Notes From D.R. | Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

The Massachusetts gubernatorial race between Republican Kerry Healey and Democrat Deval Patrick is about as pure an ideological conflict as you can find. In so many ways, this race bears similarities to the Bush vs. Gore Presidential contest of 2000.

On one side, you have a centrist Republican committed to reducing crime, appointing reasonable judges, cutting taxes and easing the burdens that face businesses, particularly small businesses, in the state of Massachusetts. On the other side, you have a slick Democrat who has aligned himself with all manner and manifestation of far-left interest groups, a man whose past actions include
helping to spare a cop killer from death row and aiding a convicted rapist’s effort to get out of jail free.

On one side, you have a candidate whose base of support includes conservatives, moderates, and sensible progressives. On the other side, you have a contender backed largely by ideologues who are filled with bilious contempt for all things non-liberal.

On one side, you have a candidate who worked her way through Harvard but who rejected the institution’s elitism. On the other side, you have a candidate who believed that absorbing the elitism of Harvard and Milton Academy was his ticket to wealth and success.

Like Al Gore, Patrick utilizes a subtly demagogic, "people versus the powerful" imagery that appeals to the emotions, but not to the intellect. On the other hand, Healey has made clear her status as the thinking person’s candidate.

The contrast is stark. In a Healey Administration, taxes will be reduced, criminals will be removed from the streets, and businesses will flourish. In a Patrick Administration, excessive taxation will bleed personal finances dry, criminals with effective sob stories will be pardoned, and businesses will flee to either New Hampshire or North Carolina.

Compare the views of both Healey and Patrick and it becomes obvious that, in the traditional sense of the word, Healey is the true "progressive" in the race. Her ideas will result in actual, tangible progress–in education, in the law, in health, in the economy. With Patrick as the captain of a nearly nine-tenths Democrat legislative crew, the state will not progress, but will retreat into the brutal economic malaise of the late 1980s.

The Bay State press has made frequent references to the passion that Patrick has inspired in his supporters. Yet Healey’s supporters are just as passionate–passionate about finally implementing the state income tax the people overwhelmingly voted for in 2000, passionate about keeping hardened criminals behind bars, passionate about real, demonstrable education reform, passionate about making Massachusetts a place one wants to come to, not come from.

On November 7, let’s make the press recognize the truth. Let’s make Patrick’s supporters recognize that it’s Kerry Healey who is truly "No Ordinary Leader."

UPDATE: Human Events on Healey vs. Patrick.