What a peculiar story this is. Apparently, one of Jarrett Barrios’s Senate staffers, along with a lobbyist and another unidentified person,
brushed past [Sen. Richard Moore’s] receptionist and sat down at his chief of staff’s computer and began e-mailing documents back to the staff member’s computer in Barrios office…. Moore said the documents were proposed amendments to the vending machine bill that he had discussed with the lobbyist, but had decided not to offer.
Moore is the chair of the Senate Health Care Committee and at the time was involved in a debate on the school junk food bill referenced in this post. As a result of the incident, further Senate debate on the bill was postponed.
Not exactly the kind of thing a candidate for Middlesex DA wants coming out of his office. I’d expect to see some heads rolling over there pretty quick.
charley-on-the-mta says
That’s just hideous.
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Festa having second thoughts about dropping out?
polk says
Anyone else think that this is just bizarre?
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And isn’t there more to this story? This doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you go tell the Associated Press about, unless there’s a LOT more to it.
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What do you think?
lynne says
Definitely needs investigation. But how did a staffer, lobbyist, and a third person get access? Can anyone just walk in and do this crap?
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It needs to be cleared up ASAP. If the staffer acted on his own, he needs to come out and clear Barrios. If it goes deeper than that…we need to know now. It affects so many other things – like…a DAs race.
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If he did this on his own…what the hell was the staffer THINKING?? He should never work in the state house – or politics – again.
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And who was the lobbyist working for?
harry-sinden says
I too am still rubbing my eyes to make sure I read this correctly… simply unbelievable, simply egregious.
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At best, this was a staffer trying to curry favor with their boss, Jarrett Barrios, at worst, it’s a much deeper scandal that defies explanation. EITHER WAY, this is a direct extension of the kind of office Jarrett Barrios runs… I mean, come on, it’s now clearly apparent the guy is incapable of running a senate office of 5 or 6 staff members… and this guy wants to be DA???
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Complete laugher… I’m watching this develop with great interest…
polk says
So the article claims that this happened during debate on the bill…
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I can’t imagine that the staffer goes to do this, during debate, for any reason except under express direction of their boss…
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Any idea who these people are yet?
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Who is the staffer, who is the lobbyist, and who is the unnamed third person?
polk says
Under the Golden Dome provides a very interesting perspective…
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http://underthegoldendome.blogspot.com/2006/02/update-on-growing-snackgate.html
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Did Barrios people attempt to add amendments as if they were coming from the bill’s lead sponsor???
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WHOA.
sharpchick says
First paragraph of the story:
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BOSTON –Debate on a school junk food bill collapsed Wednesday after the chairman of the Senate Health Care Committee, Sen. Richard Moore, said a lobbyist and a staffer from Sen. Jarrett Barrios’s office broke into his chief of staff’s computer and e-mailed documents back to Barrios’s office.
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We don’t know what really happened (yet) as I haven’t seen any thing where a reporter has actually asked someone who was present when the incident happened. They say there was a staffer and two lobbyists … where are they? Until we hear both sides of the story, I’m very uncomfortable by all of this jumping to conclusions and wild speculations.
polk says
You sure it’s that simple?
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Would Sen. Moore really have stopped the debate on the bill if Barrios’s office found out about some potential amendments?
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Is knowledge about some unfiled amendments worth all this hulabaloo? I doubt it…
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There’s more to this than meets the eye…
harry-sinden says
Sharpchick, there’s nothing to be confused about here, except for whether or not the amendments were illicitly and wrongfully filed by a Barrios staff member in Moore’s name or if they were emailed back to Barrios’ office. That’s the only thing there’s confusion about…
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Listen, both the Globe and Herald wouldn’t have run stories on it if it wasn’t corroborated by numerous sources. Clearly, more is going to come out on this… but the constant in this situation is the deceitful and ill-conceived intent on the part of Barrios, or his staff person (if the staff person acted unilaterally – which to my experienced eye seems doubtful) to handle or obtain information through wrongful, if not illegal, means.
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What’s more, this speaks volumes of Barrios that his staff is so buddy buddy with Beacon Hill lobbyists that this would become a joint venture. I mean, this must be a pretty tight relationship if they’re willing to violate state ethics together. I bet we see quite the story develop from this…
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However you cut it Sharpchick, there’s not much to be confused about… I think we all see the bottom line here…
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hoyapaul says
At least according to the Herald story, the lobbyist was working for the “Massachusetts Public Health Association”.
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According to the lobbyist records available on the Secretary of State’s webpage, that lobbyist is Mary Ann Hart. Wonder if it was her — she’s the only one listed as a lobbyist for that organization.
alkali says
… that I have no idea in the world why my fellow Democrats are obsessed with this kind of crap. Vending machines in schools? Who cares? For every voter who likes this kind of thing, there are two who think, “You know, these are the kind of people who used to get pushed into their lockers in high school, and deep down there was a reason for that.”
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So some kid has a Coke after school when he could be having a nutritious fiber smoothie. Let. It. Go.
polk says
That’d be all well and good … except for the fact that we have a burgeoning fat + diabetes epidemic, especially among the youth.
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What if, while we have kids as a captive audience 8 hrs a day, we can show them a better way to nutrition? …like not drinking pure sugar + caffeine?
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It’s not against the vending machines, it’s against the high sugar and high fat content of the things they sell.
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Why feed kids poison?
alkali says
If getting vending machines out of schools would end diabetes, or if they literally dispensed “poison,” that would be one thing. But it won’t, and they don’t. So the dispute is mostly symbolic, and what it symbolizes to most people is that the Democrats are the party that wants to bother on about stuff like this.