The five candidates for governor shared a crowded stage last
night for rapid-fire exchanges on taxes, affirmative action and job creation.
Three, small-party candidates entered the fray last night,
shifting the race's focus from the head-to-head battle between Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Shannon O'Brien.
Romney and O'Brien took a brief break from jabbing at each
other to criticize Libertarian Carla Howell of Wayland, who sponsored a ballot question that calls for eliminating the
state's income tax.
Romney said if the question is approved, it would force the
state to make deep cuts in school funding and vital services.
"I don't see how you can get rid of the income tax and still
be able to afford our schools and our care of the elderly," Romney said.
O'Brien told Howell she makes government seem like "this
alien thing."
"You can't just eviscerate government and pretend like it's
not going to hurt lots of people," she said.
Howell, for her part, continually repeated her mantra that
"small government is beautiful."
"There is at least $9 billion in waste and destructive
big-government programs in the state budget that need to go away," she said.
Howell, Romney and O'Brien were joined in the WB56 television studios by Green Party
candidate Jill Stein of Lexington and Independent candidate Barbara Johnson of Andover.
Stein, a doctor and teacher, said the debate between O'Brien
and Romney over who would be a better "money manager" on Beacon Hill has overshadowed vital issues such as housing
and health care.
"We've had a decade of good money managers and experienced
financiers in the governor's office," she said. "There are profound issues that we have not been able to deal with."
Johnson, a lawyer, took turns taking swipes at both Romney
and O'Brien. She challenged the O'Brien's often-repeated assertion that as treasurer she helped rein in the cost of the
Big Dig.
"You haven't done anything on the Big Dig. You haven't. You
haven't," Johnson said as O'Brien simply shrugged her shoulders and laughed.
The newcomers set a frenetic pace for the debate, which was
moderated by WB56 political reporter Jon Keller.
Even Romney was confused by the appearance of new faces. At
one point, he mistook Stein for Howell.
Although they had to share air time with the three others,
O'Brien and Romney found ample opportunities to trade barbs with each other.
O'Brien accused Romney of reneging on an earlier pledge to
refrain from negative campaign tactics and challenged him to remove a new "attack ad" from the airwaves.
"You've broken a number of pledges in this campaign," she
said. "How can the people of Massachusetts trust you?"
Romney didn't accept the challenge.
"You have gone up and down the state misrepresenting my
record," Romney said. "It's time for people to hear the truth about your record. Politics is not a place for whining. This a
place for us to talk about our views."
Earlier in the debate, Romney accused O'Brien of raising her
own salary as state treasurer by $40,000 and boosting her office's payroll by $1 million.
"That's not effective management," he said.
O'Brien, in response, chided Romney for filling his
campaign's ranks with people who worked for her predecessor, former Treasurer Joe Malone.
"People know that I've done a good job managing the
Lottery," she said.
Romney and O'Brien supporters who watched on television
agreed that opening up the debate to all five candidates seemed to lend it a jolt of energy.
"It makes it a little more interesting," said Framingham
Town Moderator Gerard Desilets, an O'Brien supporter. "It sort of broadened the discussion."
Edward McGrath, treasurer of the Republican Town Committee
in Framingham, said Stein, Johnson and Howell all earned the right to appear on stage.
"It was kind of a breath of fresh air," he said.
McGrath and Desilets agreed that Romney, who trailed O'Brien
in one recent poll, seemed more aggressive toward her than in the first two debates.
"I don't think he has to go on the attack, but I think it's
good for politics to show each other's record," McGrath said.
"Mitt Romney was a little more in (O'Brien's) face,"
Desilets said. "We're seeing him on the attack, and I think it was probably a calculated thing to do that."
All five weighed in on the Proposition 2½ limit on
property taxes and vowed to fight to preserve it.
Romney pledged to veto any attempt to change the law.
O'Brien agreed that the state shouldn't be "tinkering" with it.
"People voted for Proposition 2½," Johnson said, "so I'm
going to listen to the people. I would give it a second chance."
Stein said she wouldn't be in favor of increasing the
property tax "because it is one of the most regressive" taxes.
"The wealthiest 1 percent is paying about half as much as a
percent of personal income as the lowest," she said. "I will make taxes fair."
None of the candidates expressed support for "hiring goals"
or college admission quotas for minorities.
