Thread: The Mass. fear factor

http://www.boston.com/news/local/politi ... ar_factor/



ADRIAN WALKER
The Mass. fear factor
By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist | September 21, 2006

It will be a long general election season for immigrants, if the opening salvo from the Kerry Healey campaign is any indication.

Healey, the Republican nominee for governor, unveiled a list of 50 ideas yesterday for changing Massachusetts. The second item would require voters to present a valid ID at the polls to prove citizenship.

If that didn't get her views about illegal slackers across, there was number 16: ``Create a level playing field for all Massachusetts companies by penalizing firms that hire illegal aliens."

It isn't just illegal immigrants she's wary of. Healey would also like to (number 25): ``Require that driver's licenses issued to legal immigrants expire on the same day as their visa, to cut down immigration violations."

I would never have imagined that any of these rank among the most pressing problems facing the state, but there you have it.

The list is a true grab-bag: Lifetime parole for Level 2 sex offenders makes the cut, but so too do banning cellphones for teenage drivers and a weird demand to hold Proposition 2 1/2 overrides only on regularly scheduled election days. Welfare recipients, we are told, should all be working. Judges, a past target of Healey's ire, should be evaluated every seven years. In their 16 years in the governor's office, Republicans have appointed almost all of the judges now serving, but never mind that.

Even on a list built largely around simmering resentments, the menace posed by the groups she insists on referring to as ``illegal aliens" was striking.

None of this is a surprise. The furor over in-state tuition neatly crystallized the resentment over illegal immigration, and reference to illegal residents as ``aliens" is poll- and talk radio-tested, never mind that it makes immigrants sound as though they sneaked across the border from Neptune.

Healey's camp has made no secret that immigration ranks high among the issues on which their candidate's positions are far more popular than those of Deval Patrick, the Democratic nominee. Immigrants, they believe, are not a popular constituency, or at least not a voting one.

Healey's list actually did form a sharp contrast with the beginning of the Patrick general election campaign. Patrick lavished praise on his vanquished opponents and spoke about giving hope to everyone. Healey, by contrast, wants to make sure the pictures and addresses of Level 2 sex offenders get posted on the Internet, and the sooner the better.

Some of Healey's ideas have obvious merit. It would be hard to argue against reforming the state's pension system to eliminate abuse, even if one is skeptical about that reform returning $200 million to cities and towns. More merit pay for good teachers sounds good, too.

But clearly, this is a campaign that plans to mobilize voters mainly by promising to fight what they fear. Those welfare cheats, immigration cheats, and Proposition 2 1/2 spendthrifts would all be toast once the Healey-Hillman team takes the oath of office. That's the Healey pledge.

Given that Healey already holds high office, you may wonder, naively, why more of these obvious problems haven't already been tackled. The answer to that, of course, is the obstructionist Democratic Legislature, of which you will hear a great deal in the next 47 days.

Patrick suggested recently that this might be a high-minded, issues-based campaign. Well, maybe, if debating taking cellphones away from teenagers behind the wheel is your idea of a battle of ideas. Perhaps people should have to show ID at the voting booth, but that's hardly a vision for the future of the state.

Healey isn't the first candidate to conclude that she doesn't need a profound vision. She's built her strategy on cobbling together a coalition of the disaffected: enough immigrant-bashing, sex offender-fearing, tax-loathing voters to add up to 51 percent on Election Night.

Healey's handlers like to say that the contrast with Patrick couldn't be clearer. In less than one day, they proved it.

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.



© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

She's built her strategy on cobbling together a coalition of the disaffected: enough immigrant-bashing, sex offender-fearing, tax-loathing voters to add up to 51 percent on Election Night.

Hey that describes me... I am (illegal) immigrant bashing, definitely sex offender fearing, and absolutely tax loathing.

I am voting for Kerry Healy

What happened to Mitt Romney? Is he term limited already? It just seems like he just got in not too long ago.

