Yes Virginia, There is an Auditor

State Treasurer

"Mindset" is the wordpeople use to talk about the state treasurer's race between incumbent Robert Crane and challenger Lew Crampton. Crane has been there for 14 years--back through the Volpe and Sargent years--and even if the state's electorate goes to the polls to elect a Republican governor, Crane and other Democrats who run for lower state offices always seem to stand pat through the storm.

"This state has become so Democratic that a Republican can only win a lower office if he can get a lot more attention in the media," State Rep. Barney Frank '62, a liberal Democrat, said about the race.

History seems to bear this theory out. A Republican candidate has not been elected to auditor or treasurer in Massachusetts since the '40s. While voters in Massachusetts may not follow party lines in a gubernatorial election, they almost patently vote Democrat on all other tickets--especially when they don't know the candidates.

Everyone seems to think that Lew Crampton is a nice guy. "An unusually attractive candidate," Frank says. "Unquestionably qualified for the job, personally and professionally," Crampton supporter and State Rep. Mel King says. Yet on the eve of the election, Crampton is fighting to be seen, saying, "Sure, visibility has been a big problem." He just came off a weekend "big blitz" of the state--on the road with three Winnebagos--to talk and press flesh and distribute some 50,000 pieces of campaign literature.

"There's just no room in the media," Frank said. "The senatorial and gubernatorial races are taking up all the focus and Lew can't get enough exposure. Unless he can get the exposure, the voters will go to the polls with this Crane-Democrat mindset."

There is no estimating the strength of this "mindset," either. Not only has Robert Crane become a kind of institution in the Massachusetts political-corporate structure, he plays tennis with Bobby Orr. It is impossible to grow up in Massachusetts and NOT know who Robert Crane is, unless you ignore the sports pages. Golf with Yaz and Jim Ed ever since the 1975 World Series. Fun and games with Orr and Esposito during the Bruins' Stanley Cup years. He has famous and infamous connections (depending on where you bank) with Massachusetts businesses, too.

Crampton has criticized his opponent for "maladministration--for losing $30 million in one year through sloppy cash management." Crampton tells the story of how Crane helped out the Coolidge Bank & Trust, after being employed by that bank's third-largest stockholder. According to Crampton, Crane deposited a $14 million welfare clearing account in Coolidge during 1973-74. Participating in the State Board of Bank Incorporators, Crane helped Coolidge take over two faltering banks in Lincoln and Arlington, Crampton said. "If that's not a conflict of interests, what is?" he asked. "If the man weren't holding political office, he'd be fired. But only the voters can fire Robert Crane."

Crampton acknowledges that much of Crane's support is derived from "old line traditional Democrats," and Frank feels that, on top of this, Crane will gain much support from his primary spar with Boston City Councilor Larry DiCara '71.

"Crane benefitted from that primary," Frank said. "People thought that he was unfairly treated by DiCara." Still, Crampton is very much on the attack in this campaign. In addition to saying that Crane's State Lottery is spending more money on itself ($13 million) than it is sending back to the cities and towns ($12 million), Crampton has accused Crane of mismanaging the state treasury bureaucracy into obsolescence. He says Crane hasn't kept up with automation, and that consequently, "the state is losing $5-8 million annually by running its treasury like an old Charles Dickens counting house."

So here we have a race that shapes up, in many people's minds, as the old fat cat vs. the progressive challenger. Crane stands on his record and many votes of confidence and lots and lots of corporate and political backing as evidence of his competence. And somehow, Lew Crampton needs all the help he can get. "It's up to the voters," he says.

This is one year when the party politics of Massachusetts may run itself thin. "I think the number of Republicans winning this year will be surprising," King said. "Democrats in this election have been using 1940s-and-'50s-style politicking, rhetoric reminiscent of campaigns run in Mississippi when the Ku Klux Klan was powerful They use lots of divisiveness and fear. I can only hope the electorate is more in touch with the politics of today."

Secretary of State

Back in 1967 when Republican John Sears was running for mayor of Boston against Kevin White and Louise Day Hicks, Sears blitzed the television electorate with his campaign song--crooned to the strains of Greensleeves behind films of burned-out ghettos--"John Sears is the man who cares, he's the man who caaares about people..." White defeated all comers and began an 11-year stint as mayor; Sears later ran unsuccessfully for sheriff of Suffolk County, then assumed the chair of the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), those gentlement who curate the public parks around Boston.

Sears is back, his old benevolent self, campaigning for secretary of state against Democrat Michael Connolly, a six-year veteran of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Sears says his historical awareness of the Commonwealth can be helpful in fostering community and economic development, whatever that means. He promises to work with schoolchildren, instilling a political awareness in the state's future voters. He differs sharply with Connolly on the issue of public financing of state elections, advocating little change for the state's existing weak financial supports.

Connolly opened his political season running for the U.S. Senate, but entered the secretary of state race when incumbent Paul Guzzi was ousted from the post in the primary. Connolly is pushing a more issue-oriented campaign than Sears. He intends to place a constitutional limit on the number of years an elected official can serve in any state office. Connolly also hopes to institute strong public financing of state elections.

During his years at the State House, Connolly earned the reputation as a rhetorical "daffy"--an equally clownish counterpart to his opponent's melodramatic, bleeding politalk. One keen observer noted, "It's kind of like a high school election for class secretary."

State Auditor

If you really care, there is a state auditor. Essentially, the state auditor should be a watchdog over government in the Commonwealth. But the rash of public service scandals in the State House does not lend much credibility to the state auditor these days.

Thaddeus Buczko, long-time Democratic incumbent, is faced with Republican opponent Timothy O'Brien, who entered the race after the GOP nominee dropped out.

Buczko seems likely to stay where he is, especially since his opponent hasn't had much exposure either in person or in the media. Massachusetts needs a dynamic state auditor, as the muckrakers know; but it looks like this election--like most lower constitutional elections--will be won by the party, not by the man.