The three candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor met in a heated debate Sunday night, and all criticized one of Gov. William F. Weld's chief fund-raisers.
State Rep. Mark Roosevelt, state Sen. Michael Barrett, and former state Sen. George Bachrach all said that Weld should dump fund-raiser Peter Berlandi from his re-election team because of potential conflicts of interest Berlandi has in the state.
In an article in last Friday's Boston Globe, it was reported that Berlandi used his influence with the governor to withhold information about poor soil under a critical juncture of the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel project.
Berlandi is employed as a consultant for the Bechtel Corp., the company responsible for overseeing the construction of the project.
Both Berlandi and the Weld campaign team have decried the story as the product of partisan politics. Berlandi said last week that to avoid any possible conflicts he had told state contractors not to use his name when dealing with the governor's office.
Also at the debate, Barrett called for the governor to support his proposal to grant greater powers to the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority's board of directors. The move is designed to place the authority's executive director, Francis X. Joyce, under the board's control. Joyce is a former aide to William M. Bulger, president of the state Senate.
The Democratic debate is one of the candidates' last meetings before the state party's convention next week.
