State Attorney General Thomas Reilly Brings Bid for Governor to the
Island

By James Kinsella
Gazette Senior Writer

On a warm Sunday afternoon, Thomas F. Reilly, the man who stands a
chance of becoming the next governor of Massachusetts, sits in the shade
of an East Chop porch and appreciates Martha's Vineyard.

"Every time we take the ferry across here, our eyes just light
up with the beauty of Martha's Vineyard and how relaxing it is and
what a wonderful place this is," he said.

Mr. Reilly, the Massachusetts attorney general and a Democrat,
traveled to the Island with his wife, Ruth, to attend a fundraiser on
Sunday in Edgartown.

Mr. Reilly also appreciates Massachusetts: once the bloodied
birthplace of American independence, but more recently a punching bag
for conservatives across the country.

SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2005/08/09/content/tom_reilly_1_sm.jpg"
WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="133"
ALT="Photo" BORDER="2" ALIGN="right"
VSPACE="6" HSPACE="6">

"It's a beautiful state," he said. "It has
wonderful natural resources. We're right in the midst of that
right now . . . . It's the state my parents came to. I'm the
son of Irish immigrants. I love this state, and in order to lead this
state, you have to love it."

Mr. Reilly faults current Gov. Mitt Romney for failing to stand up
for the Bay State in 2004, when he said the state became a laugh line in
George W. Bush's presidential campaign.

"We got hurt in the last election, all the
Massachusetts-bashing that was going on," he said. "The
governor didn't lift a finger to stand up for
Massachusetts."

More recently, Mr. Reilly said, the governor has let his national
political hopes distract him from his stewardship of the state.

"I think it's pretty obvious that his focus is not on
our future," he said. "We have a governor who really now has
put his own personal ambition over what is best for
Massachusetts."

As part of his efforts to win the governor's seat in 2006, Mr.
Reilly traveled to the Vineyard to attend a fund raiser hosted by Island
Democrats Richard Friedman and Ronald H. Rappaport at Mr.
Friedman's home in Edgartown.

His longtime friend, former U.S. Attorney Wayne Budd, and his wife,
Jacqueline, hosted the Reillys at the Budds' East Chop home, where
the candidate sat for a brief interview with the Gazette on Sunday
afternoon.

Mr. Reilly said the commonwealth is at a crossroads. He said
thousands of residents, many of them between the ages of 25 and 35 with
college degrees, are leaving the state. He said the state economy is
troubled by uncertainty, its health care system needs to be fixed and
its system of public higher education needs to be better coordinated.

SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2005/08/09/content/tom_reilly_2_sm.jpg"
WIDTH="180" HEIGHT="270"
ALT="Photo" BORDER="2" ALIGN="right"
VSPACE="6" HSPACE="6">

The governor, Mr. Reilly said, has been a disappointment. He said
Mr. Romney has been more interested in pursuing partisan politics than
in bringing together people to help forge solutions to statewide
problems.

In contrast, he said his participation in the rescue of the Harvard
Pilgrim health plan was a model for how to bring together different
groups to achieve success. After placing the company into receivership,
Mr. Reilly said, he and others were able to bring the company back to
financial health without any disruption or interruption in
clients' medical coverage.

"We didn't do Harvard Pilgrim by ourselves, but you work
with people," he said. "This state has tremendous assets.
The one thing the governor hasn't done is to bring them together.
There's this tremendous spirit, energy, drive, creative ability in
the people of Massachusetts. Bring them together to help solve some of
these problems, and they'll get it done."

On the Vineyard, Mr. Reilly said a number of issues on the Island
have implications across the state and beyond.

That is why he stepped in to oppose the proposed wind farm on
Horseshoe Shoal northwest of the Vineyard in Nantucket Sound.

"Coming over today on the ferry, I thought back to the genesis
of my opposition to the wind farm," he said. "It came from
one of my trips on the ferry. This was in the early stages of this
project. Coming across, it was a beautiful day, much like today."

SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2005/08/09/content/tom_reilly_3_sm.jpg"
WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="133"
ALT="Photo" BORDER="2" ALIGN="right"
VSPACE="6" HSPACE="6">

Mr. Reilly asked the ship's crew to point out the proposed
location of the farm, which they did.

"It's called the wind farm, but it's really a
power plant," he said. "It just struck me: Why would anyone,
with the pristine beauty of Nantucket Sound, want to spoil these waters,
and just spoil that wonderful, wonderful resource to the state by
building a power plant there."

Mr. Reilly said the thrust of the legal argument coming out of his
office is that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lacks the authority to
issue a permit to convey the seabed without the express authority of
Congress.

"That will be the issue we raise," Mr. Reilly said.
"The court certainly is aware of it. We will continue to raise it
if and when a permit is issued.

"There have to be places that are off-limits, and Nantucket
Sound has to be one of those areas," he said.

As for the argument that the wind farm will provide power for the
Cape and Islands, Mr. Reilly said the power will go into the regional
grid and could well wind up in other places, such as New York or beyond.

"I think the price is too heavy to pay for whatever benefit
comes out of it," Mr. Reilly said. "I would be opposed to it
and will continue to be opposed to it every step of the way."

Another legal matter with far-reaching implications is the
sovereignty case between the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and
the town of Aquinnah.

Mr. Reilly intervened on the side of the town, and the state Supreme
Judicial Court ruled last year that the settlement agreement signed by
the town and the tribe in 1983 trumped the doctrine of sovereign
immunity, and the tribe must follow state and local zoning laws. The
tribe recently decided to not pursue an appeal of the ruling to the
United States Supreme Court. The dispute began when the tribe built a
shed and a pier on the Cook Lands without a building permit.

"It was more than a shed involved in this case," Mr.
Reilly said on Sunday. "We felt that the position that the tribe
was taking - that they were not in any way subject to building or
zoning or safety codes - we felt that they were. We're also
looking down the road in terms of precedent that would establish that
they were not subject to state laws or land laws. We disagreed with
that, and the court agreed with us.

SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2005/08/09/content/tom_reilly_4_sm.jpg"
WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="133"
ALT="Photo" BORDER="2" ALIGN="right"
VSPACE="6" HSPACE="6">

"It was an important decision, not only for Martha's
Vineyard, but for the state looking forward," he said.

If he is elected governor, Mr. Reilly said he will work to encourage
job creation and improve the state's health care and public
education systems.

A way to create a more favorable economic climate, Mr. Reilly said,
is to pick up the pace of government.

"I think all of government needs to move more quickly, and to
move to decisions more quickly," he said. "Business needs
predictability and they need timely answers, and not to have it dragged
on."

One reason he finds fault with Mr. Romney's opposition to stem
cell research is the role he said the research could play in the
Massachusetts economy.

Yet in his work as attorney general, Mr. Reilly said some of the
greatest rewards have been found in the ways that his office has been
able to help ordinary consumers.

"Just the other day, we received a note from a senior citizen,
about how we had helped her with a problem she had had with her health
insurance," he said. "The reimbursements don't seem
like much, but they meant a lot to her. It's fifty bucks, seventy
five bucks, sometimes thirty dollars, but it meant a lot to them, living
on the margin with fixed incomes. These are very satisfying. We do that
every day."