Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Patrick vs. Patronage

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Hey, I think I like this Patrick fellow:

Governor-elect Deval L. Patrick delivered a stern antipatronage message yesterday to a political power center that can make his life as governor miserable, Massachusetts lawmakers. His warning: Their advocacy for job applicants will carry no weight.

Patrick, after meeting with the Republican legislative leadership, told reporters that lawmakers are wasting their time if they push their supporters, constituents, or political cronies for jobs in his administration. The decisions will be made on qualifications and merit, he said.

“It is not going to have any impact at all,” Patrick told reporters when asked if legislators’ referrals of job applicants will influence his hiring decisions. “My focus is to try to get the very best people I can with the best ideas that are out there, who are willing to be part of a team and interested in being problem solvers and not just partisan appointees.”

No patronage? What the hell kind of state is this, MassTopia? Hey, what about the Progressive-Hack Alliance? As the article warns, this stand will piss people off. Get ready for the squeals from various legislators, which could take a variety of forms: whispering campaigns and insinuation, all the way to outright schism.

But the good thing is that today’s legislature is not the same as that of the 1970’s, or even the 1990’s. The progressive good-government types have outlasted Tom Finneran (for example), and hold a heck of a lot more sway than they once did. And this is also where Patrick’s grassroots base provides him a power center that can be brought to bear on resistant elements in the lege. (How exactly we should do that would be a useful discussion for this blog.)

We’ll have to see how Patrick fills out the Cabinet, and keep him to his word; but you have to figure that after 16 years in the wilderness, the state would have a pretty deep bench of experts basically sympathetic to a Dem adminstration. For instance, you’d have to figure that Patrick would be able to find someone more qualified than Nice Guy John Cogliano for Turnpike Chief.

Anyway, this is Patrick’s first chance to truly reset expectations, to dispel that “It’s just Massachusetts” cynicism. All good signs so far.

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Comments

  1. Deval can mean what he says, but Mike Dukakis One proved that that method does not work. (Mike Dukakis, after getting elected in 1974 screwed all his liberal friends when it came  to jobs and favors – result: gone in 1978)

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    But, no matter what, Deval is going to have to say no more than a few times.
    How he manages saying no, and to whom and when, are all part of being a good pol.
    Unfortunately there are way too many supporters of him who want all or nothing. The zealots.
    Like some here.

    • got booted by Ed King in the Dem primary.  What will be really interesting to see is whether Patrick can (1) follow Duke’s model of not larding up the state payroll with hack payoff jobs; and (2) keep his grassroots operation alive and kicking; thereby (3) building in some insurance against the — wait for it — hacklash that could result four years from now when certain Dems are tired of not finding cushy jobs for their brothers-in-law and start beating the bushes for a different, more hack-friendly Gov candidate.

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      Personally, I bet he can do it.

  2. Answer: Self-rightous, ivy league educated, life experience lacking, smarter than everyone attitude, working for  their own God on the left, liberal Democrat patronage hack.

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    The “progressive good-government types’ as you call them Charley.

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    Don’t kid yourselves. The jobs all go to someone. Only Deval won’t be handing many out as favors to legislators. He has too many of the above types to take care of. There are many many people in line right now trying to get their nose in the feeding bowl. Phones a ringing, e-mails sent. It’s crazy out there now. Everyone’s fighting for position.

    • Did you talk to some of those everyones?

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      Cuz all the people I worked with from the top down to the bottom pretty much said the same thing – I don’t even want credit, nevermind any sort of patronage out of this.

    • … Ernie, that you would associate “hacks” with Irish Catholics. That is wrong, and I reject that completely. This is just typical of the anti-Irish sentiment around here.

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      Aside from your anti-Irish bias, are you suggesting that jobs should go to less well-qualified people?

  3. Welducci was a somewhat cutter – for instance, when they tried to fire somebody at the ABCC who was connected, the Lege quickly gave oversight to the Treasury and saved the jobozo – but MITT is held in VERY low esteem for the paucity of job referral he gave.  He closed down one Hackarama Haven, the MDC, and has all the other agncies on hiring freezes.

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    Deval reverses that, he’ll a lot of ‘splainin to do.

      • Don’t forget, DCR used to be Enviornmental Affairs, and it had its own cadre of managers.

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        I believe they used a variation of Celebrity Death Match to determine which Program Manager III employees got to say, and who was thrust into the dreaded private sector.

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        I feel a level of personal gratification that all those guys with the MDC trucks whose principal duties appeared to be leaning against the old beige building and smoking cigarettes, doubtless to keep it from tumbling over due to the rotation of the Earth, were disappeared from State service.

      • But Instead of providing rural and recreational settings, with roadways accessing them, for the urban population the MDC was rolled into the same jamokes who take care of state forests and the like. Real forest rangers.
        But an ice skating rink in Revere and a beach in Quincy are much different then the Appalachian Trail.

  4. At hiring time, it is hard to know the difference between crony and qualified applicant. It usually takes a bit of actual results (or non results) before the right label can be attached.

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    For example, had Hurricane Katrina never happened, who would have heard of “Heckofajob” Brownie?

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    So how will we tell if Deval’s appointments are cronys or not before they do any real work?

      • Yes I guess I mixed two thoughts in my comment…

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        Brownie was clearly in over his head. (incompetent both as a planner for disaster and a crisis mgr.)

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        Who’s a Crony? Deval picks a friend to head up his transistion are we to say that he’s practicing cronyism even if that friend has done big transitions in the past and has a track record of success?

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        The opposition party can spin it any way they want – a minor screw up on the part of Deval’s appointee (especially if the apointee is a friend or long time acquaintence) will be labeled “crony”

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        Some legislator recommends someone for a key post, and that person turns out to be the best qualified for the job what happens if that person screws up? Some will scream “cronyism”

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        Frankly, no matter how the state positions are filled, it’s a potential no-win situation for the hiring manager.

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        Mark

        • As I said, sixteen years really DID reduce the overall number of state employees (many were forced into the Authorities, like MBTA, Pike, Lottery, etc.).

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          Agencies are wailing that they used to have 25% more bodies (if not workers) and NOW they all wind up doing ‘the job of two people’.

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          So – THAT is Deval’s challange – to resist the SEIU and NAGE demands that the 25% reduction be restored.  In some ageincies, there is ALREADY floating rumors of Deval’s Early Retirement Plan, which will allow 50 years olds to cash out at top pension levels, and get credit for sick time too.  And those bennies are forever.

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          Overall body count.  It could make or break him.

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