First Woman Takes Reins in Massachusetts

Republican Jane Swift took office Tuesday as Massachusetts governor--apparently, the first pregnant governor in U.S. history--and is sure to be watched closely for how she balances career and family.

Swift, who was elevated from lieutenant governor, has a 2 1/2-year-old daughter and is expecting twins in June.

She succeeds Gov. Paul Cellucci, who resigned to become U.S. ambassador to Canada.

Swift, 36, has not said whether she will run for a full term in 2002 in this heavily Democratic state.

She has faced controversy and sagging approval ratings for using her staff to baby-sit her daughter and for taking a state helicopter to her home for Thanksgiving.

The western Massachusetts native is the state’s first female governor, and, according to National Governors’ Assn., is believed to be the first expectant mother in U.S. history to hold a governor’s office.

In a Statehouse ceremony, Cellucci handed over several time-honored symbols of Massachusetts’ highest office, including a pewter key, a set of the 1860 Massachusetts General Statutes, and a gavel that is a relic of the warship USS Constitution.

Cellucci followed a 141-year tradition by inscribing a message to his successor in the two-volume General Statutes.

“Transmitted to her excellency Jane Maria Swift on the 10th day of April 2001. Thank you for being at my side and good luck leading our great commonwealth,” Cellucci said, reading the message aloud.

When he got to the word “her,” he was interrupted by cheers and applause.

Swift said nothing during the ceremony other than, “Thank you.”

“I’m happy to see a female and a mother in the governor’s office,” said Megan Matteucci, 21, a student at Suffolk University in Boston.

“I kind of wish her connection and outreach to young females was more direct. I don’t think she’s taken the opportunity to be a role model.”

A dozen years ago, Swift was a Statehouse aide when she launched a long-shot bid for the state Senate against a veteran Democratic lawmaker.

She became the youngest woman to hold a Massachusetts Senate seat.

“She was very mature and very bright. Even at age 25 you could see that she had a great deal of ability,” said her one-time boss, former state Sen. Peter Webber, now state environmental commissioner.

In 1996, Swift lost a bid for Congress, but was later appointed to one state agency, and then to another.

Cellucci, then acting governor, tapped her as his running mate in the 1998 gubernatorial race.

Her announcement a few weeks later that she was pregnant with her first child received wide attention.

Her first few years in office proved rocky.

An ethics panel found she created an “appearance of impropriety” by allowing aides to baby-sit her daughter, and fined her $1,250. Though defiant at first, she later apologized. The panel did not fault her for her use of the helicopter.

By the time she announced she was pregnant with twins in December, her approval ratings had plummeted.

“I’ve experienced intense public scrutiny in the last year,” she recently said, with a laugh. “I think that has prepared me for the attention” of being governor.

In part because the scandal, she finds herself continually asked how she will balance career and motherhood.

Swift said she plans to keep her family home in Williamstown, a three-hour drive from the Statehouse. She said her husband, Charles Hunt, a contractor who is now a stay-at-home dad, will have primary responsibility for taking care of the children.

The couple may also use day care, she said.

House Speaker Thomas Finneran, a Democrat, said young women with children are asked more often than men about how they will manage their careers and home life.

“I don’t think women have been given a fair shake, those women who have entered into politics,” he said. “There’s really a double standard.”

He said that if Swift were home raising her children and her husband were the governor, “None of you folks would be asking those questions. I don’t think they are appropriate questions. She’s been elected, she’s qualified, she’s articulate, she’s bright, she’s energized by this moment. I don’t think it’s going to make a difference.”