Thomas Reilly

Infobox US Cabinet official


name=Thomas F. Reilly
| caption=
order=45th
title=Massachusetts Attorney General
term_start=1999
term_end=2007
predecessor=Scott Harshbarger
successor=Martha Coakley
birth_date= birth date and age|1942|02|14
birth_place=Springfield, Massachusetts
death_date=
death_place=
party=Democrat
profession=Lawyer
religion=Roman Catholic

Thomas F. Reilly (February 14, 1942) was the 45th Massachusetts attorney general. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Irish immigrant parents.

He was one of three candidates for the Democratic nomination for the office of Governor in the Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2006, along with businessman Chris Gabrieli and former Assistant U.S. Attorney General Deval Patrick, who won the party's nomination, and the general election.

Early life

Reilly, a native of Springfield, Massachusetts, described himself as a "misguided youth" the year his father, Mortimer "Murty" Reilly, was found dead at home from a heart attack when Reilly was 16. Reilly was arrested for public drunkenness when he was 20. By age 22, he was focused with driving ambition, much to the credit of his friend Wayne Budd's father, an ex-Marine turned policeman in Springfield who took him under his wing and encouraged him to go to school.

Reilly attended Cathedral High School in Springfield, Massachusetts. He graduated in 1959. After graduating high school, he went off to college in Nova Scotia at St. Francis Xavier University. He stayed there only a year, transferring to American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he graduated on June 7 1964. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.

In July 1966, Reilly married Ruth Gammons (b. 1941), now a retired schoolteacher. The couple have three daughters: Leslie (b. 1968), Meaghan (b. 1973), and Kyle (b. 1980).

Reilly moved to Washington, D.C. and worked for two years with the Central Intelligence Agency. For one year, Reilly lived in Dearborn, Michigan, where he worked with the Ford Motor Company as a Labor Relations Representative until 1967. Reilly attended Boston College Law School and received his JD in June 1970.

Reilly worked for two years as a prosecutor in the state Attorney General's civil rights division. He worked for four years as a Suffolk County prosecutor. In 1976, Reilly and Budd formed “Budd and Reilly”, a Boston-based law firm. The firm became the largest minority-dominated firm in New England.

Political career

Reilly left the law firm in 1983 to work in Middlesex County District Attorney Scott Harshbarger's administration as First Assistant District Attorney. In 1990, Reilly was elected Middlesex County District Attorney. He was reelected for a second term.

Reilly ran for attorney general in 1998 against state Senator Lois Pines and won the Democratic Primary. He defeated Republican Brad Bsailey in the November election. He was reelected for a second term in 2002.

On November 30, 2005 Reilly said that he was conducting an investigation of Sony BMG over their use of the XCP Digital Rights Management DRM on Sony audio CDs. See 2005 Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal

In January 2006, Reilly came under fire for allegedly impeding an investigation into an October 2005 automobile crash which left two Southborough, Massachusetts teens dead, and another teen injured. Reilly admitted publicly that he advised the Worcester County District Attorney that he did not have to give local police a toxicology report showing the blood alcohol level of the teens.Fact|date=December 2007

Reilly has come under fire for abusing his regulatory authority for political purposes (see [http://www.goal.org/news/ReillyAdmits.htm Gun Owners Action League article] ).

On January 24 2006, Reilly officially kicked off his first gubernatorial campaign in Springfield at his alma mater American International College ("see Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2006"). He finished third in the primary on September 19 2006. He left the race, and his opponent, Deval Patrick, went on to win the general election.