"If you tallied up all the negative ads run against me and the governor since the primary," Healey said, "I've run maybe three negative ads and they've run, I don't know, 20."
Healey, a Beverly resident, is the Republican candidate for governor. Coming into the final days of the campaign, she faces a large deficit in recent public opinion polls, which show her 24 to 27 percentage points behind Patrick. Earlier this month, she had narrowed the gap to 13 points.
Healey, as well as Gov. Mitt Romney, has been criticized in ads by former Democratic candidates Christopher Gabrieli and Thomas Reilly, as well as in ads put out by a teachers union and the Patriot Majority Fund.
But the ads that have garnered the most attention in the race have been Healey's attacking Patrick for his former support of convicted rapist Benjamin LaGuer. A CBS4 poll reported that 54 percent of those polled said those ads crossed the line, and 45 percent said they were less likely to vote for Healey because of her ads.
"It's been her ads that people pay attention to, and they don't like Healey because of those ads," said Andy Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, which conducted the CBS4 poll.
David Paleologos, a Suffolk University pollster, said data collected in two October polls show it was the harshness of Healey's assault on Patrick - and not Democrats' attacks - that hurt her the most.
An Oct. 24 Suffolk poll found 61 percent were less likely to vote for Healey because of her campaign's tone. That was up from 53 percent in an Oct. 12 poll.
"I have to believe the majority of her popularity problem is her own tone," Paleologos said.
Healey said her negative ads against Patrick raised legitimate issues about his honesty - a theme Healey intends to hammer during the final days of the campaign.
"It was negative information we were conveying," Healey said. "It was about Deval Patrick having trouble being honest."
The ads also raised the question of whether it was proper for Patrick to praise a convicted rapist after he knew a DNA test had affirmed LaGuer's guilt, Healey said. (Patrick, who had contributed money to help pay for the DNA test, has described LaGuer as "eloquent." )
On the other hand, she said the Romney-Healey record was distorted in ads that targeted her. She pointed to one recent Patrick ad that suggests Healey's support for an income tax rollback would raise property taxes and make elders unable to stay in their homes.
Healey said she recently signed legislation allowing seniors to use Medicaid funds to stay in their homes rather than nursing homes.
A senior adviser to Patrick, Doug Rubin, brushed off Healey's comments.
"A number of public opinion polls show voters have clearly turned off to the Healey campaign's negative tactics and are ready for change," Rubin said.
Healey, in her meeting with editors, also said she would not advise Gov. Mitt Romney to fire Transportation Secretary John Cogliano.
The Romney administration admitted earlier this week that Bechtel engineers were involved - against the governor's orders - in inspecting parts of the Interstate 90 tunnel where a ceiling collapsed, killing 38-year-old Milena Del Valle. Healey blamed low-level officials for approving the use of the Bechtel workers but said the whole story wasn't clear.
"I think it is very important we find out precisely what happened," Healey said. "When we do find it out, I'll have an opinion on it. Simply calling for someone's dismissal without all the information is irresponsible."
