Gubernatorial Debate!

6:00 p.m. Here we go! Chris Wallace is here, fresh from his beat-down at the hands of Bill Clinton.

6:01 p.m. What's with the HBO Boxing After Dark intro graphics? "OK< JIM, the debate is scheduled for 12 rounds followng the unified rules..."

6:02 p.m. Taxes: Patrick: $980M in new taxes and fees under Republicans! And I'll hypnotize local towns to lower property taxes, even though I have no way to actually make that happen. Ross: Huh? Mihos: Towns are starving thanks to Healy and Romney! Healy: We don't need no stinking taxes! (hole empty answer on her main issue)


6:05 p.m. Property taxes and budget shirtfalls: Healy: People are leaving because of the taxes? I thought it was because there aren't any more jobs. Collectivized healthcare purchasing is a good idea. Patrick: Again with the $980M in new taxes under Republicans. Seems kinda tinny to me. Ross: (what the Hell is she wearing?) Help to the small businesses by increasing the minimum wage? Mihos: Big Dig is to blame? What?

6:08 p.m. How can you roll back both the income tax and property tax? Mihos: WE HAVE TO DO IT! More Big Dig, and a shot at the Sox. Healy: "My opponent Deval patrick" and special interests (Message to Mihos and Ross: Screw you!) Patrick: Special Interests Healy's talking about were the Massachusetts congressional delegation. First clean point of the debate goes to Patrick. Ross: Huh?

6:10 p.m. Patrick breaks in: We all agree on creating pportunities and job growth. Healy: Agrees to increase local aid. Stronger on rolling back income tax to 5%. "They deserve the roll back." Ross to Healy: You have the power to Veto. Where were you? Mihos: (yelling again) "That's what we're sick of in this state...throwing bombs at each other." Heh.

6:12 p.m. Affordable Housing: Ross: If we had a system that was flat for all taxes, we'd have about $3B more, mostly from people on the top. Now is openly soliciting for a sweetheart land deal. Mihos: "We're overtaxed." "This state is unafordable/, that's why people are leaving in record numbers." It appears Mihos is wholesale stealing Healy's playbook while poking her in the eye. Healy: Patrick took a pledge with AFL-CIO! How can you negotiate for the state? Patrick: I never traded a quid pro quo (ed-cough, cough, cough).

6:15 p.m. Voter questions introduced my Maria Stephanos! MCAS: Patrick: In favor, but we "slap it on top of school systems already under strain." Remedial programs. Other measures of child's progress. Ross: "We have a generation now that may not make it out of high school." Test is the reason why, apparently. No Mittens in school in winter! Mihos: "Fist to come out against" MCAS. More local funding. "It was a tool, it's now a weapon." (great line). Healy: It's not about funding, it's about standards. (to deval): You were against it before you were for it. wicked flat reposte)

6:18 p.m. Ilegal immigrants going to college: Healy: I will always be opposed to that proposal. We should use that money to lower tuition for students who are citizens. Patrick: I disagree, but there are good points on both sides. "People are not coming here for in-state tuition, they're coming here for jobs." Healy/Romney support businesses that hire out illegal immigrants. Ross: Immigrants who work here pay taxes here! Mihos: Used work illegal one, two, three, four times. Drags healy's husband into this, connects her to GWB. Healy: (Can't get a word in edge-wise as Mihos hectors her to respond to his silly attack).

6:22 p.m. Illegal immigrant driver licenses: Patrick: I want to know the name and faces of the people who are here. (good line, delivered flat). "People aren't coming here for driver's licenses, they're coming here for jobs." Ross: "What we really need to look at is what happened to our economy." Has nothing to say about drivers licenses. Mihos: "The Democrats want their votes, the Republicans want cheap labor." (to Healy) How many corporations has your administration fined for using illegal immigrants. Healy: It's Ton Reilly's fault! (point to Mihos) License is "most basic form of identification" in this country. If illegals have livceneses, they win...

