Romney On Healey
An interesting story from the Boston Globe reports that Mitt Romney suggests that the reason why Kerry Healey failed to succeed him as governor was because of herself.
Kerry Healey has been among the most loyal of Mitt Romney’s former aides, endorsing his presidential campaign, heading his policy group and donating to his committee.Romney said Wednesday she failed to follow him into the governor’s office last year because either of her own shortcomings or those of her campaign.
The former governor made the statement during a brief return to Bay State politics prompted by two questioners at a preprimary town hall meeting across the border at Thomas More College.
The first speaker said he judges candidates, in part, by how their successor does, noting that in New York, Michael Bloomberg succeeded Rudy Giuliani as mayor after Giuliani endorsed him.
In Massachusetts, though, Healey — then Romney’s No. 2 as lieutenant governor — was “demolished” by Democrat Deval Patrick even though he was a political neophyte and Healey had the endorsement of a sitting governor, the speaker said.
“I think the endorsement of a candidate for the person that follows them is important, but I must admit, overwhelmingly, the most important is the candidate — him or herself — and their campaign,” Romney said.
Okay, I’m not going to cherry coat this answer… Mitt is right. Kerry Healey was an uninspiring candidate. She never even won over Massachusetts Republicans, let alone a majority of the voters. She wasn’t elected Lt. Governor because of who she was… She was handpicked by Mitt to balance out the ticket because Mitt didn’t believe that if he ran on a ticket with fellow businessman Jim Rappaport that it would be successful.
Nowadays, I’ve seen a number of Massachusetts Republicans speaking out against Romney’s presidential bid because his record as governor wasn’t conservative enough. Well, if Massachusetts Republicans have always been so passionate about a conservative agenda, then there’s a reason why Kerry Healey couldn’t get the enthusiastic support of her own party: she’s more liberal than Mitt Romney could ever be claimed to be.
In such a ridiculously liberal state as a Massachusetts it takes more than a Kerry Healey to win over Republicans, independents, and Democrats. Yes, the state is paying the price for electing Deval Patrick now (perhaps they’ll see the error of their ways in 2010) but only a few of us could see the forthcoming train wreck that would become the Patrick Administration. He won over many with his empty rhetoric about hope. What he lacks in real leadership and management skills he made up for in charisma. Healey had no charisma, and it’s hard to keep your supporters motivated when that is missing.
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TAGS: Boston Globe, Deval Patrick, IRS, Mitt Romney.
Matt Margolis is co-author (with Mark Noonan) of Caucus of Corruption: The Truth About The New Democratic Majority. He also blogs at The Buffalo Bean. Follow Matt on Twitter.
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You are missing quite a bit in your analysis of why Healey lost. Yes, she was not as inspiring if you look at how the media portrayed her, but she was quite different in person. Also, Deval was the media darling who had no substance but lots of charisma. Paul Cellucci got elected with absolutely no charisma or inspiration, so it is not a prerequisite. Also, anybody who believes that ideology is truly the motivator of conservatives in the state does not know history. The more moderate candidate always wins Republican primaries in MA because the Independents really decide. That was one of Rappaport’s biggest miscalculations. Though Healey clearly had an inept campaign, the biggest reason she lost was Romney. She won the LG spot by being intrinsically tied to him. Unfortunately that was also her downfall. As he paraded across the country campaigning for president, his approval rating plummeted, and her’s along with it. Had Romney stayed in MA and been visably engaged in the state (like after the tunnel collapse), then she would have faired better. For better or worse, Romney’s mediocre record was not much of a selling point for Healey compared to Deval’s pie in the sky rhetoric of “Together We Can”.
GMC, congratulations on not blaming Mihos and placing the blame squarely where it belongs…on the MITTSTER! The Concord Monitor has it right about the MITTSTER, do I hear some Amens? Also, anyone for closing the primary to party registration only? What right do non-members of parties have in the decision making process? I say, NONE! Shut the Independents out!
How did I miss that? Mihos definately shares some of the blame, but not all. He was Deval’s hatchet man. He bashed away at Healey with a scorched-earth mentality like the certified nutjob that he is and Deval could sit there gleefully.
Regardless, Healey would have made an excellent Governor. She had far more talent and knowledge than the last four Republicans combined. She is also a genuine person. I believe that had she won, it would have been the greatest boost to the Republican Party in the long term that we have seen. I hope she has been even somewhat redeemed to make a comeback in light of Deval’s terrible job performance.
She’s a fine person who lost big. she won’t be back—Mihos will again, as an Independent. get used to it.
True, but he will still be nuts. We will also see next to his name the words “frequent candidate”.
It was all the above…a combination of mediocre record of Mitt, poor campaign from Healey, circus debates with two extra wackjobs, and last but not least the empty suit slogan master smiling all the way.
And this is a first here on Hub Politics, I can’t believe I’m going to type this but..I 100% agree with Mr. X….”Shut the Independents out!”
It’s the REPUBLICAN /or DEMOCRAT party primaries….They have NO business meddling.
What people seem to not get is that Christy Mihos was the best man for the Job. You didn’t hear him speaking vaguely a la Deval and you didn’t hear him lying. Waitaminute.
He was honest, sincere, he loves Massachusetts and he didn’t take any money from Special Interest groups… good thing we didn’t elect him! And he was really crazy enough that he cared. We should get some more mediocre “insiders”.
A Boston Herald editorial put the focus where it belongs, on a major Romney character flaw.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view.bg?articleid=1063149
Romney’s loyalty factor