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ROMNEY CHOOSES RUNNING MATE
POSTED: 2:48 p.m. EST April 3, 2002 (AP)
BOSTON -- Faced with two announced candidates he could not support, Mitt Romney said that he would let the candidates for Lt. Gov. fight their own battles.
But then Patrick Guerriero dropped out and Kerry Murphy Healey entered, prompting Romney to endorse Healy late Wednesday afternoon.
NewsCenter 5's Janet Wu said that Romney walked into his Cambridge headquarters with Healey beaming. He acknowledged that Healey will soften his hard businessman's image for general election voters.
"I will look to her as someone who can provide prospectives on social policy add balance to the team to help me lead the Commonwealth. I am convinced that her judgment, that her views, that her experience, will compliment my own," Romney said. "The voters of Massachusetts are going to make this decision. The republican voters in the primary will decide who the lieutenant governor ought to be. But I want everyone to know that in my view, the person who would make the strongest compliment to my candidacy is Kerry Murphy Healey."
Donna Cuomo, who entered the lieutenant governor's race Tuesday, then made a surprise announcement.
"I am here to help you and I am dropping out of the race for lieutenant governor," Cuomo said.
That leaves one man still running for lieutenant governor -- Jim Rappaport.
"I have been saying that for six months that the choice should not be picked in a smoke filled room," Rappaport said.
"I think Jim Rappaport is a terrific guy. Like him, I don't have a huge philosophical difference, but we have similar backgrounds, we are both businessmen, and we both grew up in the same part of the economy. We've learned about many of the same features. In Kerry Murphy Healey, I've come to know someone who has a different background," Romney said.
"My guess is that the party, the activists, in September, will back Kerry Healey and Mitt Romney," Republican consultant Ron Kaufman said.
Romney denies that he ever went back on any of his promises.
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