Only 250 Shopping Days Till the Gubernatorial Election

Hey, remember the governor's race? It's still as inscrutable as ever. Just as jilted, wealthy, almost-lieutenant-governor-candidate-for-the-Democrats Chris Gabrieli is now trying to run on his own, disgruntled, wealthy Republican Christy Mihos is entering the race as an independent. Republican frontrunner Kerry Healey is naturally peeved, as she had hoped Mihos would vie with her (and ultimately lose) in the primary. What Bostonist can't understand is what, precisely, Mihos brings to the table that will attract voters from Healey.

In his campaign kick-off speech yesterday, Mihos promised not to take money from state employees, lobbyists, or political action committees, which apparently is meant to show that he'll be independent (although corporate donors are still welcome, as best we can tell). But he didn't say anything about how his policies would differ from Healey's. We're willing to bet that Healey won't make off-color references to having sex with her spouse (as Mihos did), but we're not sure that's a selling point.

The lefties at Blue Mass. Group, whom we might expect to jump for joy at the entry of a potential Healey-vote-stealer, are surprisingly sanguine, theorizing that Mihos's weirdness will end his campaign before it gets started. The righties at the Herald, for their part, are quick to point out that Mihos's campaign staff is already in disarray. The last time Bostonist made a political prediction, we got burned the very next day, so we'll hold off on joining the Mihos-will-never-make-it chorus. But we will say that if Mihos even wants to have a chance of winning, or even playing spoiler effectively, he should go easy on the sex jokes and try to distinguish himself from the field - that's pretty much how we got out current job.

Photo: After Increase Sumner, the Mass. Governor with the coolest name was probably Leverett Saltonstall. Here's a picture of him shaking hands with a fat man.