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The Massachusetts gubernatorial election of 2006 was held on November 7, 2006. Former US Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick was elected to a four-year term, from January 4, 2007 until January 6, 2011. In his first elected office, Patrick is the second African-American governor in the United States since Reconstruction. Every four years, Massachusetts holds elections for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, as part of the general statewide election. The Primary election was September 19, 2006.
Contents
- Democratic
- Candidates
- Caucuses
- Debates
- Convention
- Major events and controversies
- Media endorsements
- Green Rainbow
- Republican
- Independent
- General election
- Polls
- Results
- References
One-term Republican governor Mitt Romney did not seek re-election; his term ended January 4, 2007. Polls had been mixed prior to Romney's announcement, with one poll showing Romney slightly leading Democrat Attorney General Tom Reilly and other polls showing Reilly, who was then the Democratic frontrunner, in the lead. Romney endorsed Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey to succeed him in the 2006 gubernatorial election. Republican Christy Mihos left his party to run as an Independent, and the Green-Rainbow Party nominated a slate of candidates for statewide office. While the Libertarian Party has often run candidates for governor in the past, the deadline for filing signatures passed without a nominated Libertarian candidate. State law requires that candidates for statewide office be registered in their party (or unenrolled for independent candidates) by March 7.
As incumbent Kerry Healey ran for governor, the position of lieutenant governor was open. In Massachusetts, the lieutenant governor candidates are nominated separately from the gubernatorial candidates, then the nominated tickets from each party run together.
Democratic
See Election results below for details.The Democrats were the only party with a contested primary election. On September 19, 2006, Patrick won the Democratic primary with 50% of the vote, ahead of Gabrieli (27%) and Reilly (23%).
Candidates
Caucuses
The Democratic State Caucuses were held in February in all cities and towns to elect delegates to the convention. The Patrick campaign organized their supporters, many of whom had never been involved in such party processes before, to win twice as many pledged delegates as the Reilly campaign. (Chris Gabrieli did not join the race until a month later, which played a major role in his difficulty in getting on the ballot).
Debates
The first two debates took place in late April, and were the first of many between then and September: WBZ-CBS4 News hosted a debate between Democratic candidates Chris Gabrieli, Deval Patrick, and Tom Reilly on April 21 and it aired at 8:30 AM on April 23. A second Democratic candidate debate, moderated by Sy Becker from WWLP TV 22, was held at Agawam Middle School on April 27. On April 25, Healey called for a series of four debates involving all four candidates between the September primaries and November general election, and this proposition was seconded by Patrick.
The final two televised debates played a key role in the primary campaign, as they took place during the two weeks between Labor Day and Primary Day when the public and the media hold their greatest focus on the election. The first of the two was carried about by the media consortium (which includes the Boston Globe, NECN, and WBUR, among others) and moderated by former New Hampshire governor Jeanne Shaheen, while the second and final debate was held by WBZ-TV and moderated by their political analyst, Jon Keller.
Convention
At the Democratic Convention on June 3 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, each candidate needed to receive support from 15% of the delegates to be on the primary ballot in September, and there was some question as to whether Gabrieli could succeed after entering the race so late. Patrick received the convention's endorsement with 57.98% of the vote, Reilly made it with 26.66%, and Gabrieli just made it with 15.36%.
Major events and controversies
On August 11, Joan Vennochi of The Boston Globe wrote that Reilly's campaign had been coordinating with an alleged attempt to swiftboat Deval Patrick over his experience at Coca-Cola. The "Campaign to Stop Killer Coke", a group dedicated to holding Coca-Cola accountable for violence in its Colombian bottling plant in the mid-1990s, had begun to attack Patrick and his candidacy, even though he resigned from the company and said he'd done so after his attempts to get them to carry out an independent investigation were ignored and undermined. Before the revelation of the Reilly campaign involvement, five Massachusetts unions filed a complaint against the group with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, a move supported by former Secretary of the Commonwealth candidate John Bonifaz and based on research by David Kravitz of Blue Mass Group.
Media endorsements
Green-Rainbow
Republican
Independent
Democratic
See Election results for details.The Democrats were the only party with a contested primary election. Tim Murray won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor on September 19 with 43% of the vote.
Candidates
Debates
On April 23, 2006, a "virtual debate" between Democrats Sam Kelley, Tim Murray, and Andrea Silbert was released on SaintKermit.com, hosted by Jim Henderson and 2002 Green-Rainbow Lieutenant Governor candidate Tony Lorenzen. The Greater Lowell Area Democrats, the Lowell Democratic City Committee, and BlogLeft held a debate between all four candidates on May 21 at the Lowell Telecommunications Corporation, was broadcast on public-access television cable TV. Four days later, on May 25, Kelley dropped out of the race and joined the Deval Patrick campaign as a volunteer advisor on health care issues.
Convention
At the Democratic convention on June 3, Worcester Mayor Tim Murray was endorsed by a voice vote after receiving 49% on the first ballot. Deborah Goldberg and Andrea Silbert both qualified for the ballot with 22% and 29% respectively. Christy Mihos announced on June 8 that John Sullivan would join him as his running mate.
Media endorsements
Green-Rainbow
Republican
Independent
General election
The general election campaign kicked off officially around 10 PM on Primary Election Day (September 19, 2006) after Tom Reilly and Chris Gabrieli conceded and Kerry Healey accepted her uncontested nomination. Deval Patrick followed with his acceptance speech at about 11 PM, appearing with his new running mate Tim Murray and former opponent Chris Gabrieli.
Debates
The first televised debate of the general election was held by WFXT and the Boston Herald] on September 25 on WFXT. Moderated by Fox News' Chris Wallace on the day after his Bill Clinton interview.
The second debate was held in Springfield and broadcast on WGBH and NECN.
Major events and controversies
The general election campaign was very heated and was referred to by Mike Dukakis as "the dirtiest gubernatorial campaign in my memory". Blame for this has primarily been placed on the Healey campaign and its supporters, for many reasons, including their reliance on attack ads implying that Deval Patrick supports sexual assault or murder of police (culminating in the now infamous "parking lot rape" ad), her supporters protesting at the homes of Patrick and campaign manager John E. Walsh, and documents leaked anonymously to media about Patrick's brother-in-law's criminal history.
Also, Grace Ross generated some controversy in the GBLT media for not promoting herself through her sexuality in the course of the televised debates. Also, after the final debate, WRKO talk radio host John DePetro came under scrutiny for referring to Ross as a "fat lesbian". DePetro was suspended earlier in the year for calling Turnpike Authority chief Matt Amorello a "fag".
Media endorsements
Polls
**Polls from when Mihos was considering running in Republican primary.
Results
Official results certified by the Massachusetts Secretary of State, as of December 6, 2006, with all 2,166 precincts reporting.
Patrick won a majority of the vote in every county in the state.