Guy Glodis is running for State Auditor as a self-described reformer, committed to transparency in government, and determined to make sure that every tax dollar is spent appropriately. We know all about Guy’s crude, rude, and boorish behavior from last week’s David Bernstein article in the Boston Phoenix, but what about the ethics of this purported reformer? Are there any blemishes in Guy’s past? Any clues from his background as to what kind of Auditor he would be? I’ve scrounged around and come up with my top ten list of Guy’s ethical issues. Feel free to add your own.
1. According to a report from the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, dated February 9, 2009, Glodis had three “serious breaches of the campaign finance law.” One of those breaches was his deposit of six campaign contributions into his personal bank account. Guy can’t figure out the difference between his campaign account and his personal account?
2. Another rebuke from the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, dated, February 16, 2010, revealed that Glodis had been caught using Sheriff’s Office funds to pay for a political mailing. Isn’t that the kind of illegal activity that our Auditor is supposed to expose, not engage in?
3. What about the time that Glodis went to Corporation Beach in Dennis, and tried to get out of paying a $15 parking fee, claiming that he didn’t have to because he worked “for the state?” One on-line commentator from Cape Cod diagnosed Glodis with “the Sheriff of Nottingham Syndrome . . . a highly contagious and progressive disease that afflicts members of the Worcester County Sheriff’s Department and is characterized by an uncontrollable urge to be treated differently from everybody else.” Why does Glodis, our potential Auditor, believe that he doesn’t have to pay for what all other taxpayers pay for?
4. How about Amy Frigulietti, to whom, despite holding a desk job that primarily involves handling payroll, Sheriff Glodis provides a gas-guzzling Ford Explorer, courtesy of we the taxpayers, for her daily 100-mile commute back and forth to work from her home in Dorchester. According to Worcester Telegram writer Dianne Williamson, Frigulietti is also “allowed to use the black SUV on weekends to run errands, shop, and attend fundraisers for her boss, which I’m betting she’s er, driven to do. The only thing she’s not allowed is to pay for gas, maintenance and tolls. At a time when cash-strapped Americans are severely pinched at the pumps, Ms. Frigulietti is blithely raking up free mileage in an unmarked SUV.” Now that’s what I call watching taxpayers money!
5. And let’s not forget Francis Sena, a friend of Glodis’s father, who had received $20,000 in extra money in his paycheck from the Massachusetts Division of Industrial Accidents. As a State Senator, Glodis filed legislation to give Sena $20,000 in back pay, in order to forgive Sena’s debt to the Commonwealth. The problem with the legislation, which thankfully was quashed, was that it could have allowed hundreds of other workers to get similar treatment and, according to the Boston Herald, would have cost taxpayers as much as $4 million. What a watchdog Guy Glodis will make!
6. And what about Joseph T. Duggan, III, a close friend of big Glodis campaign contributor, Commerce Bank & Trust Chairman David G. “Duddie” Massad, who, along with his family, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, gave Glodis $3,500 in campaign contributions over the last 5 years. Immediately after being placed in Sheriff Glodis’s West Boylston jail, Duggan was placed in a work-release program in violation of a departmental policy that had been approved by Glodis less than two weeks earlier. Wanna guess who Duggan worked for while on work-release? Duddie Massad? Correct! In total, Duggan spent just eight complete days in Glodis’s jail during his four-month sentence. Sure sounds like hard time. Who knew that Guy Glodis was so soft on criminals?
7. And then there’s Amit Mathur, a Shrewsbury investment advisor charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with stealing $13 million from his clients. At Mathur’s trial, one of the witnesses testified that, among the payments he made on instructions from Mathur, was a $20,000 check payable to Glodis. While a spokesman for Glodis claimed that the $20,000 was a loan that was repaid, Glodis hasn’t revealed what the loan was for, how much interest he was charged, and why he was borrowing money from someone as sketchy as Mathur. Think Mary Connaughton isn’t going to ask those questions?
8. Glodis may be a big supporter of organized labor, but he doesn’t treat his own workers all that well. The head of the union that represents correctional officers and sergeants at the Worcester County Jail recently criticized Glodis for violating his own guidelines in promoting jail personnel, including political supporters. Rules are made for everyone else, but not you, right Guy?
