New-Romney” conservative … but

isn’t it hard to tell? Social issues will not dominate the

landscape in 2006: She’s pro-choice, and pro-civil union, which may put

her roughly “in the middle” of the same-sex marriage debate;

practically speaking it’s actually not on the map at all. Strangely,

same-sex marriage

continues to be much, much more of an issue outside the

boundaries of

MA.

Healey’s hard to classify: she’s not really a longtime hack or

glad-handing pol candidate; she’s not really a citizen-candidate; she’s

not really a résumé candidate, either. She is, however, a big, big

money candidate: That $13 million that  Sean Healey took out of his AMG

holdings dwarfs the $9

million and change that Mitt Romney spent in 2002. (She may end up

being the Massachusetts version of John Corzine, who has done

everything but drop dollar bills out of helicopters in NJ looking for

votes.) Given the recent progressive political trends in the Bay State,

her low poll numbers, the probable independent candidacy of Christy

Mihos, and her tendency to shoo votes away with insensitive comments,

she’s going to need all of it.

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Comments

  1. I was just discussing this post with my better half.

    <

    p>
    Healey strikes us as someone that the Massachusetts Republican Party hacks would view as a “safe” candidate. Like O’Brien, who leant on the Democratic Party machine, Healey is merely part of the Republican machine which, in Massachusetts, is just big money.

    <

    p>
    In that respect, she’s unlike “Breck Girl” Mitt Romney who parachuted into Massachusetts from the Salt Lake Winter Olympics.  Yes, Mitt was also big money but he was clearly the clean “outsider” candidate, untouched by the griminess of day-to-day Massachusetts politics as usual.

    <

    p>
    And like O’Brien, Healey won’t be the outsider who appeals to suburban voters like Mitt did. She can be trumped by Deval Patrick in that regard.

    <

    p>
    My prediction: Deval beats Healey in November by winning the cities big and being competitive in the burbs and countryside.

  2. As for Trinity College in Dublin, it’s an extremely good school.  The “Ph D” is actually referred to as a “D Phil”, and it’s as legitimate as a Ph D from a crusty old top tier school in America.

  3. Well, she’s intelligent, articulate, and MILF-worthy.  She is, to a certain extent, a known quantity in that she’s succeeded at more than she’s failed at in the past 4 years.  Many people in the state feel that way about Romney, too, so she has that legacy going for her.  Truthfully, her very blah-ness is probably her greatest asset.  Voters seem to like that sort of thing.

    • Come on…I don’t want to sound like the PC police, but would we be discussing men in such terms?

      <

      p>
      (If you don’t know the term MILF, a quick google search should be enlightening.  Though if you don’t want a lot of porn links, wikipedia might be a better bet.)

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