6:24 p.m. (to Mihos) Would you push to arrest illegals driving w/o a license? Mihos: Yes, and I'll call INS (ed-which no longer exists) Healy: Calls Mihos on INS and agrees to lock up people driving. Matter of right or wrong. Patrick: It's a matter of priorities. With gun and gang violence "soaring" there's more important things for cops to focus on. Work with Kennedy and Kerry for "real solutions." Ross: Illegal immigrants make the worst wages. (to Mihos) You cry about the companies, but you want to go after the individuals (point to Ross). Use cops to stop drugs!

Shonda Schilling has a question! (Wow, it's missus bloody ankle!) Question on teacher merit pay: Healy: Love it! And let's give incentives for good teachers to work in underperforming schools. Mihos: You can call me Christy, and I'm against merit pay. Make these decisions at the local level, not from "elites up on beacon Hill." (Oy.) Ross: Best measure of school performance is how much money a town has. Tells an unfocused anecdote about class size. Patrick: Loves incentives to draw teachers to underperforming schools. Likes merit pay "in a way that encourages collaboration, bot doesn't defeat it."

6:30 p.m. To Patrick: It's a (an?) historic election: What has changes that Mass mihtbe second state to elect an African-American governor, or first female gov. in Mass history, or first independent. Why's Mass ready for a black governor? Patrick: If that was the only issue, I wouldn't win. I'm black, but I'm also a successful businessman, have led in gov't., in non-profits, yada, yada, yada. "Checked out, check back in" makes it's first appearance in the debate. Ross: The critical issue is race WIll be a critical factor, anyone who says otherwise isn't telling the truth. So will gender. Mihos: (Good God, this guy's got a tan. It's Geaorge Hamilton-esque). Republicans suck! Democrats suck too! Everyone is an indempendent now! Healy: The reason why people support me is I understand what it takes to make Mass more affordable. Auto rates, etc.

6:33 p.m. To Healy: Which policy do you identify closely with Romney? Least identfy? Healy: Most with fiscal restraint, least with abortion. Patrick: "Fiscal disciple is the responsibility of any governor." "prine economic pump." (Dud is smooth). Third time he mentions $980M in taxes and fees. Ross: Prison is too expensive! Shelters are too expensive, let's put people in housing. Republicans are wasting our money. Mihos: Now stealing Patrick's $980M line. Raised gas tax. "Ask a barber on the street what's happened to his license!" (ed- I love this guy) Cut to commercial. In a debate? Classy move, Fox 25!

6:38 p.m. And we're back.

6:38:30 p.m. To Mihos: How are you not just a spoiler out to screw Kerry Healy? Mihos: "How can you spoil a system that's rotten?" (good line). Big Dig is proof everything's FUBAR. Jane Swift violated Christy's civil rights, and Healy cheered her on! Mihos just stole Patrick's checking out nostrom. Healy "You're my hero, Christy." If Deval wins, we'll go back to the Dukakis era where there's only one party in control (ed- It took you 40 mionutes to hit your biggest selling point?) Patrick: People want broader experience. Big Dig was a grea tproject, but there were huge problems and there was hardly any attention paid to this. Ross: I make about $20K-$30K a year, and these peeps are super rich! "They have no clue what the rest of us face."

6:42 p.m. To Ross: Why are you even here? Ross: We need to talk to real people about real issues. "It's called trying to rebuild democracy." She's totally pulling at my Nader heart strings. Patrick: I grew up on public assistance. We're not about drawing divisions, we want to build community. Healy: Balance is about to be lost on Beacon Hill (Did she just concede)? If it weren't for me and Romney, a cap gains tax would have been retroactively applied! Mihos: I'm spending my kid's inheritance to run! Ross to Patrick; I didn't say you were divisive! I'm saying 60% of us are in a recession!

6:46 p.m. Voter Question! How we gonna keep businesses here, creating jobs? Ross: All of the tax breaks are going to the top brackets and corporations! We need real universal health coverage. Healy: If we're serious about job creation, roll back the income tax! And let's work on our permitting process. Mihos: I AM a small business owner! We can't afford to live here! Whoa, he "agrees with Kerry on this issue." Patrick: Permittign needs to be fixed. We need to connect good ideas with capital. Fix the roads!

