Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Mintz Levin buys DiMasi new furniture

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The Globe reports that Sal DiMasi, eminently responsible public servant that he is, will use $30,000 in campaign funds, not taxpayer money, to spiff up his office. So it’s the lobbyists from Mintz Levin who will be footing the bill for DiMasi’s drapes. This hardly qualifies, in my opinion, as “paying for it himself”.

My question is: why does the Globe think this is such a commendable thing?

Here’s the article

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  1. From today’s article:

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    Taxpayers will pay to replace the carpet in the speaker’s three public offices, which is estimated to cost $13,000.

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    p>Oh, only $13,000.  That’s OK then.  Compare that to this:

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    “We are very cautious in what we do. We don’t go out and have flashy cars that we have the state spend money on. We don’t buy curtains. My office, I’ve had the same curtains there for about 25 years,” DiMasi said. “But I haven’t changed anything because I know there’s criticism coming. He didn’t know that. That’s the problem.”

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    p>Also, let’s recall that Governor Patrick ultimately paid for the drapes out of his own pocket, not out of his campaign account.  Is Sal offering to pony up any of his personal bank account for this?

    • If the Speaker is getting a new couch, I’d pony up for the current one.  I remember during a brief audience, it was so comfy, I could barely resist urge to stretch out and nap while the other (competent) people did the talking.  

    • I really don’t understand why these stories get much attention at all. Should Patrick/DiMasi pay for the repairs in the House Chamber as well? How about painting the outside of the State House? Fixing up the Golden Dome?

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      p>It’s a public building and ought to be repaired out of public funds. If a politician chooses to pay for repairs out of his/her own pocket or camapaign fund, fine — but I don’t see why using public funds is a problem to fix an (embarrassingly decrepit) public building.

      • certain appearances do need to be kept up. Thats just the way it is. It embarrasing if the Speakers office has a huge whole in the rug. I think we can do a little better than that. He can use my tax money for that. We’ll use “yours” for someting else.

  2. …IIRC in the 1980s (maybe a bit later) Mintz Levin set up a lobbying subsidiary that employed former MA state legislator Bachman (forget his first name–Robert?) as a lobbyist.  His task was to help the subsidiary’s clients to circumvent the state regulations that he himself helped put into place.

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    p>It sounded somewhat strange to me when I read that at the time.  And quite frankly, so does this with the Speakers’ accoutrements.

  3. …how do you know it’s Mintz Levin’s money, and not all the $25 – from Mrs. DelAmorato, the cannoli maker, and Freedy Two-Fingers, the Costa truck driver, and little Bobby Testaverdi, the Latin Grad, and…

  5. Couldn’t Salibaba have picked up some slightly used oriental rugs and furniture from some graduating Emerson College or BU students selling their dorm furnishings last May and cleaned up this furniture for less than $30,000? Why not keep the money circulating through Massachusetts?

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    p>In addition, has Salibaba hired an interior decorator for the job? I understand Steve Tocco of Mintz Levin Strategies has just lost his job as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Massachusetts. I just LOVED the aesthetic taste and keen eye Steve brought to the redecoration of the MASSPORT offices during his leadership the of the state agency during the 1990’s. And this way, Salibaba could claim cost-efficiencies for his redecoration project by keeping the fundraising and interior decorating projects in the same pin-striped hock shop.

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    p>Finally, I recommend even deeper, more comfortable, sleep inducing sofas and couches for Salibaba’s office. I prefer the legislative work product of asleep Mass. legislators/lobbyists than the state budgets produced by “alert and awake” legislators and lobbyists in recent years.

      • Thank you, Peter, for the positive feedback.

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        p>The credit for my literary talents goes to my public school teachers in Massachusetts and at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where nary an oriental rug, designer sofa, or designer lamp could be found in the crumbling, leaking, freezing, and asbestos-filled classrooms or dormitories.

    • “Couldn’t Salibaba have picked up some slightly used oriental rugs and furniture from some graduating Emerson College or BU students selling their dorm furnishings last May and cleaned up this furniture for less than $30,000? Why not keep the money circulating through Massachusetts?”

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      p>. . . . because all the Emerson & BU grads are movingout of Massachusetts because they can’t aford to live here . . . . and thry’d take Sal’s money with them.

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