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FEASTING ON FINNERAN
What Sullivan wants
BY ADAM REILLY
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Since former Massachusetts House Speaker Tom Finneran was indicted this week, there’s been much speculation that Michael Sullivan — the Republican US attorney for Massachusetts — will use his office’s prosecution of the widely reviled Finneran as a springboard to running for elected office. But one obvious question has barely been asked: which job does Sullivan want? The most popular theory, among Democratic and Republican political gurus, has Sullivan running for the state attorney general’s post, which Democratic incumbent Tom Reilly will vacate to pursue his gubernatorial run. "I think a lot of top Republican officials would be very happy to see him as an AG candidate, and this Finneran indictment has nothing to do with it," says one GOP observer. "He’s a former state rep [from Abington]; he’s a former district attorney in Plymouth County, which is a strong base for a Republican running statewide; he’s got a strong law-enforcement background; and he’s got a great story." (Sullivan, who grew up in Holbrook and once worked as a stock clerk at Gillette, has a blue-collar background many Massachusetts Republicans lack, and his Irish surname is an added plus.) The US Senate is another possibility, especially since one of Massachusetts’s two seats most likely will be free if John Kerry runs for president again in 2008. One Democrat thinks this would be Sullivan’s best chance at electoral success, especially since the scrum for Kerry’s seat would culminate in an extremely competitive Democratic primary. "Kerry drops out, 15 people on the Democratic side jump in, and Sullivan says, ‘Why not?’ " this Democrat says. Since Sullivan nearly challenged Ted Kennedy for the state’s other Senate seat in 2000 — he formed an exploratory committee and began cultivating donors before opting out — it’s a plausible theory. What’s more, the timing of a Senate run would be ideal: Sullivan could see the Finneran case — which is shaping up to be a protracted legal battle — through to the finish, rather than bailing out midway. Then there’s the governor’s race. Both Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey and Harvard Pilgrim head Charlie Baker are expected to pursue the Republican nomination if Mitt Romney leaves Beacon Hill to run for president (see "The Price of Loyalty," News and Features, April 1) — and both have been quietly cultivating support as Romney defers his final decision. As US attorney, Sullivan has less latitude to schmooze, and he’s even more constrained now that the Finneran case is moving forward. Still, he’s managed to get his name out. Last September, Boston Globe Magazine ran a lengthy profile that treated Sullivan as a possible gubernatorial candidate; in January, he briefed WRKO-AM’s Peter Blute and Scott Allen Miller (a/k/a "Scotto") on an ongoing terrorism investigation; and just last month, he chatted with WRKO’s John DePetro about the Finneran case. Of course, if Sullivan jumps into any of these races — or if he does something unexpected, like run for secretary of state or make a congressional bid — that won’t prove his indictment of Finneran was opportunistic. Still, as the second Republican notes, "Tom Finneran was the best-known and least-liked politician in Massachusetts. Every poll showed it — Republican polls, Democratic polls.... Sullivan can be doing this for the purest of reasons and still get political benefit out of it. The bottom line is, Michael Sullivan’s name is going to be a household name in Massachusetts. Because he’s going to be the guy who indicted Tom Finneran, who everyone hates."
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