Talking Politics

Christy’s choice

Mihos could be a contender — but only if he loses his Republican baggage

By ADAM REILLY | February 22, 2006

AN INDEPENDENT MIHOS Candidacy could be just as dangerous to the Democrats as Healey. The conventional wisdom is already fixed: if Christy Mihos — the convenience-store magnate and Big-Dig whistle blower who has pledged to run for governor — campaigns as an independent, he’ll be doing the Massachusetts Democratic Party a huge favor. Mihos would pull voters from Republican lieutenant governor Kerry Healey, or so the thinking goes. And this, in turn, would give the Democratic nominee — Tom Reilly? Deval Patrick? Chris Gabrieli? — a cakewalk into the corner office.

You’ll hear this argument both from liberals, who make it with a kind of nervous glee, and from the smattering of Massachusetts conservatives not linked to the Healey campaign. If Mihos challenges Healey in the GOP primary, says Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation, “We’ll wish them both well, and be supportive of whichever one of them wins.” And if he makes an independent bid? “Then I think I’m going to simply have to slice my wrists,” she answers. “You’d be splitting the vote just to elect the Democrat. And that’s something I don’t even want to think about.”

Relax, Barbara. An independent Mihos candidacy could be just as dangerous to the Democrats as to Healey. For that to happen, though, Mihos has to break with his Republican past and embrace a new political identity — and right now, it’s uncertain whether he’s prepared to take that step.

Straight talk
Mihos’s regular-guy persona is a big source of his appeal. Most candidates protect themselves with smooth-talking press flacks; when they do speak, it’s in cautious, carefully crafted sound bites. Mihos takes a different tack — which is how, late last week, this reporter found himself in Mihos’s palatial West Yarmouth home, ogling the Kennedy compound across Lewis Bay and parsing the upcoming campaign with Mihos and his comely wife, Andrea. (There is, of course, an obvious tension between being an Average Joe and living in a $6.5 million mansion on the Atlantic. Mihos sublimates it with blue-collar verbal tics, repeated references to his Brockton roots, and an eager, seemingly guileless mien; whether this can hold up over the course of a high-stakes political campaign remains to be seen.)

Reporters love unfettered access to their subjects — and since the media warm to candidates who treat them well, and pass this enthusiasm on to the public, this approach should help Mihos sell himself as a kind of straight-talking anti-politician between now and Election Day. But there’s an element of risk here as well. When a candidate drifts into dangerous territory, a skillful minder can pull him or her back to safer ground. Working without a net ratchets up Mihos’s authenticity quotient. But it also gives him free rein to stumble.

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Related: Hard sell, Enter the wonk, Corporate accountability, More

Hard sell
Over the past eight months, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey (who wants to be governor) has methodically distanced herself from her boss and fellow Republican, Governor Mitt Romney (who wants to be president).
Enter the wonk
Chris Gabrieli’s decision to jump into the race for governor — which he’ll do this week, if all goes according to plan — has an almost Shakespearean quality.
Corporate accountability
Maybe, In the wake of his landslide win at this month’s democratic caucuses, Deval Patrick Is the new front-runner.
Our big fat Greek wild card
If Christy Mihos convinces Massachusetts to take him seriously, he’ll make this fall’s race for governor a lot more interesting.
Debating pointers
Well, folks, Fox 25 certainly set the bar with its debate broadcast Monday night, don’t you think? So with that in mind, here are some helpful hints for the bake-offs to come. Blue Mass Group's anti-Healey ad (YouTube) Christy Mihos's Big Dig TV ad
Daisy, Horton, ¡Peligro!
The Massachusetts governor’s election is just six short months away, but three candidates — Republican lieutenant governor Kerry Healey, Democratic attorney general Tom Reilly, and independent businessman Christy Mihos — still haven’t rolled out any video ads.
Republican radio
If you’re a political liberal — or just someone who has a sense of fair play — listening to two straight days of talk on WRKO-AM isn’t easy.
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Along with cuts to big, statewide programs, the governor pulled funding for smaller, local projects earmarked for towns from Cape Cod to the Berkshires.
The Dems are coming
Here are three admittedly subjective, shoot-from-the-hip snapshots of the three Democratic candidates for governor.
Reversal of fortune
On January 30, Tom Reilly — the Democratic attorney general and would-be governor of Massachusetts — was supposed to formally announce that Chris Gabrieli, the wealthy Democratic activist from Boston, was joining his campaign as a candidate for lieutenant governor.
Grading the ads
With just a month to go before primary day in Massachusetts, it’s a good time to issue midterm grades for the gubernatorial advertising campaigns.
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Topics: Talking Politics , Deval Patrick, Deval Patrick, Chris Gabrieli, More

Comments

Christy’s choice

Christy is the state's only hope. If there's one thing we've learned from watching the buffoon in the White House, it's that competency matters. Kerry Murphy Healey has no record of leadership or competency to run on. If not for Mitt Romney, she'd be just another rich housewife searching for ways to pass the day. Reilly has shown in the last month that he's not up to the job. Christy, however, is a successful business man who also has demonstrated his willingness to stand up against either party when the need arises.

By Patrick on 02/24/2006 at 9:04:10

Christy’s choice

Patrick, "...just another rich housewife searching for ways to pass the day." Hardly. Apparently you haven't bothered to research Lieutenant Governor Healey's background. It's very simple, just go to mass.gov and click on Lt. Governor Kerry Healey. Although I am one of Massachusetts' unenrolled voters, that doesn't mean I'm automatically going to vote for an Independent Party candidate. Rather, it means that I am going to completely disregard party affiliation and look at what each candidate has already done to serve the public. If all I see is someone who has accomplished nothing but to become just another narcissistic, self-serving multi-millionaire (just what the world needs more of), he or she would immediately be crossed off my list. I don't fall for sales pitches; my vote will go to the man or woman who has already done the most to help the average worker in Massachusetts. Don't tell me -- show me. My decision isn't set in stone -- it's way too early for that. But judging by everything I've read so far, Lieutenant Governor Healey seems like our best bet for representing the "average Massachusetts voter".

By christinmp on 02/26/2006 at 7:17:51

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What’s Christy worth?

A lot, apparently. Mihos has promised on more than one occasion that he “won’t be outspent” in his run for governor. Since Republican front-runner Kerry Healey’s husband Sean Healey, the CEO of Affiliated Managers Group, recently sold $13 million in AMG stock, this may be Mihos’s way of saying he can spend at least that much.

But can he? In 1998, Mihos and his brother James sold their 142 Christy’s convenience stores to 7-Eleven’s parent company. Christy’s started as a single grocery store; when Christy and James took over in the late ’70s, there were about40 stores.This is the source of Mihos’s cash. (Mihos later bought back 10 stores on Cape Cod.) But because it was a private transaction, the terms of the sale remain a mystery.

He’s got more money than most of us, obviously — witness his $6.5 million home and the $5.5 million investment property located next door. Still, there’s reason to think Mihos may have allowed an exaggerated notion of his wealth to develop. Exhibit A: a $4.5 million mortgage from Citizens Bank that Mihos and his wife, Andrea, took out on their home in 2004.

Asked about this mortgage, Mihos says it’s actually a line of credit, and that he won’t need it to fund his campaign. He also backs off his vow not to be outspent. “I’m going to spend enough to be elected, okay?” Mihos says. “I won’t have to use that line of credit or sell houses or anything like that. It will certainly not be a hamster-driven campaign . . . . I’m going to spend enough to win.”

— A.R.

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