9. One thing that Glodis, who campaigned against the patronage of the former Sheriff, is getting better at is patronage. According to Worcester Magazine, of the 29 promotions Glodis doled out in 2005, only 17 went to officers who had donated to or helped Glodis on one of his past campaigns. By 2007, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, those numbers were up to a more respectable level — 21 of 29 promotions went to officer who gave cash donations to Glodis. If you want to find out who’ll be working in Guy Glodis’s Auditor’s Office, just check the campaign finance records.
10. But you can’t say that Glodis isn’t experienced with the Auditor’s Office. A 2010 report by Auditor DeNucci’s Office found a multitude of problems with Glodis’s operations, including violating one of his own procurement policies by awarding more than $74,000 in consulting contracts without competitive bids. Is that the kind of experience you bring to the campaign, Guy?
Guy Glodis? A reformer with results? You be the judge.
This is definitely not what we’re looking for in an elected official. This what we are trying to weed out.
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p>Links would be nice.
Great, great work.
Do we want an Auditor who violated the public trust? Bump was making inside moves to line her pockets. Or said better: to keep it in her pockets!! She accepted expensive tickets to to the David Copperfield Magic Show at the Wang Center and expensive dinners at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston by insurance lobbyists!! What about the transparency and accountability rhetoric she blabs about?
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p>During her eight years in the House of Representatives,
Rep. Bump served on the Joint Committee on Commerce and Labor where she served as that committee’s chairperson during the 1991-92 legislative session. Each year, a number of bills affecting insurance companies (as they are Massachusetts employers)are assigned to the Commerce and Labor Committee. Rep. Bump has presided over hearings on these bills and participated in votes on whether the bills should be reported out of committee. In addition, Rep. Bump has voted on bills of interest to the insurance
industry when they reach the House floor.
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p>While chairperson of the Commerce & Labor Committee, Rep.
Bump also sponsored or co-sponsored four bills of interest to the insurance industry.
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p>See the link: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=et…
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p>Then what did she do? she became a LOBBYIST herself and made a fortune!!!
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p>Now Suzanne Bump wants to be Auditor? No Way!!
South Shore Dem, you’ve already been called out as a hopeless Glodis schill. It’s fine to support your candidate, but you’ve continually tried to pretend you’re just a concerned citizen with no agenda and THE ACT IS GETTING OLD.
…for putting Mike Lake in to be the spolier.
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p>Mike Lake has put in more than 3000 hours into his campaign to be the next Auditor. He has criss-crossed the Commonwealth. He has appeared at Caucuses, Town Committee Meetings, and other public events to get out his message and to introduce himself to the voters. The Bump Trollers are controlling this Blog and have tried desperately to discredit Mike Lake.
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p>To the Bump Trollers: You call yourselves progressives…I call you elitist exclusionists!! Your motto should be: If you are not with us (as a Bump supporter) than you must be a Glodis shill.
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p>I hope people/delegates/voters see through this propaganda.
Like Striker (and I am beginning to think you are both the same person since your posts are uncannily similar) you should asset why you think your candidate is better before you just tear other candidates down. That is why people think you are a troll and a shill. you have yet to offer any positive reasons to vote for Glodis other than ‘he has the most bucks in the bank’. You have not given us any positive descriptions of his candidacy or why he would make a good auditor compared to his opponents. Additionally you have not provided a compelling defense of his racist views on Islam and his patronage and plundering record as county Sheriff. Until you do you can’t be taken seriously, and I honestly hope you are being paid by the Glodis campaign since I am convinced you are losing him votes.
Look at all my posts, with the exception of my first post which was merely an observation that glodis had the money and provoke a discussion. Since that time, I have been campaigning/supporting Mike Lake. Bill Keating for Congress and Mike Lake for Auditor…period!!
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p>So give it a rest jconway and Ryepower12 with your trashing of any Mike Lake supporter as a glodis shill is over-the-top! It’s so transparent! See you at the convention.
