Acting Mass. Governor to Run in ’02

Surprising no one, Acting Gov. Jane Swift declared Thursday that she will be a candidate for the state’s top office in 2002.

Swift, 36, has occupied the coveted corner office of the gold-domed statehouse since April, when fellow Republican Paul Cellucci abandoned the governorship to become U.S. ambassador to Canada.

After several missteps as lieutenant governor, a very pregnant Swift took office with low approval ratings and widespread skepticism about her ability to do the job. In the ensuing months, she has delivered twin girls--making her the first governor in U.S. history to give birth while in office--and has gained public confidence and popularity.

Swift has assumed a high profile since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. The two planes that hit New York’s World Trade Center originated at Boston’s Logan International Airport, vaulting Swift and her state into a worldwide spotlight.

After the attacks, she became the first Massachusetts governor in close to 20 years to make a live television address.

Swift made the announcement Thursday after a send-off ceremony for 100 National Guard troops headed to Ft. Dix, N.J.

“She said all along she would be letting folks know her intentions sometime in late winter,” said aide Sarah Magazine. “Obviously the Sept. 11 events changed that timetable enormously. She felt an obligation to let folks in the Republican Party know what her intentions would be.”

Magazine said Swift expected to kick off her campaign early next year.

A local newspaper poll last week gave Swift a 66% approval rating, and showed her enjoying a 12-point lead over her likely Democratic opponent, state Treasurer Shannon O’Brien.

Elizabeth Sherman, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, called Swift’s decision “absolutely not surprising,” adding, “she has been furiously putting out signals ever since she assumed the position of acting governor.”

Sherman, an expert on women in politics, said, “More than anything in the world, she wants to be the first woman elected governor in her own right in Massachusetts. She feels she will have achieved an enormous historical milestone if this happens.”

Swift, Sherman said, is “a woman of extremely powerful personal drive and self-confidence.” The acting governor went to work on Beacon Hill after graduation from Trinity College in Hartford. At 25, she was elected to her former boss’ job in the state Senate.

“She feels this is what she was born to do,” Sherman said. “I think she will be a formidable candidate.”

If elected, Swift would be the third consecutive Republican governor in an overwhelmingly Democratic state.

Former Republican congressman Mickey Edwards, a lecturer at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, said the state seems content under the moderate GOP leadership displayed by former Govs. William F. Weld and Cellucci--and carried on by Swift.

“I don’t think there’s any feeling among the people that it’s time for a change, that we don’t like having a Republican,” Edwards said.

The acting governor weathered a series of personal storms, starting with disclosures that she used statehouse employees to help her with a personal move and to baby-sit her oldest daughter, Elizabeth. She also paid a fine for improperly using a state helicopter to fly her to her family home in western Massachusetts.

In August, Swift and her husband, Charles Hunt, agreed to pay fines of $100 each for concealing Hunt’s three previous marriages on their marriage application.

The state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance shows Swift with a war chest of $1.1 million.