Mitt-Healey rift is growing

They won the election as a team, but Gov.-elect Mitt Romney and his incoming lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey, are showing signs of strain in their relationship, limiting Healey's influence in the new administration, according to Republican sources involved in the transition.

Romney, a former CEO accustomed to running large operations, never promised that Healey would be a "co-governor," as Paul Cellucci was to William F. Weld, and planned a more traditional relationship with Healey.

But Healey's style — a tendency to inject herself into areas that are not her expertise, prompting occasional clashes with staffers — has generated tensions with Romney and some of his top aides and hurt her standing with the governor-elect, those sources say.

Romney and Healey deny the tensions exist.

But days after the election, a top Romney political aide held a meeting with Healey to tell her, as one of the Republican sources said, that she was "not the governor." Healey was also given suggestions at the meeting about how to grow into the role of lieutenant governor and avoid pitfalls that plagued Jane Swift, who as Cellucci's lieutenant governor attempted to assert her own authority early on, often with disruptive results.

The friction that is emerging underscores the perils Massachusetts governors face as they increasingly tend to pick running mates and form a ticket before their parties' primaries. They then are beholden to that partner, who may have expectations of major participation in a new administration.

In Healey's case, her role and performance particularly concern Romney's political aides, because polls show she is unpopular with the public and they do not want her to diminish Romney's standing.

Romney selected Healey, who was serving as state Republican Party chairwoman, to help him reach out to moderate voters and to avoid running with James Rappaport, who like himself is a wealthy businessman. Last April, shortly after he joined up with her, Romney praised Healey, saying: "I want to offer the voters of Massachusetts the strongest, broadest team that could possibly be available . . .. Kerry Healey is someone who I believe provides that breadth, that balance, that strength to the team."

But since their election victory, Romney has not included Healey in some key meetings, such as last week's session at the State House with the Republican legislative caucus. Instead, he brought Cindy Gillepsie, who will be his legislative liaison. He does not give Healey a speaking role at news conferences, nor do his press releases include her comments.