Just the Glodis Lake supporters
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p>I went back to your first, and only diary, and I am puzzling over this:
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p>
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p>So, again, if Glodis is our best hope of keeping this seat in the face of relentless attacks from the Republican Governors Association (their interest in any state auditor race mystifies me, but what the hell it’s their money), why are you a Lake supporter? Why support and campaign so hard, and post so many thoughtful comments here, for a candidate that doesn’t have the “resources of man power to keep up”?
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p>I don’t have five degrees, or majors, and I didn’t go to NC State like my buddy stomv, so perhaps that is why the logic of your comment history somewhat baffles me.
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p>Please, just one little favor South Shore old buddy:
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p> If you really really are a Lake supporter, explain that one little quote for me. Was that first diary a joke? Just trying to rile things up a bit? Cuz you certainly didn’t sound like Laker then. Or, you have a very curious way of showing support.
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p>And if you are a Glodis supporter doing the Fake Lake Shake and Bake, then please stop. Leave the Glodishilling to Striker.
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p>
I got nothing against Lake and have never said anything bad about him, but I think you are doing a horrible disservice to whichever candidate you are supporting (it keeps changing depending on the day I guess) by being a total tool and attacking everyone without providing any positive reasons behind your position.
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p>Here is an exercise lets give three reasons why we like our candidate let me start for Bump and maybe you can follow for either Glodis or Lake, ‘because they are not the other guy’, ‘because they are endorsed by unions’, and ‘because they gotta lotta cash’ are not good reasons neither is ‘im on his payroll’
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p>1) Bump has a lot of experience in the financial sector and going over the internal finances of organizations I think that will translate well to this office were she to win
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p>2) Bump is committed to bringing the antiquated Auditors office into the 21st century by putting everything online, getting a first rate website, and making the office accessile
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p>3) She is committed to bringing transparency, competency, and honest into the Auditors office and has several great ways to do that (see reason #2) and will publish all of her activities, continue to be open to questions, and make herself available across the state
Please provide three examples of these “Bump Trollers” who “have tried desperately to discredit Mike Lake.”
I have not said anything bad about Lake, for the fourth time I like Bump better because I asked her some really tough, kinda douchey and condescending questions and she hit them all out of the ballpark with some really great ideas about how to bring this office into the 21st century and make it more transparent for the people across our state. She came across as intelligent and articulate and frankly I think she is the most exciting candidate for progressives this cycle. Treasurer will be a snoozer with a boring but capable progressive getting in. Governor is kinda horrid since all of the candidates suck, but the one that sucks least (ironically our sucky Governor) will likely have a cakewalk to re-election because his opponents are real morons. And Marsha is unopposed. So that leaves auditor. And I think Bump is a breath of fresh air for MA and could do great things in that position.
I challenge you to find a quote of me, Rye, or any Bump supporter bashing Lake. Until you do you’re just leaking some hot air exhaust out of our robot body.
by spending most of your energy on negative attacks and labeling others as trolls.
WHO ARE YOU TO CALL ME NEGATIVE
I read what you write and see that it comes off as overly negative.
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p>I actually don’t have a dog in this fight, so I should be someone you should be trying to convince rather than trying to attack. Instead it seems you lash out at anyone who criticizes you.
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p>It is crystal clear that you are much more concerned with stroking your own ego than with helping your candidate otherwise you wouldn’t be expending so much effort making yourself appear to be an angry, paranoid, zealot.
Someone posts a collection of some ugly, but publicly verifiable, conduct on behalf of Guy Glodis, and your first reaction as an, ahem, “Lake supporter” is to trash Bump? No comment whatsoever on the topic at hand? Yeah, that’s logical.
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p>And not at all suspicious in any way.
before I front-page this. Impressive work, if true.
The Cape Cod Times story didn’t survive in the on-line archives, but I did find this link in Cape Cod Today which is a partial recap of a T&G story at the time.
Attention all Democratic Delegates:
Take a moment to review the educational background and work experience of Mike Lake. (http://www.electmikelake.com/)
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p>He completed five undergraduate majors at Northeastern University, and was a White House aide. Now, he’s executive director of Northeastern’s World Class Cities Partnership, exchanging best practices with urban leaders around the world.
