Lieutenant Governor

The race for lieutenant governor, linked by a 1966 constitutional amendment to the runaway gubernatorial contest, finds Democrat Evelyn F. Murphy in the happy position of shoo-in for being the first woman elected to Massachusetts statewide office.

After a tough primary battle for the Democratic nomination, Murphy has been content to aid once-and-future-Governor Michael S. Dukakis in public appearances and audibly wonder what she will do as Number Two besides hope Dukakis takes off for national office in 1988, as speculation foreshadows.

Recent polls put Dukakis and Murphy ahead of the GOP team of George Kariotis and Nicholas M. Nikitas by 69-20 percent. As a result, most attention on the race since September's primary has focused on how well the former duo get on together, as the nominally neutral Dukakis was reported to favor primary victim and State Senator Gerard D'Amico of Worcester for lieutenant governor.

Murphy, 46, has said that any problems between her supporters and staff and those of Dukakis ended on primary day. And she points out that she served as Environmental Affairs Secretary in the Governor's first administration and as Economic Affairs secretary in his second.

Murphy, like Dukakis, is from Brookline, and she has earned a M.A. degree from Columbia University, and a B.A. and a Ph. D. in economics from Duke University.

Nikitas, 36, graduated from Dartmouth in 1972, is president of Nikitas Family Inns, a real estate and management company, and has been appointed by the President to participate in advisory councils.

The lieutenant governor presides over the Governor's Council, is a voting member of the Executive Council, and serves in place of the governor when he is out of state or in case of disability or death. The governor may assign additional duties.