Two weeks from today, Democratic voters in Massachusetts will decide whether Robert Reich will remain a Brandeis professor or whether the former labor secretary will attain a higher post in the state. It will be this Sept. 17 Democratic primary that will determine who - Shannon O'Brien, Tom Birmingham, Warren Tolman or Reich - will face-off with the main opponent, Republican Mitt Romney, in November to become the commonwealth's next governor. When asked how his campaign has changed since January, Reich touted himself as the Democrat most likely to defeat Romney, referring to a Boston Herald poll released Thursday. His campaign, he said in an interview with the Justice that morning, has "more volunteers, more students, more energy, more excitement, more enthusiasm, (and) more momentum" than it did in January. During last winter break, Reich's Cambridge home was still the epicenter of his gubernatorial bid, and the Heller School professor was months and dollars behind O'Brien. While he still lacks O'Brien and Birmingham's financial backing, Reich spent the summer on the campaign trail in the commonwealth, trying to make up for the difference.

Contenders

When asked, Reich said he fears neither Romney nor the other Democrats vying to fill Acting Governor Jane Swift's shoes. O'Brien, analysts concur, remains the Democrat others must beat, with a Boston Globe/WBZ-TV poll last week estimating her at 35 percent of the Democratic vote to Reich's 21 percent. Meanwhile, the Herald reported, given the choice of Romney and one Democratic candidate, Reich fared just slightly better than O'Brien, 10 percent behind Romney to O'Brien's 12.

When asked to distinguish himself from O'Brien, Reich said his experience in the Department of Labor well qualifies him for the Bay State position, even more so because he is not what he called a "Beacon Hill insider.

"I think at this particular point in time, most voters are sick and tired of Beacon Hill," Reich said. "They want fresh ideas, new approaches, new perspectives . . . I have a well-documented history of advocacy and writing on behalf of working people and social justice. I don't think any other candidate has that kind of record."

And, when questioned about Romney, Reich said while he does not want to say the Republican is "fibbing" about his pro-life, pro-civil union stance, Reich did say there has been "a lot of flip-flops" from Romney's stint in Utah politics to his current pursuit of the Massachusetts governorship. "I disagree with him about how we ought to organize our economy. I think that the widening gap between the have-mores and the have-lesses is a huge problem here in Massachusetts as well as around the country," Reich said. Refering to his undergraduate course "Wealth and Poverty," Reich added, "I would love to know what he plans to do about it. I have a lot of ideas."

"I think that I'm going to continue to run this campaign the way we have up until now, going around the state in my old bus, meeting a lot of people, having town meetings, talking to thousands of people about their problems, about how to get better education, health fare, affordable housing (and) cure the state's budget mess," he said.

It is a dearth of affordable housing, Reich said, that discourages graduates from staying in the Boston area. Contradicting some sentiment floating around that reinstating rent control has become a necessity, Reich said Massachusetts needs to find ways of "financing new housing units, making it easier for people to buy new housing." He added colleges and universities should "get students out of rental housing and into dormitories to make housing more affordable to people in the communities" and that governments must create incentives for developers to build units, reducing zoning and building code "red tape."

And all that jazz

Turning to the economy, Reich said the job market will be better for the class 2003 than it was for seniors graduating this year, although he was uncertain about the extent of economic improvement on the horizon. "The economy should be coming out of recession. It's already coming out of recession a bit, but it's very slow," he said. "I can't say how much better, but (the job market) definitely will be better."

"Technology is obviously going to be strong (and) financial services," he said economic sectors. "There will be a need for college graduates across the board. If you have a college degree, a liberal arts degree from a place as excellent as Brandeis, you will find a good job. It may take you a little longer than it take let's say four years ago when the economy was red hot, but you will find a good job."

Reich had little pity for professional baseball players and team owners, however. Discussing the now-resolved dispute between unions and team big-whigs, Reich said, "I went through this once before in 1994." "My vision of hell is being locked in a room with Don Fehr and Bud Selig, the two people who are in charge respectively of the baseball players and the owners. This is not really a classic labor management relations problem. These are millionaires or billionaires. I think the federal government ought to threaten both sides that unless they settle, anti-trust exemption will be taken away for baseball.