Healey's biggest mistake?

Published Nov 08 2006, 07:42 PM by Adam Reilly

[by David S. Bernstein]

I have one question to add to the discussion of why Healey lost:

Why didn't her people make sure -- way before the primary -- that there was an independent group ready to run attack ads against her opponent?

It should have been obvious that a candidate with her high unfavorables would have problems running attacks herself. A well-funded independent group could have blasted away at Songer and LaGuer (and Gabrieli in the primary), plus go after Patrick on affirmative action, illegal immigrants, taxes, AmeriQuest, and more that she couldn't dare to do as her negatives climbed.