"Affirmative action is racial profiling, and that's wrong,"
Howell said.
The candidates also shared their ideas for creating jobs and
cutting down on unemployment.
O'Brien said she would try to eliminate the waiting list for
state-funding job training and English as a Second Language classes.
"This is an investment for our work force," she said.
"The key to the issue of unemployment," Romney said, "is
bringing new jobs to Massachusetts. Any job that pays a good wage and good benefits is a good job."
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The Boston Herald
Thursday, October 10, 2002
Challengers share gov race stage:
Lively debate hits on taxes and economy
by Elisabeth J. Beardsley and Steve Marantz
Democrat Shannon P. O'Brien and Republican Mitt Romney
fended off challenges from their left and right flanks last night, during a five-way, sometimes-chaotic debate that focused
heavily on taxes and the struggling economy.
The televised debate marked the first face-off of all five
candidates - including Libertarian Carla Howell, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Independent Barbara Johnson.
But Romney and O'Brien tried to stay focused on one another
- continuing their sparring of recent weeks over taxes, management skills and negative campaigning.
Romney kept up his steady attacks on O'Brien and even
laughingly accused her of "whining" about the negativity of the campaign - a comment O'Brien aides later said was an effort to
"demean" her.
O'Brien used her closing statement in the WLVI-TV (Ch. 56)
debate to blast Romney for launching the campaign's first critical ad - insisting that he broke his promise to maintain a
positive campaign and demanding that he take the ad off the air.
"When you make a promise, you keep that promise," O'Brien
said. "How can the people of Massachusetts trust you?"
Romney refused O'Brien's demand and accused her of constantly "misrepresenting my
record."
"Politics is not a place for whining," Romney said. "It's a
place for us to talk about our views."
After the debate, O'Brien spokesman Adrian Durbin said
Romney didn't offer the same dismissive comments when he was criticized by U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in their
1994 race. "Rather than defending his actions, he chose to demean her,"
Durbin said.
The five-candidate stage offered a free-wheeling and, at
times, confusing exchange. O'Brien and Romney were clearly the more polished of the bunch but were several times drawn into
exchanges with their feisty challengers.
Several times, Romney and O'Brien appeared exasperated at
the charges from their third party combatants - O'Brien throwing her arms up in the air at one point and Romney often
barely concealing a smirk and, once, confusing Stein for Howell.
Taxes emerged front-and-center in the debate, as well as the
candidates' plans for dealing with the struggling economy.
Romney faced a hard-right challenge from the Libertarian
Howell.
At every turn, Howell promoted her ballot question to
abolish the $9 billion income tax, which she says would return $3,000 annually to each of the state's 3 million taxpayers.
"You are a big government, high-tax Republican politician
just like your predecessor," Howell told Romney.
Romney cast a more moderate view, arguing against the ballot
question while pledging to fight off the Legislature's $1.2 billion tax hike of last year.
"Carla, almost everybody's angry about taxes," Romney said.
"But I don't see how you have no income tax and still be able to afford our schools and care for our elderly."
While saying that taxes need to be kept "as low as possible," O'Brien said eliminating the
income tax would ruin schools, services for the needy and road and bridge projects.
"You can't just eviscerate state government and expect that
you're not going to hurt lots of people," O'Brien said.
The candidates were also asked whether they would veto
attempts to encroach on Proposition 2½, which requires local officials to get voter approval before hiking property
taxes more than 2.5 percent each year.
Romney used the question to tee off on O'Brien.
"I'm sure she's going to say she doesn't want to (raise
taxes), but that's what she's done in the past," Romney said.
O'Brien, also casting a more moderate tone, pledged to be a
"different kind of Democrat" and fight tax hikes. While stopping short of a veto promise on Proposition
2½, O'Brien said, "I don't believe we should be tinkering with Prop. 2½."
Stein sought to outflanked O'Brien from the left.
Stein pledged to fight for a 50 percent income tax cut for
the poor - and pledged to veto any attempt to raise property taxes beyond 2.5 percent. "It's time we provided a tax cut to
those moderate- and low-income people," Stein said. "There are profound issues we have not
been able to deal with despite the booming economy."
The candidates also sparred over whether voter-approved
initiative petitions should be sacrosanct - after the Legislature's refusal to fund the Clean Elections ballot
initiative.