These left-wingers get all twisted out of shape when people aren't politically correct. For a writer, he doesn't seem to understand that "alien" is the correct definition and they are not immigrants. They are migrants and illegal migrants, at that, and illegal alien migrants.

reference to illegal residents as ``aliens" is poll- and talk radio-tested, never mind that it makes immigrants sound as though they sneaked across the border from Neptune.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/99 ... etail.html

Democratic Party Chair Accuses Healey Of 'Race Baiting'
Patrick Gets AFL-CIO Endorsement

POSTED: 6:23 pm EDT September 21, 2006
UPDATED: 6:59 pm EDT September 21, 2006

BOSTON -- Two days into the race, the campaign for governor is heating up.

NewsCenter 5's Janet Wu reported that the head of the Democratic Party in Massachusetts accused Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey of "race baiting" and "hate mongering" in her focus on immigration and crime issues.

Deval Patrick's primary victory was based on attracting new voters to a grassroots organization. On Thursday, Patrick was back to Democratic basics as the AFL-CIO formally endorsed his campaign.

"The negative campaign, the building yourself by tearing the other candidates down, the sound bites, the quick comeback, the gimmick and let me tell you, the Romney-Healey administration have perfected this," Patrick said.

Healey has highlighted several issues that separate her from Patrick, including taxes, immigration and crime. Democratic Party chairman Philip Johnston said the latter two issues anger him.

"I think the language she's using borders on race baiting and I think that it is fear mongering of the worst sort. I think she ought to stop it, and she should not run a campaign that plays on the worst instincts in people," said Johnston.

"I think it's a classic Republican tactic to look for and emphasize issues that divide us," Patrick said.

Patrick responded to Johnston's comments.

"I don’t think we need to go that far. But I will tell you I have only been in the general (election) for two days now, so I am not quite ready to characterize the Kerry Healey campaign," Patrick said.

While launching a positive, attack-free ad that was paid for by the state party, Patrick launched his own assaults on Healey from the ground.

"We have been led by people who don't believe in leadership, who don’t actually believe that government has a role to play in all of our lives in helping us help ourselves," Patrick said.

Healey spokesman Rob Gray called Johnston a "phony" and his comments "disgraceful," pointing out that Chris Gabrieli, Patrick's primary opponent, held the same positions as Healey on illegal immigrants receiving driver's licenses and in-state tuition.

But Johnston said Gabrieli did not make them his signature issues and Healey, he claimed, is using immigration as a wedge issue.

http://www.nytimes.com

September 22, 2006
Mass. Democratic Chairman Apologizes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:20 a.m. ET

BOSTON (AP) -- The chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party apologized Thursday for accusing Republican gubernatorial candidate Kerry Healey of using language that ''borders on race-baiting'' about crime and immigration.

In a television interview broadcast earlier in the night, Chairman Philip Johnston complained about the tenor of the lieutenant governor's remarks during the campaign, although he did not provide specifics.

''I think the language that she's using ... borders on race-baiting and I think that it's fear-mongering of the worst sort, and I think she oughta stop it and she should not run a campaign that plays to the worst instincts in people,'' Johnston said.

The comments prompted Healy's campaign to call on Democratic candidate Deval Patrick, who is running to become the state's first black governor, to seek Johnston's resignation.

''It is disgraceful that Phil Johnston is injecting race into this campaign,'' said Tim O'Brien, Healey's campaign manager. ''We don't believe this is the type of campaign Deval Patrick intends to run, but failure to demand this resignation will demonstrate otherwise and indicate he'll do or say anything to get elected.''

The Patrick camp instead distanced itself from Johnston's remarks.

''Phil Johnston's comments do not reflect the position of the Patrick campaign,'' said Richard Chacon, the Democrat's communications director. ''Deval Patrick understands that using immigration and other wedge issues to divide people is a typical Republican tactic. Our campaign has been about bringing people together.''

Johnston issued a prompt apology.

''In reviewing my comments, I now realize I may have gone too far,'' the Democratic party chief said in a statement. ''I have been concerned about how certain issues will be used by the Republican Party, and I let that influence my word choice.''