Why is no one looking into the camera? Isn't this like debating 101?

6:49 p.m. Big Dig: To Mihos: What responsibility do you bear? (meatball down the middle for Mihos) Mihos: Fired for speaking up, voted to recoup funds from bechtel, voted for oversight, took Matt Amorello to court for documentation. Romney/Healy allowed the Big Dig's property manager to sign off on the commonwealth's responsibilities! Healy: Wanted to merge MadssHighway and Turnpike Auth. (yawn). It took a tragedy to get the merger done. Patrick: "That stem to stern review was promised when" thre Romney admin. came in. Healy isn't taking respnsibility for her failures in Big Dig. Healy responds: We totally have done an independent review. Patrick again: And it took a death and that is a "shocking shame." Ross: You shoulda had every contractor in your (healy's) office and demand they fess up now! Mihos: Hitting hard on Healy. "Two people are dead today because you did nothing. (woulda scored a point except he's coming off WAY too hard). You are paying the companies everyday!

6:54 p.m. To healy: Romney was late into the Big Dig game, right? Healy: We were totally interested in doing something, but no one would give us any information. What could we do? Patrick: I commend the gov and lt. gov for your work since the accident. But the point is leadership is taking on the problem from day one, not making excuses (scoring big points.) Ross: Both Patrick and Healy have taking money from Big Dig contractors. Cashman wants permits for LNG in Fall River and new Wind Mills. There should be no new permits until everything's straightened out. Mihos: The Big Dig is the state's project. Everything has to be voted on by THEIR Hwy Dpt. "This intentional indifference to blame everyone except themselves is what has caused this mess."

6:57 p.m. Sick time abuses. what can you do to stop this from happening? Patrick: I'll stop it! Ross: We need collaborative leadership! Mihos: Independent Authorities "poster childs" for what's wrong w/ Mass. Amorello totally paid himself and his "hacks" off with sick time, vacation time, etc. Healy: Independents were supposed to remove politics. What they did was remove responsibility. I'll fix 'em! Then she blanked on UMASS.

6:59 p.m. Question from Jasper White: How you gonna help fishermen while protecting the environment? Mihos: Screw Cape Wind! Ross: "The Fisher Industry has also suffered greatly." "We have to increase agricultural and fishing and those sort of things." healy: Fighting in Washington to protect our fishermen. Patrick: We all love Jasper's cooking! Fishermen are drug addicts? What?

7:02 p.m. Mr. Patrick has asked for everyone to run a clean campaign. Shouldn't you be ready to handle criticism and sharp elbows as a governor? Patrick: I can handle it, but let's all get along and work together on stuff. Ross: I totally agree with Deval. Mihos: I want to give people a chance to listen to the issues. Wants a discussion on the issues after hitting Healy with a sledge hammer for an hour. Healy: Word, let's keep it clean. I want Deval to tell the 527s to not participate in the campaign. Patrick: Don't associate me with those 527s!

7:06 p.m. Closings: Ross: I was a community organizaer. We should all have a voice! "the heart of massachusetts is a just heart."

7:07 p.m. Healy: thanks the sponsors (second time tonight). I see and I believe in higher stds in our schools, more charter schools, merit pay. DP oppposes those positions. "Under Deval Patrick, taxes would only go up." Deval's soft of crime!

7:08 p.m. Mihos: "I love this state. That's the only reason I'm running for governor." I'm the only person here FROM this state! "Everything I have is here; this is my home. Massachusetts is worth the fight." Christy's Proposition One is on my Web site!

7:09 p.m. Patrick: Every election is about a choice. I want us to be about the politics of hope. Everyone has ideas, but those ideas don't go anywhere without leadership. I'm totally a leader. "I'm not asking anyone to take a change on me: I'm asking you to take a chance on your aspirations."