In an interview to be aired on Jim Braude’s NewsNight show on NECN tonight, Deval Patrick said that Mitt Romney was right to reject the legislature’s effort to belatedly create a pension for the widow of former legislator Michael Ruane, and that he was also right to object to the legislature’s effort to extend Jordan Levy’s term on the Turnpike Authority board. On Ruane:
JB: Mitt romney says no special deals despite the sympathy (for Ruane’s widow). Who is right in that debate?
DP: He is.
JB: Mitt Romney.
DP: Mitt Romney is right. First of all let me say I want to send my sympathy to Mr. Ruane’s family. This is not about Mr. Ruane with due respect to him, and I understand that many legislators feel in a difficult position because they see a colleague in a tough position and they want to help, and I respect that sentiment. What troubles me is the notion of using the public fisc as a piggy bank to deal with that. I mean there were opportunities given this legislator to make contributions into the pension system, but when they make these kinds of judgments outside the process and changing the rules for special cases I think it diminishes confidence in the system as a whole.
On Amorello/Levy:
JB: Your position is that Romney should have the power to appoint that third board person like he did?
DP: Let me be clear. I want the power to appoint that board person. I want the power to appoint Matt Amorello’s successor. I want that as governor and I understand why this governor would want that power. I wish that we were focusing on what is a much more critical issue which is how we get at those cost overruns.
Exactly right on both counts. As I said a couple of days ago, “It’s not enough just to say ‘I’m an outsider, I’ve got no ties to the establishment.’ He’s got to get down and dirty by saying ‘this is a bad bill, and if I were Governor I would veto it because …’ Very different. He’s got to be willing to make Sal & Trav and their gang mad at him.”
If a Democrat is going to win in November, he needs to show some independence from the legislature. Kudos to Patrick for doing exactly that.
Of course, you’re preaching to the choir with me, since I’ve been on this message point for months.
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Both Reilly and Patrick deserve credit for opposing the Ruane bill. (As a Reilly fan, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that he got there first, even if only by a few hours).
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So with Reilly, Patrick, and Romney opposed to the Ruane bill, what will it take to get Chris Gabrieli off his “I’m not going to interfere with the Legislature’s business” stance?
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Hey, Chris, Governors don’t get to pick and choose which bills cross their desk for signatures!
Chris take the fence position between Reilly and Patrick. He is really confused here because Reilly and Patrick agree. You can sort of see the smoke coming out of his ears as the confusion grows. Now with that bit of snark out of the way…
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My take on the Gab campaign is that he is trying really hard to not be Reilly or Patrick, I think he assumes that will scoop him up the undecideds, a few independents, and draw a little from both Patrick and Reilly which all together should be enough to pull out a victory in September. That is why he is taking the position he is taking b/c it differentiates him from the other two.
I have been saying this for months: the Democratic candidate is running as much, if not more, against the Legislature.
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I’m not convinced that Gabrieli is taking his (non) position simply because Reilly and Patrick have opposed the special pension. Frankly, I don’t think he wants to rock the boat with the legislature and believes that he can take a pass because the pension involved a dying man. However, at the end of the day, this is precisely the kind of issue that the Democratic candidates need to step out on because it gets to the heart of Kerry Healey’s message, i.e. only she can stand up to the Legislature.
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Going along to get along isn’t gong to cut it.
This was a freebie for the candidates to demonstrate their independence of the Legislature. Where on the national scale candidates need that “Sister Souljah” moment where they divorse themselves from special interests, here in MAss. that interest is the Legislature.
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I certainly hope to see more of these incidents should they be honestly done, of course. Frankly, it strikes me as a no-brainer — with both the primary and general crowds, DiMasi and Trav are not all that popular, so you’re attracting more people than you’re alienating.
…while I did not believe this was an original thought, it did come to me on Sunday.
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Yes MavDem is right, all the Democrats nee to be running against the Leg as much as they are running against each other and Healey.