E-Mail This Article to a Friend Escape from Beacon Hill (continued)

Finally, and most intriguingly, Romney would have to undergo a very public change of heart — to flip-flop, if you will — in order to take over for Ridge. In New Bedford, I asked Romney if he’d be willing to become the next secretary of homeland security if the president asked him to serve. "I’ve already communicated to the White House that I’m here all four years," the governor replied. "I’m not available for other appointments. I made a commitment to the people of Massachusetts that I would serve my entire term, and I intend to do that." Strong words. Maybe the governor really will serve out his term — and if he stays put and runs for president four years from now, it won’t hurt to have been mentioned as a possible successor to Ridge. Bear in mind, though, that if Turnaround is to be believed, running for governor of Massachusetts once topped Mitt and Ann Romney’s list of Things They Wouldn’t Do. Romney also wrote that he wasn’t eager to run the Salt Lake Games. Instead, his wife and others had to cajole him to step in.

There’s a pattern here. Romney insists he’s unwilling to assume a particular role. Then he starts listening to advisers who assure him he’s the only man for the job. Eventually, he decides they’re right. It’s easy to imagine the speech Romney would give if he became homeland-security secretary. It would go something like this: I made a commitment to serve the people of Massachusetts for four years. Until this week, I fully intended to honor that commitment. But then I got a call from President Bush. We live in a dangerous world, and securing the homeland is a vital task. When the president asks you to serve in such an important role — when he tells you he needs your help to keep America safe — you don’t say no.

LAST WEDNESDAY, the Massachusetts Democratic Party held a press conference at the Omni Parker House to gloat over the state legislative elections. In case you missed it, the state Republican Party’s much-ballyhooed legislative push (see "Road to Nowhere," News and Features, October 22) was a total flop: when the votes were tallied, the Republican bloc actually lost three seats on Beacon Hill. Not surprisingly, Democratic state-party chair Phil Johnston was feeling good. But Johnston also issued an important caveat. With Democrats controlling 140 of 160 seats in the House and 34 of 40 in the Senate, Massachusetts voters — who are so sure Republican governors keep the legislature from running amok that they’ve elected four of them in a row — may be even more inclined to give the corner office to the GOP in 2006. Therefore, Johnston said, "The only way we are going to win the governorship is with an independent-minded candidate — a nominee who is really outside the Beacon Hill establishment."

Was this an early endorsement? And if so, of whom? Right now, the roster of likely Democratic gubernatorial candidates includes Congressman Mike Capuano, Attorney General Tom Reilly, and Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin. Galvin, who’s been in his current job for a decade, is a former state representative who ran for state treasurer in 1990. Reilly has been AG for six years; like Galvin, his time in state government could invite labeling as a Beacon Hill insider. Capuano, however, is a former Somerville alderman and mayor who went straight from governing that city to representing the Eighth Congressional District in the US House of Representatives. Galvin, it seems, flunks Johnston’s test; Reilly is a question mark; and Capuano passes it easily.

But Johnston insists he wasn’t trying to discourage anyone. "By that, I was really referring to the legislature more than anything else, and as far as I know there’s nobody running from the legislature," he told the Phoenix. "I did not mean that to include Tom Reilly. I think the attorney general, obviously, as a prosecutor, is very much outside [the Beacon Hill establishment]." And Galvin? "I’ve sort of heard that he might be interested — he hasn’t discussed it with me — but I wasn’t including him in that," Johnston said. "I’d have to think about that."

Johnston’s criteria may be ambiguous, but he has a point: belonging to the "Beacon Hill establishment" — or just being accused of belonging to it — is a serious liability for any Democrat making a gubernatorial run. "The knock on me that Mitt Romney made successfully was, ‘Put all Democrats in charge, and hang on to your wallets,’ " says former state treasurer Shannon O’Brien, the Democrats’ 2002 candidate. "The truth is, if it weren’t for Tom Finneran and like-minded Democrats, we wouldn’t have had the significant rainy-day fund which saved the Commonwealth’s fiscal health, and frankly saved Romney’s position as governor. But old images die hard." Indeed they do — especially when they’re manipulated by a master of symbolism like Romney.

ONE IMPORTANT but little-noticed postscript to last week’s state elections: for the first time, a majority of the Massachusetts House of Representatives supports abortion rights. According to NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, this milestone was reached thanks to the addition of three staunchly pro-choice House newcomers — Cleon Turner (D-Dennis), Denis Guyer (D-Dalton), and John Keenan (D-Salem). Melissa Kogut, NARAL’s executive director, predicts that this shift will have a clear effect in the upcoming legislative session. "Last session, the state Senate voted in favor of the emergency-contraception bill, but the House never took it up," she says. "The reason was, we had an anti-choice Speaker, and there weren’t enough pro-choice legislators to make it possible to bring it up on the floor of the House. We expect a different scenario next year." For abortion-rights proponents worried that President Bush’s second term will feature an all-out assault on Roe v. Wade, this is a small but significant bit of good news.

Adam Reilly can be reached at areilly[a]phx.com