Jane Swift
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Jane Maria Swift (born February 24, 1965) is an American politician from western Massachusetts. A Republican, she was Acting Governor of Massachusetts from 2001 to 2003.
From an Irish-Italian political family in Berkshire County in the town of North Adams, she learned politics on the knee of her father who was active in the Republican party in town, county, and state government. She graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 1987.
Swift was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1998 and became Acting Governor in 2001 upon the selection of Paul Cellucci as Ambassador to Canada. Some believe that most of her genuine efforts at political reform were stymied by these missteps and the efforts of Democrats and the largely Democratic State Legislature, while others believe that she was an ineffective governor.
During her short tenure as Governor, Swift managed to make a series of political missteps that kept her from being the Republican candidate for a full term. Among these were:
- Espousing family values while marrying a twice-married building contractor who was not careful about his divorce paperwork.
- Promising to clean up state politics and rid it of moneyed interests while accepting a corporate brokered apartment close to Beacon Hill.
- What many said were instances of inappropriately using state money, such as using state employees for baby-sitting and other non-government functions, and a widely publicized incident in which she had a state police helicopter fly her home for Thanksgiving to avoid the holiday traffic.
- Trying to fire two State Turnpike Authority board members for voting against a toll increase she supported.
- Arguably, her refusal in 2002 to commute the sentence of Gerald Amirault, convicted of child molestation in a sensational 1986 trial and believed by many to have been railroaded, despite a unanimous vote in favor of his release by the state's parole board.
An interesting fact about Swift is that she became the first governor of any state to give birth while in office.
As she neared the end of her term as Acting Governor, she was seen by many Republicans as unpopular and unable to win her first general election for Governor against a Democrat, despite having the advantage of being the incumbent. Worried about losing the governorship to a Democrat, a growing number of Republicans in the state talked of drafting Mitt Romney, then living in Utah, to run against Swift. At first, Swift brushed aside such talk and her campaign indicated that it would challenge Romney's eligibility to run for governor (See: Mitt Romney Residency Issue). After some time, however, it bacame more clear that Swift would have a difficult time winnning election (one poll taken at this time showed Republicans favored Romney over Swift by a margin of more that 50 percentage points) and Swift announced that she would not run for the office of governor. Soon after this announcement, Romney declared his candidacy and would go on to win his party's nomination and the general election against Democrat Shannon O'Brien, Libertarian Carla Howell, and Green Party Candidate Jill Stein.
Since leaving office, Swift has moved back to western Massachusetts, but continued to commute to the Boston area for a fellowship at Harvard University in the Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics. Amongst her co-fellows were former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Martin Mackin of Ireland.
| Preceded by: Paul Cellucci | Acting Governor of Massachusetts 2001 – 2003 | Succeeded by: Mitt Romney |
| Preceded by: Paul Cellucci | Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts 1998 – 2001 | Succeeded by: Kerry Healey |