Goldberg wants Healey's
job, not job description
Brookline, Mass. -- Anyone assuming that Deborah Goldberg
is running for lieutenant governor simply to attend ribbon cuttings, building
dedications and cocktail fund-raisers - duties that traditionally fall
to the office - has another thing coming.
"I'm looking for a partnership with the governor," she recently
told the TAB. "I think we have an enormous job ahead of us, and I
believe there's enough work for everybody."
The former chairman of the Board of Selectmen and Stop & Shop heiress
has already met with Attorney General Thomas Reilly, the early favorite
to top the Democratic gubernatorial ticket. She's also shared her plan
with Secretary of State William Galvin, a dark-horse challenger to Reilly,
and even consulted with U.S. Rep Michael Capuano when the Somerville Democrat
was mulling a run for governor late last year.
Capuano has since announced that he will stick with his congressional
job, telling the Boston Herald last month that "it's just not in
my gut to run" for governor.
Calling her mix of experience and skills "right for the times,"
Goldberg said her run will draw from a track record of sound fiscal results
for the town of Brookline during her six years as a selectman.
"I'm running for lieutenant governor because having been on the local
level and acutely aware of how in the last five years the budgetary issues
have been pushed down to the local level. I feel that we, cities and towns,
need a voice in the corner office that reflects what are the true needs
of the citizens of the state," she said.
Beyond financial management practices that she wants to introduce at the
statewide level, Goldberg said she was passionate about a variety of public
policy issues as well - from increasing the stock of affordable housing,
lowering health insurance costs and "restructuring the [state's]
Board of Education."
Armed with a law degree and a Harvard MBA, Goldberg's otherwise upbeat
persona can turn businesslike and brusque. During a recent interview,
for example, she did not shy away from criticism of Governor Mitt Romney.
"For Mitt Romney to stand in the Great Hall and say that Massachusetts
is back and we had a surplus last year, is disingenuous," said Goldberg.
"We did not have a surplus last year. We had a structural deficit..."
On a personal level, Goldberg's political values were forged in a family
that she said had a high regard for reaching out to people of all backgrounds
and classes. Relatives on her mother's side of the family started what
became the Stop & Shop supermarket company.
"On my mother's side of the family, there was a belief that ... we
build businesses in order to employ people, multiple generations of people,
provide 100 percent health insurance, job security and a good life - and
then use that company also toward the social good," said Goldberg.
"On my father's side of the family, they really lived by what the
Talmud said ... [and] were Talmudic scholars and very committed to social
justice."
Beyond the philosophical ideas, however, Goldberg understands the pragmatic
realities of running for office, a big part of which has to do with money.
She believes she'll need to raise $3 million for her campaign, and is
scheduling events from Brookline to Florida to accomplish her goal.
