Gregory Sol Hyatt (born September 6, 1953) is an American political activist and a former attorney and politician. He was a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1986, but dropped out of the race due to allegations of forging names on his nomination papers, having ties to organized crime, and erratic personal behavior. Early life and political involvement Hyatt was born and raised in Methuen, Massachusetts. His father was a local doctor. In 1971 he graduated from Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was class valedictorian. Hyatt attended Yale University, where he was a member of the Yale Debate Association and the floor leader of the Party of the Right in the Yale Political Union. In 1979 he graduated from Boston College Law School and began practicing law. Proposition 2½ Hyatt served as executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation from 1979 to 1980. He was one of the architects of Proposition 2½, a ballot measure that limits property tax increases by Massachusetts municipalities and traveled the state to drum up support for the measure. During the Reagan administration, Hyatt worked in the Department of Education and the Small Business Administration. 1984 congressional race Hyatt's political career began in 1984 when he was a candidate for the 5th congressional district. He defeated Thomas P. Tierney for the Republican nomination and faced Democratic State Senator Chester G. Atkins in the general election. In a heavily Democratic district, Hyatt was able to finish a close second to Atkins. Anti-seat belt law activism In 1985, Hyatt, along with radio host Jerry Williams, led the effort to gather signatures to place a measure to repeal Massachusetts' mandatory seat belt law on the 1986 ballot. The question made it to the ballot and would be passed by the voters. 1986 gubernatorial election On March 13, 1986, Hyatt became the first Republican to enter the gubernatorial race. Hyatt ran on a platform of limiting state taxes, bringing back the death penalty, providing state aid to private schools, and competency testing and merit pay for teachers. He opposed the state law that made wearing a seat belt mandatory, the use of roadblocks to crack down on drunken driving, busing, and the use of public funds for abortions. Shortly before the Republican convention in April 1986, Associated Builders and Contractors, a group of Massachusetts builders and contractors that had hired Hyatt as a consultant on a