Johnson, who rounded up thousands of signatures to secure a
spot on the ballot, said politicians have "no idea of the enormity of that task."
"If that many people signed that petition, I would have no
right (to overturn it)," Johnson said. "That's democracy at work."
The five candidates face off again the week of Oct. 21 in a
debate being hosted by New England Cable News. The Herald sponsors the last debate of the campaign on Oct. 29, a
Romney-O'Brien face-off.
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The Boston Globe
Thursday, October 10, 2002
In the first debate featuring all candidates for Massachusetts governor, the four women and
one man on the November ballot sparred over taxes, wasteful spending, and job
growth last night in a lively televised forum that sometimes seemed a meandering series of dinner-table
arguments.
With the minutes scarce and the stage crowded, Republican
Mitt Romney and Democrat Shannon O'Brien used the debate as another opportunity to focus on each other; they largely
ignored the presence of the three third-party candidates. At one point, Romney mistakenly
addressed Green Party candidate Jill Stein as "Carla," as in Carla Howell, the Libertarian.
Romney and O'Brien were especially combative with each
other, with Romney's remarks consistently aiming to criticize O'Brien: on tax votes, the state's rising debt, and her support
of a salary increase for herself in the state Legislature.
"I'm sure she's going to say she doesn't want to raise
taxes," Romney said. "But the truth is, that's what she's done in the past, that's what she'd do in the future as governor."
O'Brien contended that Romney was breaking his campaign
promise to run a positive campaign, citing an advertisement criticizing her on taxes that began running on television
yesterday.
"You made a pledge that you were going to talk about
yourself," O'Brien said. "You have broken pledge after pledge in this campaign."
Romney shot back that she started the negative campaigning
by attacking him on the campaign trail. "Politics is not a place for whining," he said.
The hourlong debate, which began at 10:15 p.m., was
broadcast on WB affiliate WLVI-TV (Channel 56) and on WBZ-AM radio. The crowded stage made for some chaotic moments,
and moderator Jon Keller had to intervene several times to stop the debate from devolving
into utter confusion during the freewheeling discussions that followed candidates' answers to
questions.
Stein, Howell, and Independent candidate Barbara Johnson
desperately tried to use their time to draw attention to their candidacies, and Howell seemed the most successful at
shaping the debate. Her constant trumpeting of her ballot initiative to
eliminate the income tax in Massachusetts - she said "small government is beautiful" three times - kept the candidates
returning to the subject of taxes throughout the hour.
"There is at least $9 billion in waste and destructive,
big-government programs" in the state's $23 billion annual budget, she said.
Howell touted her initiative as a cure-all for government's
problems and a boon for industry. Aiming for conservative voters, she went on the attack against Romney, who opposes her
initiative, calling him a "big-government, high-tax Republican politician."
That left Romney, who touts his fiscal conservatism,
defending government spending and telling Howell he wasn't "going to hurt our schools, our elderly."
Stein chimed in that with many citizens' needs unmet, "we
don't have a lot of fat to cut from the budget." Throughout the debate, Stein used statistics and research to counter
statements made by Romney and Howell, saying the state's tax code is grossly unfair to lower-income
residents. She challenged Romney's statement that English immersion can
replace bilingual education, and said the MCAS exam should not be used as a graduation requirement.
"We don't want to put all kids into some kind of pigeonhole," Stein said.
Johnson spoke slowly and deliberately, using the debate to
float unconventional ideas: splitting up the attorney general's office, creating artificial reefs in the ocean to solve the
fishing shortage, and allowing cities and towns to come up with their own gambling proposals
to compete with the state lottery, including casinos. Keller had to cut off her responses
several times, and once warned her to "please, make it brief" in the middle of an answer.
Johnson also raised a heretofore nonissue in the governor's
race: energy policy. At one point, she said offhandedly that the nation has only "25 years before we see the last drop of
oil." At another, she promised that "when I get an opportunity, I'll tell people about the energy
revolution, and how one cubic foot of fission that can last for 50 years will save
Massachusetts."
The cacophony of slogans and ideas sometimes left Romney and
O'Brien - the race's clear front-runners - in the background, scrambling for traction against each other. But when they
did find a window to attack, they did so with a sharper edge than in previous encounters.
When O'Brien proposed administrative consolidations that
would save "tens of millions," Romney said it was great that she would embrace reductions he has called for.