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p>Suzanne Bump is the ultimate “insider” having served four terms in the Legislature while living in Braintree; she has also worked as a lobbyist getting paid as a “hired gun” and served as political director of Governor Patrick’s 2006 campaign, for her efforts she was a political appointment by the Governor to a posh post.
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p>Mike Lake represents a refreshing change to the “insiders” on Beacon Hill.
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p>Help Mike Lake get on the ballot.
Completing college 5 majors is not an accomplishment, and especially not one like many of Lake’s people are claiming (i.e. he completed 5 degrees).
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p>I completed 3. I would have had to take two more classes to complete 5. I graduated with 121 credits, just one more than the minimum. All this takes is a strategic choice of classes, not any level of talent or hard work.
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p>Also, once again, why are the Glodis people pumping up Lake?
Completing college is an accomplishment. Completing multiple degrees is a bigger accomplishment — completing 3 is a big deal. Five? Five is really impressive. It does indeed take a high level of talent and hard work.
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p>Is it a super relevant resume component when running for auditor. I don’t really think so, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a major accomplishment and worthy of praise and high fives.
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p>
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p>Because we have first-past-the-post voting, and they (correctly, IMO) believe that anyone who votes Lake was more likely to vote Bump than Glodis. Also, the ones around here are apparently not too clever about pulling it off without being called out for doing exactly what they’re doing.
Multiple majors does not give you multiple degrees at any school that I know of. Many schools won’t allow you to have more than two majors.
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p>While it is impressive that he was able to satisfy the requirements of five majors and get good grades while doing it, I find it highly unlikely that Northeastern grants a separate degree for each major.
This is an impressive feat, but not the same as “five degrees”.
At UMass Amherst, for example, you can get either a “double
major” by finishing 120 credits and all requirements for two
different majors, or a “double degree” by doing 150 credits and
all those requirements. I’ve heard of triple majors here but not
quintuple.
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p>Mr. Lake’s undergrad career reminds me of the novel Doorways
in the Sand by Roger Zelazny, where the thirty-something
protagonist is just short of major requirements in almost every
major in his university, because he has a generous stipend that
expires once he gets his degree.
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p>Anyway, Mr. Lake was clearly a very successful undergraduate, which
is a positive but not decisive factor in whether he would make a good
auditor. Mr. Glodis’ supporters here are not doing much to dispel the
impression that he (Glodis) is a weasel.
I am about to have two majors myself and it wasn’t all that difficult to accomplish. And as others have said it is completely irrelevant to the position. DeNucci didn’t even finish school, and to some he was a great auditor.
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p>So far I am not sure if SSD and Striker are the same person because they are both making incomprehensible praises of Lake even though they support Glodis, they are attacking Bump for no reason, and they have yet to give any positive reasons to vote for Lake or Glodis beyond “one guys gotta lotta cash and the odder guys gotta lotta degrees”. Also as Ryan pointed out, its pretty damn obvious you (I am convinced Striker and SSD are one in the same so I will refer to them using the single second person) are building up Lake to split the anti-Glodis vote, and its so damn transparent and cynical and everyone here is seeing through it. I feel bad for whichever campaign is paying you since they are spending their money to lose our votes.
From http://www.electmikelake.com/a…
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p>”Mike was the first and only graduate in history from either Northeastern University or the Commonwealth to have completed five undergraduate majors simultaneously. He graduated summa cum laude with degrees in Finance, Management Information Systems, Political Science, Communications, and Entrepreneurship.”
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p>Presumably he actually has a single BA degree.
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p>In any case, I really think that paragraph needs to be rewritten to be a little less grandiose.
I dunno, this just seems to be a case of missing the forest for a blade of grass, especially because different accredited tier 1 universities do it differently. (shrugs)
Exaggerating one’s degrees seems to be one of those things that cause people to resign.
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p>In any case, perhaps he really does have five degrees, but I highly doubt it.
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p>And as I said, I really think the mistake here is the overly grandiose tone of the bio. He is smart and got good grades. Who really cares how many majors he had?
