By the way, for the curious, here is the budget outside section at the heart of this issue:
SECTION 117. Notwithstanding chapter 81A of the General Laws or any other general or special to the contrary, the term of the member of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority that expires in July 2006 shall be extended until January 15, 2007.
The entire budget is available here (WARNING: large pdf file).
Please share widely!
The ONLY issue for Reilly will be whether the Governor’s position is legally defensible (which is different than whether it is right or wrong). A case must be absymally weak for it to be found indefensible. For example, Reilly’s office was statutorily obligated to defend the Department of Public Health in Goodridge. (I wouldn’t be surprised if many readers were unaware of that fact.) It was a legally defensible case, as evidenced by the narrow 5-4 decision.
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Under special circumstances, Reilly may recuse himself and appoint a Special Assistant Attorney General (SAAG), but there must be a legitimate conflict of interest. I doubt Reilly would do so in this instance because he has always done the job that he was elected to do, irrespective of the political ramifications.
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Reilly has already stood up to the House by being the first Democrat to publicly oppose the Ruane special pension. He is also the only Democrat calling for an immediate restoration of the income tax rate to 5.0%, a position that neither Travaglini nor DiMasi have shown much interest in adopting.
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I don’t know the relative merit of the Governor’s legal position, but I am fully confident that Tom Reilly will do the job that he was elected to do.
With Lindstrom sworn in, and the Sec. of State certifying it – is there a case? With Romney amending rather than vetoing the section?
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Anybody know what the legal trigger is?
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And will Jordan Levy show up at the next meeting and try to throw her out of his chair? And will Christy tag along to help him?
Right now, Levy has no possible claim on that seat. His term is expired, and the new legislation isn’t a law yet – it’s in legislative limbo until Romney either signs (don’t hold your breath) or vetoes (once the legislature puts it back on his desk), followed by a legislative override.
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Once the override happens, however, everything becomes very murky. Lindstrom has been sworn in, but the validity of her appointment is in considerable doubt because, if the legislation was valid, there wasn’t an open seat, so her appointment would be a nullity despite the SoS’s action. At that point, Romney is sure to go to court to have the legislation declared unconstitutional, and the scenario described in my post begins to play out.
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This should be a good one!