WHAT TROUBLES MANY Republicans about Swift is that she has alienated so many of her natural allies — allies whom the party will need in a tough election fight. Start, for one, with Blute — who, despite the publicity surrounding his departure from Massport, was always an effective politician in this state. More recently, Swift unceremoniously whacked two board members of the Turnpike Authority — former Worcester mayor Jordan Levy and Republican activist Christy Mihos — when they objected to the governor’s plan to raise tolls in January; the pair wanted to postpone the measure to July. Both Levy, a popular figure in central Massachusetts, and Mihos, a leading GOP donor and fundraiser, would normally be key allies for an incumbent governor in an election fight. But Swift went to war with the pair, rather than working out their differences with a little glad-handing. Sunday’s Globe poll found that 59 percent of state voters oppose her firing of the two men. (Sarah Magazine, a spokeswoman for the governor, says that Swift’s obligations, both as governor and to Turnpike Authority bondholders, forced her into "not a great political fight.")
Add to those missteps Swift’s failure to forge a compromise with Republican Jim Rappaport, who is currently running for lieutenant governor against Swift’s wishes. She has tapped Patrick Guerriero as her lieutenant governor pick, which is her prerogative. But he must still beat Rappaport in the Republican primary; if he doesn’t, she’ll be stuck with a running mate she publicly decried.
"She doesn’t realize that you hit somebody else, there are repercussions to that," says one Republican. "She doesn’t recognize other people’s networks and power bases. That doesn’t bode well electorally."
George Regan, owner of Regan Communications and former aide to Boston mayor Kevin White, likens Swift’s recent experiences to the those of the French in Indochina, who eventually surrendered their troops at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. "She’s surrounded on all sides, picking needless battles and fights that don’t make any sense," he says.
Her disputes with Blute, of Shrewsbury, and Levy, of Worcester, indicate another problem for the governor: a potential liability in an electorally important part of the state. One of the accepted facts of statewide electoral politics is that two "swing" regions of Massachusetts are essential for Republican victory — central Massachusetts (Worcester County) and the Routes 128-495 belt. By alienating Blute, a popular former state legislator and congressman, and Levy (and, by extension, their supporters), Swift risks weakening herself in a region Republicans desperately need to win. The suburban MetroWest belt between Routes 128 and 495 is riveted around the issue of tolls, and still Swift has gone out of her way to pick a fight over just that, which will likely hurt her with the very voters she needs to win. Exacerbating her problem is the flurry of negative press surrounding the revelation that the governor and her team have five passes, or "transponders," which enable them to drive on the Turnpike without paying tolls. While a case can be made that Swift and company need the transponders to govern effectively, those arguments probably won’t do much to assuage the emotions of Turnpike commuters already raw over the toll increase.
Finally, the battle with Rappaport, who since 1990 has consistently worked to strengthen the grassroots of the Republican Party, is another cause of anti-Swift sentiment. The governor went out of her way to name Guerriero as her desired running mate. In so doing, she paved the way for a distracting primary fight that may weaken her own electoral effort. Earlier this month, Theodore Hunt and Arnold Koch, respectively the chair and secretary of the Republican Committee of Guerriero’s hometown of Melrose, wrote a letter to the Globe vowing to support Rappaport over Guerriero because the former Melrose mayor backed a Democrat to replace him. Eleven Republican members of the House, according to the Boston Herald, have still refused to support Guerriero.
This sort of sniping provides a glimpse of what Swift must surmount within her own party. To overcome Rappaport, the Swift team will have to engage in considerable fundraising on Guerriero’s behalf — energy that could be better spent in raising money for the her own electoral effort. Already, Swift has less money than people would have expected. She trails Senate president Tom Birmingham by $1.2 million and former Democratic National Committee chair Steve Grossman by $400,000, according to state records — a gap unlikely to shrink by much if the governor has to expend time and effort raising money for her lieutenant-governor candidate. Just think how much rosier Swift’s financial picture would be if Mihos and Rappaport were on board raising money for her — not fully engaged in battles against her.
The acrimony is so great, say Bay State Republicans, that some rank-and-file GOP activists have implored Rappaport to give up his lieutenant-governor campaign and run for governor instead. "I do hear that," says Rappaport, quickly adding that he has no intention of doing so. "I remind them that I am focused on my mission, which is to be the next lieutenant governor of Massachusetts and to get 15 percent of convention delegates." Even so, the attention centering on his candidacy cannot be good for Swift.