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p>
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p>Ever hear of NC State, or, more formally, North Carolina State University? It’s a Tier 1 research school with Div I NCAA athletics, and is a Morrill Land-Grant institution. Good school. Heck, Robert Gibbs graduated from NC State in 1993, and only West Point has produced more 4 star generals.
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p>I ask because I’ve got multiple degrees from NC State hanging on my wall. Distinct pieces of paper, each with my name on it, each for an undergraduate degree. Each required 120ish credit hours. It turns out that calculus is calculus, that freshman English is freshman English, and that AP credits and summer school allow for the completion of more than 120 credits in a 4 year span.
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p>
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p>I don’t know what Northeastern does w.r.t. majors vs. degrees. I do know that only about 1 in 4 Americans over 25 years old have completed even one major. I do know that a number of large state schools give you a piece of paper — a degree — for each major completed successfully. I do know that Mike Lake claims to have been a quintuple major, and nobody’s disputed that. How many pieces of paper he’s got on his wall is a dumb Internet argument.
This is a reformer? Yikes. This is like Pope Julius II claiming credit for the Reformation.
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p>If there’s one office probably best occupied by an outsider NOT beholden in anyway to the party-in-power, it’s the state auditor. And there IS a candidate whose name doesn’t come up on BMG enough possessed of genuine integrity and the smarts to run the office the way it should be. Have a look at Nat Fortune’s web site:
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p>Nat Fortune for Auditor of Massachusetts
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p>I’d be interested in what you all think.
The most important qualification for Auditor has to be a squeaky clean reputation for honesty and integrity. Probably the second qualification is someone with a finance background who can understand complex state agency accounting.
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p>For auditor you want someone who can understand how an agency budget works and ferret out waste and abuse. And who is a stickler for strict ethical conduct.
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p>This is not a policy making position. So party or ideology doesn’t really matter – or it should not matter. An auditor should audit state agencies impartially – without a political agenda to go easy on favored programs.
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p>I’ve just started looking at the auditors race, and there are certainly some troubling aspect to Bump ( as a lobbyists ) and even more so for Glodis. ( patronage, suspect contributions etc. ) The last person we want as auditor is someone who is part of the patronage and campaign finance abuse problems that are endemic in Massachusetts.
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p>The Auditor is the primary protection that taxpayers have against fraud in state program funding.
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p>I encourage anyone looking the auditors race to look beyond party and chose the person with the best finance experience, and the cleanest political record.
Because Mike Lake wasn’t a lobbyist like Bump.
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p>Because Mike Lake doesn’t have a record of campaign finance improprieties, patronage, anti-Gay stances, and pro-Death Penalty positions like Glodis.
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p>Because Mike Lake wasn’t the CFO at the Sate Lottery under Joe “Missing Millions” Malone like Connaughton.
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p>I still think that Suzanne Bump has the best chance to beat Mary Connaughton and further has the most applicable experience for the office of the Auditor among the Democrats. I’m still voting for Suzanne on Saturday, and I’ll vote for her again in September, and then again in November.
I don’t like the thought of Glodis oozing to the nomination because Bump and Lake split the 21st century vote.
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p>I don’t like the thought of a serious candidate such as Lake being kept off the ballot by a small cadre of activists.
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p>Of such dilemmas is life made…
I agree with both points, I think Lake has a lot of good ideas and experience (i do wish his supporters would focus on that instead of how many NU degrees he has and how much Bump sucks in their view) and want him on the ballot. On the other hand I feel that this is the surefire way to ensure Glodis gets the nod, which I feel is his even if its just him v. Bump due to money, name recognition, and the fact that most people do not know anything about this race or what the position even does.
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p>If Glodis is nominated I will vote Republican, and I hope most of the state does as well. He would be both a fiscal disaster and a political embarrassment for the state.
Thanks for asking, and keeping the focus on Guy Odious:
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p>1. OCPF – 2/9/09
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p>2. OCPF – 2/16/10
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p>3. Dennis Beach Parking Incident
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p>4. Amy Frigulietti
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p>5. Francis Sena
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p>6. Joseph T. Duggan, III
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p>7. Amit Mathur
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p>8. Union Complaints
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p>9. Patronage 2005
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p>9. Patronage 2007
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p>10. 2010 Audit