"The treasurer's getting religion," he said. "I love it."
O'Brien accused Romney of distorting facts to make her look
bad, particularly with the issue of state debt, where she has saved the state $500 million as treasurer.
"The fact is you were just wrong last week, you were wrong
on your numbers," she told him.
The debate drew a crowd outside the Dorchester studio,
including a Romney supporter in a dinosaur suit, taunting O'Brien for calling large out-of-state corporations "dinosaurs"
in a previous debate, and an O'Brien backer who tooted freely on a baritone trumpet.
Two more televised debates will be held before the Nov. 5
election. A media consortium that includes The Boston Globe is hosting a prime-time debate including all five candidates on
Oct. 24. The Boston Herald is sponsoring a final debate on Oct. 29, involving at least
O'Brien and Romney, but no decision has been announced concerning inclusion of Howell,
Johnson, and Stein.
The previous two debates, in Springfield and Worcester,
included only O'Brien and Romney. The other three candidates unsuccessfully sued to appear alongside the Democratic and
Republican nominees at last week's debate, in Worcester.
During the candidates' final remarks last night, Stein hoped
for more five-way discussions.
"Prior to tonight, people were led to believe there were
only two candidates," Stein said. "Tonight people have heard a much broader diversity of opinion and I really encourage that
we make this a beginning."
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The Boston Globe
Thursday, October 10, 2002
Forum's success in eye of viewer
By Mark Jurkowitz
Globe Staff
It may have been the only debate in history when a candidate
listed as a qualification her time on the unemployment line, and when race issues were discussed in terms of "green people
with purple spots."
From the first moment of last night's gubernatorial debate,
it was clear that the "Odd Couple" had been transformed into an episode of "Three's Company."
In almost every important way, last night's format represented a dramatic departure from the
first two televised debates on Sept. 24 and Oct. 1. Veteran viewers of these
face-offs were suddenly watching a show that changed the script, altered the setting, and, most important,
introduced a slew of new cast members.
Instead of a sparring match between two front-running
candidates - Republican Mitt Romney with his CEO-type TV persona and Shannon O'Brien with her more animated style -
three more candidates were injected into the proceedings. And instead of a format that included
questions from assorted moderators, journalists, and students, one moderator ran the
show and encouraged interchanges designed to try to knock the competitors off their guard and
their stump speeches.
The tone and feel of the debate was more informal, more
freewheeling, and more unconventional. Asked about a possible repeal of Proposition
2½, Libertarain candidate Carla Howell reverentially intoned that "small government is beautiful." In
her raspy voice, feisty Independent candidate Barbara Johnson eschewed anything resembling a stump
speech and offered a response that took far less than the allotted 60 seconds. And
Green Party candidate Jill Stein brandished a colorful tax fairness chart and a pencil to make her
point.
One big question last night was whether Howell, Stein, and
Johnson - who desperately wanted the mass media exposure of the debate - would bring ideas and energy to the debate
or would turn out to be the "Not Ready For Prime Time Players." The answer was clearly in
the eye of the viewer.
If any candidate chewed the scenery last night, it was
Johnson, who leaning casually over her podium, asked O'Brien a convoluted question about gambling policy in the Commonwealth,
and spoke bluntly about people willing to "trade in a six-pack of beer for a can of paint." She
may be the only gubernatorial candidate to ever answer a question about unemployment
benefits by acknowledging that she was once on the unemployment line.
Stein, who talked about the need for social justice and her
"people-powered campaign," was a soft, almost ephemeral presence during the debate. In one moment that symbolized the
confusion caused by the swelling roster of candidates, Romney called her "Carla" before
correcting himself.
Howell might have been the most effective phrasemaker,
declaring at one point that "affirmative action is racial profiling." But she was by far the most robotic, repeating over
and over her mantra of endorsing small government and ending the income tax, regardless of
what question was before her.
Where did that leave the two leading candidates? Perhaps
safely in the background as members of the supporting cast. The three new debaters ate up enough time to nearly
relegate the Democrat and Republican to secondary roles.
In the closing moments, prompted by O'Brien, the two once
again engaged in a battle over negative campaigning.
Those tired-sounding soundbites might have been the most
eloquent argument for including Howell, Johnson, and Stein in the debate.
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