Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray, the Patrick administration’s leading aggressor on the campaign trail, charged Monday that Republican rival Charles Baker possessed an inflated sense of his own brainpower, and a distortedly low judgment of the electorate’s – reviving a campaign feud that boiled last week.
“He underestimates the public’s intelligence and overestimates his own,” Murray told the News Service, striking at one of Baker’s bedrock arguments, that he is uniquely equipped to tackle the most vexing problems facing Beacon Hill.
Murray accused Baker of “playing fast and loose with the facts” by leveling fiscal irresponsibility broadsides against Gov. Deval Patrick while distancing himself from Big Dig financing plans - Baker was the top fiscal aide in the Weld and Cellucci administrations, before leaving to run Harvard Pilgrim Health Care for a decade.
Baker’s campaign hit back quickly, ripping Murray for “continued personal and false attacks on Charlie.”
Baker campaign manager Lenny Alcivar said, “The lieutenant governor’s comments are beneath the dignity of his office. It’s why people in Massachusetts are so turned off from this administration, and it’s why they’re on defense. If the governor wants to stand by his lieutenant governor’s personal attacks on Charlie Baker, he should come out and say so. Until then, they should focus on their own anemic reelection prospects.”
Murray said Monday that Baker has been overpromising by dangling reduced income and sales tax rates and lower tolls, with maintained levels of service. When a reporter repeatedly questioned Murray about Patrick’s broken campaign promises – reduced property taxes, 1,000 new police officers, opposition to a gas tax – the lieutenant governor repeatedly turned to the recession as an explanation.
“The worst economic downturn since the Great Depression has changed a lot for people,” he said, in a reprisal of several similar answers during the exchange.
Murray argued that the administration’s hiring of former Big Dig lawyer James Aloisi as transportation chief would not blunt arguments that Baker had masterminded a financing scheme that led to billions in cost overruns and long delays on the project, translating into deferred maintenance across the transportation system.
“Jim Aloisi had a role to play, and people can agree or disagree with him on style points, or make assertions about what he allegedly did or didn’t do, but he helped facilitate us getting transportation reform done,” Murray said, referring to a transportation bureaucracy overhaul that abolished the Turnpike Authority and is aimed at curbing transportation debt.
Baker’s campaign has ripped Patrick for bringing on Aloisi despite pledges to end “the Big Dig culture.”
The renewed battle between Murray and Baker’s camp comes after last week’s heavy back-and-forth over responsibility for the Big Dig and charges of disingenuousness from both sides. The debate largely sidelined the two other major gubernatorial candidates, unenrolled Treasurer Timothy Cahill and GOP convenience store magnate Christy Mihos.
Murray’s comments on Monday came after he was reportedly pressed by South Shore Democrats on Thursday in Cohasset to present a better case to voters. The Patriot Ledger reported Friday that some activists told Murray that the administration needed to talk less about its record, and more about what it would do in a second term.
On Monday, Murray said the administration’s biggest mistake has been not making clear what it has already done.
“Probably the biggest mistake we’ve made is not talking enough about what we’ve done,” Murray said.
The lieutenant governor also downplayed the notion that Democrats had lightened up in its attacks on Cahill, instead trying to bury Baker as part of a strategy to divide the anti-Patrick vote.
“If the treasurer says something that I think is inaccurate, I’ll respond accordingly,” Murray said.
Cahill aired a 15-second Super Bowl ad Sunday touting his “independence,” and has sparred repeatedly with the administration, Murray often leading the countercharge. Cahill said last week he was not interested in jumping into the fray between Democrats and Republicans.
Murray said he had been “unscripted” and “freelance” last week when during a Springfield radio interview he likened hearing Baker discuss fiscal discipline to “getting lectured on abstinence from Paris Hilton.”
Asked how Patrick’s inner circle has reacted to his stepped-up campaign trail rhetoric, Murray smiled, “I think most people know my style by now and appreciate it, for the most part.”
Murray defended administration policies, and said Patrick had been the most effective governor in at least two decades.
“People sold this guy short from the beginning, and he’s gotten more done and driven a more comprehensive change agenda than anyone has here in 20, 25, 30 years,” Murray said.
Murray’s criticisms of Baker echoed GOP arguments against his and Patrick’s campaign in 2006, when then-Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey argued that Patrick’s spending proposals and simultaneous reluctance to raise taxes were unrealistic.
Murray said, “Baker’s saying he’s going to roll back income tax, sales tax, and the tolls. It’s Alice in Wonderland. It’s not real, and I don’t think he’s being honest with people.”
“The reason the governor’s supporters are disenchanted and disillusioned is that, for all the rhetoric, there aren’t any results,” Alcivar said. “And when an administration can’t run on its own records, they resort to the politics of the past and personal attacks.”
