Image courtesy of Robert J. Healey for Lieutenant Governor

By Sam Wroblewski WPRO

Perennial candidate Bob Healey announced he has joined the ranks of the Moderate party Wednesday as a candidate for governor.

The Cool Moose Party founder said the Moderate Party approached him to run after their previous candidate for governor, James Spooner, left the race for medical reasons.

“I thought about it for three or four days and agreed to it,” said Healey.

Healey told WPRO News his platform will remain relatively unchanged from his previous campaigns; in addition he won’t be raising large amounts of campaign cash, instead he will be operating through a website.

“We’re going to try something very different; a low budget, sort of guerilla warfare campaign, where we’re going to lay bare our entire strategy and on our daily doings on a website called Bob Healey’s Daily Journal.”

Healey is known for founding the Cool Moose party in 1986 when he ran for governor against Edward DiPrete, Bruce Sundlun, and Anthony Affigne; the party was officially recognized eight years later. In 2002 Healey ran for the office of Lieutenant Governor promising to abolish the office if he were elected.

More recently, Healey floated the idea of running for lieutenant governor earlier this year if enough interested voters signed an online petition. The effort failed.

“I really didn’t have an intention to run again,” said Healey, “I was brought out of retirement, plopped in, and I think I can do what they’re asking me to do.”

When asked if he thought the Moderate Party reached out to him in order to keep their official status with the state, Healey agreed.

“That’s proabably their goal, and they’ve given me a free reign to expound upon my ideas for being governor; I think it’s a win-win.”