Barrett has called Massachusetts' "insecure, high-anxiety economy" the campaign's most important issue.

Consequently, Barrett has proposed several measures designed to aid small businesses in Massachusetts including tax credits for job training, government support for businesses attempting to meet international standards and promotion of exports. To the latter end, he supports the North American Free Trade Agreement.

But Barrett insists he still supports some more traditional progressive ideals of the Democratic party including the graduate income tax.

"As a candidate for governor, I am stating insistently that Democrats must chart a new course," Barrett says. "But Democrats must remain true to our commitment to working people and to the middle class. That means support for a decent degree of tax fairness."

Barrett has received national recognition for a 1990 article on education reform in The Atlantic Monthly. Barrett supports strengthening educational standards through longer school days to help Massachusetts students remain competitive with their counterparts in other states.

As a state legislator, Barrett has also sponsored bills intended to guarantee gay and lesbian rights ban assault weapons and strengthen the rights of housing tenants.

Like Weld and his Democratic opponents, Barrett is pro-choice on abortion rights. Unlike his opponents, however, Barrett opposes the death penalty which has led him to criticize his leading Democratic opponent, Mark Roosevelt '78.

"Mark has just changed the commitment of a lifetime to come out in favor of capital punishment," Barrett says. "I want to be governor but I'm not willing to kill people to be governor."