Massachusetts union leaders took aim Saturday at Republican gubernatorial nominee Michael Minogue’s wealth, saying the former medical device industry executive is trying to “buy” the election by spending millions of his own dollars on his bid for public office.
The union officials leveled the attacks at a Boston rally in support of Governor Maura Healey in the final weeks of the race. Minogue has ramped up spending, including on a flood of television advertising, in the final sprint to Election Day on Nov. 3.
Chrissy Lynch, president of the AFL-CIO and a key Healey ally in organized labor, said there is a “huge difference” between Minogue and Healey.
“MAGA Mike is dumping millions of dollars into misleading voters, making you think that he’s a moderate,” Lynch said to hundreds of people gathered in the parking lot of the IBEW Local 103 union hall in Dorchester. “The reality is, Mike Minogue is an out-of-touch mega millionaire who loves [President] Trump.”
Minogue said Healey and her union backers “launched false attacks” against him at the rally “because they have run out of answers” on the governor’s record.
“They’re focusing on political theater so their union members don’t ask the hard questions, like why Healey is spending their hard-earned pensions on political handouts,” Minogue said in a statement to the Globe.
Minogue is a military veteran who made a small fortune when the medical device company he ran, Danvers-based Abiomed, was sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2016 for $16.6 billion. He was set to earn at least $240 million in separation payments when the company was sold.
The first-time candidate for elected office has used his wealth to self-fund his run for governor, donating at least $15.8 million to his campaign in roughly a year. Minogue also set a record when he spent $6.1 million in September, the most a Massachusetts candidate for governor has ever spent in a single month.
Minogue has largely shrugged off criticisms of his wealth and has instead argued that the attacks show Healey is not focused on pressing issues affecting Massachusetts residents, like lowering the cost of housing, energy, and health care.
Healey told reporters after the rally that Minogue is “trying to buy this election.”
“[He’s] trying to do so in a way with ads that are misleading,” she said. “I’m never going to be able to raise that much money, and I just have to rely on being out there every day and making the case to the voters about what I’ve done and what I want to do.”
During the rally, union officials lined up behind Healey, with many pointing to an executive order she signed last year that promotes the use of project labor agreements in major public works projects.
The Healey administration also wants a project labor agreement in place for the Sagamore Bridge replacement project, a decision the Fiscal Alliance Foundation, a conservative-leaning nonprofit, warned could add $293 million to the cost of replacing the bridge.
Bernie Sharpe, a business agent with IBEW Local 103, said he hopes Healey keeps pushing for the labor deals.
“Project labor agreements put labor standards on projects to guarantee that the public, the customer, is going to get a good project; they’re not going to get hit with cost overruns afterward,” Sharpe told the Globe while waiting for the rally to start.
Frank Callahan, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Unions, criticized Minogue’s lack of experience in public office.
“He thinks because he’s a billionaire businessman that we’re stupid enough to think that he should get the top job,” Callahan said, adding that Minogue has “no practical experience, no knowledge about how government works.”
Minogue served for more than 18 years as the chief executive of Abiomed and, before that, spent about a decade at GE Healthcare in a top position. Minogue’s former Abiomed colleagues have credited him with turning the company around and bringing annual revenue above $1 billion, in part by refocusing the company on heart pumps.
Minogue pushed back against the criticism from Healey and union leaders. He said he hears “over and over” how frustrated union members are that the “pension they’ve worked years building is in jeopardy because of Healey’s mismanagement and corruption.”
“They are also discouraged by the lack of jobs and growth, causing many to leave the state. That’s why I’m running — to make sure the system starts working for Massachusetts workers,” he said in the statement to the Globe.
Chris Van Buskirk can be reached at chris.vanb@globe.com. Follow him on X @byChrisVan