Healey travel not public in advance

Security cited in change to policy

In a major break from her predecessors, Governor Maura Healey’s office said it is no longer publicly disclosing when the Democrat intends to travel outside of Massachusetts, potentially leaving the public with little to no visibility at times of whether she’s in the state she was elected to lead.

A Healey spokesperson said “security concerns” prompted the change in policy, but did not offer further details or enumerate any specific threats against the governor. Similar to past governors, Healey during her first months in office had disclosed upcoming out-of-state travel, which typically carries costs for the governor’s security detail and constitutional shifts in governing power.

The Globe is aware of at least one instance in which Healey traveled without disclosing it on her public schedule or through her aides at the time: Healey took an early October trip to Asheville, N.C., where she attended a two-day summit hosted by the Democratic National Governors Association, a partisan group, at a Gilded Age estate featuring what’s known as “America’s Largest Home.”

Healey disclosed the travel in a filing she submitted with the state Ethics Commission, and was obtained this week by the Globe. The Democratic Governors Association, which spent at least $250,000 backing her candidacy last year, paid for Healey’s travel and lodging on the trip, totaling $1,341, according to the filing.

When asked about the trip, Karissa Hand, a Healey spokesperson, acknowledged that Healey had traveled or been out of state for three days, from Oct. 1 to Oct. 3. She also revealed

the office’s intent to no longer inform the public about the governor’s travel ahead of time.

“Due to security concerns, we will not be advising the Governor’s travel in advance,” Hand said in a statement. “A record of her travel is included in her calendar, which is available to media.”

Healey’s office has regularly provided Healey’s monthly calendar to news outlets that request it. But that means reporters or the public may not learn when she was out of state until weeks or more after the fact. Healey aides have yet to release her calendar covering October.

Healey has spent at least 45 days outside of Massachusetts since she took office in early January, according to a Globe analysis of travel notifications and disclosures her office has released. That means, on average, she’s spent at least one day a week out of state as governor.

“The governor is engaged in her work at all times and keeps in constant communication with her team no matter where she is,” Hand added in another statement.

In the weeks after her North Carolina trip, a local neo-Nazi group protested outside Healey’s Arlington home, where they held flares, chanted, and yelled “obscenities” at police and neighbors, according to a police account provided by Healey’s office. The State Police has yet to provide a copy of an incident report from the episode more than three weeks after the Globe requested it; under state law, public agencies are required to respond to requests within 10 business days.

Healey, the first woman and openly gay governor elected in Massachusetts history, later denounced the group for “trying to scare people.” Healey lives in Arlington with her partner, who has two children.

The NSC-131 group — which describes itself as a “pro-white, street-oriented fraternity dedicated to raising AUTHENTIC resistance to the enemies of our people in the New England area” — has also protested in Quincy and Woburn outside of hotels and welcome centers that have provided shelter for immigrants amid an influx of families into Massachusetts.

Former Boston police commissioner Edward Davis said he’s not surprised Healey would choose not to telegraph her travel at a heated geopolitical moment. Davis now works as a security consultant, including for the Globe.

“There’s a lot of potential vulnerabilities that public people face today that they didn’t face even three weeks ago,” Davis said, nodding to the “enormous amount” of domestic protests sparked by the war between Israel and Hamas. “I can’t speak to the political calculation — that’s up to the elected official. But safety should be foremost in everyone’s minds.”

Previous governors have disclosed when they planned to leave the state, which under the state Constitution triggers a transfer of executive power to the lieutenant governor. At times when both Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll are out of state — as was the case in July when Healey took a “personal” trip to Rhode Island and Driscoll was in Virginia and also in February — the secretary of state serves as acting governor.

Deb O’Malley, spokesperson for Secretary of State William F. Galvin, said in those instances, he typically gets a call from the governor or her staff giving him notice. It’s also been Galvin’s approach to let the governor make that announcement publicly, she said.

“But if they aren’t going to announce it, we will,” O’Malley said. “We will announce when he is acting governor.”

For most of his two terms, former governor Charlie Baker’s office told reporters when the Republican planned to travel. That included in March 2020, when Baker took a family vacation to Utah, only to cut it short as COVID-19 cases soared back home and around the world. In other cases, his office would identify then-Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito in public schedules as acting governor, signaling he was out of state.

In one instance, Baker left Massachusetts without initially disclosing it to attend a conference off the Georgia coast, where he huddled with conservative intellectuals and top Republican politicians. Baker’s office only acknowledged it after being questioned by the Globe.

Baker, too, faced security risks. Police in 2020 arrested a Danvers man on charges he broke into Baker’s Swampscott home while his wife and daughter were inside. That same month, a judge upheld an order mandating a Boston activist to stay away from Baker’s home after he left used hypodermic needles on the sidewalk outside the house.

Former governor Deval Patrick faced criticism in 2008 when he went to Manhattan to close a book deal as a bill to legalize casino gambling crashed in the Legislature. Even then, the Democrat’s aides disclosed he was leaving the state, according to news accounts at the time.

Neither governor appeared to have a blanket policy of not notifying the public of their travel plans ahead of time.

Mary Z. Connaughton, director of government transparency and chief operating officer at the Pioneer Institute, a libertarianleaning think tank, said Healey should give more detail about why she’s changing course.

“The people have a right to know who is leading the state at all times, and when a longstanding, transparent practice ends suddenly, the public should be informed of the specifics that caused the change,” she said. “Rolling back on transparency typically doesn’t sit well with the public.”