Longtime selectman Gary Lee joins Massachusetts governor's race

Taking a sharp stance away from the national Republican Party line, 17-year Selectman Gary Lee yesterday said he was joining the hotly contested governor's race in Massachusetts. Current Gov. Mitt Romney is widely thought to have presidential aspirations and has said he will not run to regain his governor's mansion in 2006

Romney has thrown his support behind Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.

Lee, a Massachusetts native who represents Norwood, says there should be a real choice for people, not a pre-ordained Republican successor In a released statement, Lee said.

"I believe only the people of Massachusetts have the right to decide who their next Governor shall be. I believe in a democracy no man or woman has a right to hand pick his or her successor or use elective office to serve his or her political ambition."

Lee said he was drawn away from the Democratic Party by Ronald Reagan, but that today's Republican Party doesn't measure up to Reagan's vision. That includes the Patriot Act, which is too much of an encroachment on privacy and civil liberties, Lee says:

The day is fast approaching when at 3 a.m. under the guise of Homeland Security and the newly expanded Patriot Act some unknown and unannounced Government official can show up at your home without so much as a warrant or a court order and take your spouse, your son or your daughter off for questioning and you having no rights in the matter. Our Veterans and civil libertarians are trying to stress the need to stay vigilant in these matters. We must never let our guard down, or be intimidated by a Federal Bureaucracy that is out of control and taking away those freedoms and those liberties upon which America was founded.

At the same time Lee would like religion to take a more central role in government:

God did not come to judge or condemn nations, however he did come to challenge nations to put their trust in him. Here in Massachusetts and across this Country we have lost sight of that. We need to put God back into our State, back into our Country and back into our schools and the public domain if we in Massachusetts want to lead this nation forward.

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