With one convention down and one to go, the battle for Beacon Hill’s highest office is heating up faster than the weather.

And four months away from the September primary, the governor’s race has already seen several major shake-ups.

Facing low approval ratings and lower odds of election in November, Republican Acting Gov. Jane M. Swift dropped out of the primary race last month, leaving the door wide open for the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic mastermind Mitt Romney to enter the race as the Republican challenger.

Meanwhile, five Democrats are competing for the chance to evict the GOP from the corner office—real estate the Republican party has held for 12 years.

However, with Romney in and Swift out, one of five democratic candidates will face a far more formidable challenge than they anticipated.

Given the Commonwealth’s current financial woes—a projected $2 billion budget deficit for 2003—fiscal policy has become the campaigns’ key issue.

Central to the budget question is the state legislature’s planned 0.3 percent income tax rollback, scheduled to take effect January 1, 2003—a move which not all candidates support.

Social issues, including health care reform, education and affordable public housing are also on the table for debate this fall.

But in this arena, the candidates’ stances differ only marginally within their party, rendering the campaign one of image over issues.

Facing a public disilusioned with the current Beacon Hill regime, many candidates have strived promote their ‘outsider’ status and distance themselves from current government.

The Elephant Returns

Republican gubernatorial pick W. Mitt Romney is a stranger to neither politics nor Boston, despite his attempts to cultivate a reputation as an outsider.

“People are tired of the Beacon Hill machine,” Romney told the Boston Globe.

The son of George Romney, former Michigan governor and presidential candidate, Romney graduated from Brigham Young University in 1971 and recieved his M.B.A. and J.D. from Harvard Business and Law Schools, repectively, in 1975

Romney