For most politicians, campaigns are based on promises of tax cuts, economic growth and better schools. But Robert Healey Jr.'s campaign for lieutenant governor is based on one simple promise: if elected, he will eliminate his own office.
Healey is running as an independent candidate, though the ballot identifies him as with the Cool Moose Party. "They allow you to put three words next to your name - I thought about putting 'Complete This Line,'" Healey said of filing an independent candidacy. On Rhode Island ballots, voters mark their choice by completing a line next to the candidate's name.
According to Healey, the sole constitutional and statutory duty of the lieutenant governor in Rhode Island is to be prepared to take over in case of the governor's death. Healey said that if elected, he will eliminate the office "de facto" by refusing to take a salary or hire a staff, which would reduce the state's budget by $1 million. He then plans to propose a constitutional amendment to eliminate the office, which would be voted on in a general election.
Currently, Healey said, the lieutenant governor's office is a "government-paid, million-dollar lobbying firm." As he sees it, the only thing the lieutenant governor does is speak out on policy, which means the officeholder ends up lobbying for his own interests and being paid for it with tax dollars.
"Why should taxpayers pay to have me advocate for something they may not believe in?" Healey said.
Healey announced his candidacy earlier this year from a beach in Punta del Este, Uruguay, where he owns a home. He chose to make this announcement from Uruguay in order to demonstrate what little responsibility the lieutenant governor has.
"I think that it demonstrates that no matter where you are in the world, and no matter what you are doing, you can also be serving as Rhode Island's Lieutenant Governor at the same time," Healey said at the time, according to a press release on his Web site.
This election is not Healey's first time running for public office in Rhode Island. He has run for governor three times - in 1986, 1994 and 1998 - and ran once for lieutenant governor in 2004.
The Web site for Healey's campaign is unlike that of a typical candidate for elected office. Rather than red, white and blue graphics and pictures of himself shaking hands with voters, Healey's stark Web site features computer-generated posters of himself posing as pop culture icons, a link to his inactive blog and fake polls jokingly administered by "Darrell East" at "Marrón University."
Unlike most candidates, Healey does not solicit campaign donations on his Web site - or at all. Rather, he asks voters to give money to local charities. Echoing the themes of his campaign, Healey said of political donations, "I honestly feel that the money would be better spent on fixing the problems facing Rhode Islanders," according to his Web site.
But Healey doesn't need many donations to run his campaign - the Cool Moose Party is a low-budget operation. Healey said he has only spent about $850 on the race so far and that his campaign strategy is merely to "walk into places, talk to people." According to Healey, State Sen. Elizabeth Roberts '78, D-Dist. 28, who is running against him in the lieutenant governor race, has spent about $225,000 so far, and his Republican opponent, Reginald Centracchio has spent about $165,000.
Healey has criticized Centracchio and Roberts for the same reason: he feels their stated positions are not in line with their actions. "(Centracchio) says he believes in the principles of smaller government, but runs for an office that wastes a million dollars (each year)," Healey said. Roberts, he said, has spent her tenure as a state senator sponsoring bills that entail high levels of social spending, and the million dollars that fund the lieutenant governor's office could be put better use funding one of those bills.
"If you're going to claim to be for something, you should be for something. The hypocrisy is what bothers me," Healey said, calling his opponents' actions "hypocritical and borderline repugnant."
In a September Brown University poll, Roberts was the frontrunner in the race, with 34 percent of those polled indicating they would vote for her. Centracchio trailed with 30 percent of the polling sample, 11 percent said they would vote for Healey and 25 percent were undecided.
Healey believes polls are never accurate for third-party candidates. During the 2004 lieutenant governor's race, he said, polls suggested that he would win 11 percent of the vote, but he actually picked up about 20 percent. In the 1994 gubernatorial race, Healey said, polls gave him just 3 percent of the vote, but he received about 9 percent. Given how little money he spends on campaigning, "the fact that I even show up in the polls is interesting," Healey said.
The idea for the Cool Moose Party came from several places, said Healey, who markets "Healey's Own Cool Moose Ice Cream" at independent local retailers. The name Cool Moose "harkens back to Teddy Roosevelt and the Bull Moose (Party)," in addition to Healey's first campaign slogan - when he ran for, and won, the chair of the Warren School Committee - which was, "Make School Cool."
In 1985, a moose wandered into Cranston, and the Providence Journal offered $125 to the first person who could produce a picture of the animal. Healey, who said he was "bickering" with the Journal at the time, knew that the newspaper had only a color photo lab, and wanted the picture of the moose for the paper's Sunday edition. Healey said he brought in a black-and-white roll of film the preceding Saturday night, and the staff of the Journal rushed to have it developed in time. "It cost them 500 bucks," Healey said.
The pictures, once developed, were of Healey standing in a field with moose ears on his head.
"They ran the picture, but I didn't get the $125," Healey said.
Currently a self-described semi-retired lawyer, Healey received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rhode Island College in 1979 and his law degree from the New England School of Law in 1983. He also holds a Master of Arts degree in English literature from Northeastern University.
Today, he maintains a small law practice in Rhode Island, serving about 40 of his "old clients," and takes "interesting constitutional questions when they come along." Having owned a liquor wholesale business in Rhode Island for several years, Healey is currently working to develop land around the coastline of Uruguay, which he says is a "rather lucrative" business.
Having run for office and lost so many times, how does Healey manage to keep campaigning? "I really believe in what I talk about. Some people crusade for religion, some people find their niche in whatever they proselytize for. I honestly believe in this stuff - it's not as crazy as it sounds," he said.
