You have to see this to believe it: police have released surveillance video that allegedly shows Middlesex Register of Probate John Buonomo opening up copiers, looking around to make sure no one is watching, and then grabbing the cash. Unfortunately WBZ does not allow you to embed video, so you have to follow this link.
Come on, folks: there must be a way to avoid reelecting this guy. Is a sticker campaign the only way? If so, what candidate will step up, hopefully with the full support of the party?
Via Jay.
Please share widely!
I hadn’t even gotten to the Friday Joke Revue and Buonomo beat me to it.
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p>This begs the question: why does he need money so badly that he has to resort to pilfering state property? Speculations welcome.
… how much the receipts on photocopiers goes up in other Registries of Probate and Registries of Deeds throughout the Commonwealth during the next few months. I doubt if anyone believes this is a one-time thing.
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p>Surely, we’ll see this story again and again as we see “the cash and dope disappear from the evidence rooms in police departments” story, or “the change counters loading their pockets and socks with change when they leave work” story, etc.
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p>What surprises everyone is that this guy was nabbed locally. When was the last time that happened? The last time I remember that happening is during the Dukakis administration when the state police raided the DOR. The picture of state government corruption is usually the US Attorney on the podium announcing the indictment and the Mass AG standing behind him, looking stern. Something going on?
have a money motive.
Please explain, as I don’t understand your statement.
Sometimes people steal because they’re cuckoo-bananas. Not because they need or even want the object they’re stealing.
(Then there’s peer pressure. “Well, all the cool Registers of Probate were doing it….”)
passive-aggressive strike against “the system”. i’m sure there are more. it isn’t that uncommon to learn of people stealing who don’t need money. and this guy was stealing small change. do you really think it was about the cash? how does that make sense?
I would rather re-elect the guy, then have the office vacated upon conviction, rather than let a sticker campaign deliver us a well-oiled hack.
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p>We can elect a replacement to fill out the remainder of his term, and everyone will have fair ballot access.
If he resigns after he gets sworn in, the governor would appoint someone to serve until the 2010 election. See M.G.L. Ch. 54 §142. At the 2010 election, then a person would be elected to serve out the remainder of the term.
upon being convicted? Or can he be removed from office by the courts? Or are we stuck unless he chooses to leave?
http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws…
Won’t be the first politician elected and in the hoose-gow. Even the great James Michael…
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p>It serves to remind us what we get out of our chair and go down and vote for. Makes one feel proud to vote for the indicted and the indictable.
You guys are good at finding this stuff.
if this guy actually gets elected, just my opinion. My guess there are inquiries being made.
From what I can gather he’s running unopposed so he probably will win.
it’s a video of him sticking his hand in the box, then his pocket, then walking away.
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p>You never see the change.
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p>Yeah, of course he’s stealing it. But, strictly speaking, you don’t see the stealing.
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p>I wonder… once they knew money was being stolen, why not dust the inside of the box? I guess they didn’t have MRoP Dime Quarternickel’s prints on file…
appeared to show him counting out bills, folding them then sticking them in his pocket. hard to tell on such a tiny screen. i wonder if more is evident when viewing the original tape. he sure is big on furtive glances, thought. this in itself proves nothing, but it doesn’t help convince me that he wasn’t sneaking around doing…something.
the camera pans away to the change machine or the other copier.
We see the guy pilfering from the machine with a guilty look on his face. Throw his ass in jail! I don’t care who gets elected to replace him.
We see the guy sticking his hand in the machine with a guilty look on his face. We do not see him pilfering.
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p>Of course, this video isn’t the only piece of evidence, and I’m sure the prosecutors will use all of the evidence to demonstrate that he was indeed pilfering from the machines.
To beat him in a primary, you’d need to run a sticker campaign. Never happen. It’s so rare for a sticker candidate to beat someone on the ballot as to be almost impossible (Sorry, Carl).
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p>Here’s what you do — Get 1,000 unenrolled voters to write-in someone in a different primary, the Greens, Working Families, or (shudder) Republicans who would pledge to change his/her party enrollment upon winning the election.
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p>Then, your candidate is on the ballot in November and might actually have a prayer against Buonomo.
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p>My feeling — it’s easier to get 1,000 write-ins than 1,000 plus whatever additional you need to beat Buonomo, particularly for a low-profile race. The trick is that anyone registered Dem is out, and any place where there’s a contested Dem Primary is likely to not be fertile ground for this.
A registered Democrat can be nominated through write-ins as the nominee for another party.
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p>I’m at work so I don’t have my PD 43‘s with me, and can’t tell you the year, but it was done in the past by Silvio O. Conte, the late Republican Congressman.
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p>Also, on Nantucket, (where the signature threshold is only 25) the Sheriff and the Register of Deeds (I think its those two), have also done the same thing- simultaneously capturing the nominations of the Democratic, Republican, Green, and Libertarian parties. (Though in the Sheriff’s case, I believe he declined all four nominations.)
I believe she was a sitting Republican representative when she lost the Republican primary, but won the Democratic primary as a writein. She was a faithful progressive Democrat for many years.
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p>Also in Framingham along with Ashland, Tom Sannicandro beat two people on the ballot in a sticker race. IMHO he was helped by Senator Karen Spilka’s Ashland organization.
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p>And most recently in 2006, although a totally different situation, Rep. Pam Richardson won as a write-in, but not against anyone on the ballot. This was because of Rep. Blumer’s unexpected death.
Let me review the situation.
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p>1) John is on the ballot and running.
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p>2) A Democrat could win the nomination on stickers. An uphill battle, but could happen.
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p>3) John could win the nomination and not accept it. At that point a rather large caucus would be called.
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p>4) A candidate could win the primary for another party with at least 1000 write-in votes.
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p>5) Depending on the above if John wins the election he could then be removed. It would be a Governor’s appointment until the 2010 election cycle.
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p>David, Sheillagh, Patrick, sco, others? Is this correct?
Though there’s another (albeit far-fetched) scenario:
1) Buonomo wins the primary and the general.
2) Sometime after the election, but prior to being sworn in again, he resigns and declines to be re-sworn.
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p>At this point, M.G.L. Ch. 54, § 142 comes into play. The question becomes wether or not it is considerd to be a “failure to choose” in which case a special election is called, or if it is just considered a vacancy. I can’t recall such a circumstance happening, so I’m not sure which one it would be considered.
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p>(I do recall one person who was elected to a county office in a November election, but had no intention of serving- he had accepted another job. There was some concern that the towns would have to bear the costs of a special election if he didn’t get sworn in- apparently he and some other folks were of the opinion that it would constitute a failure to choose. So, he accepted the job, was sworn in, and then resigned either that day, or the next. The appropriate appointing authority then installed a replacement who served until the next election.)
I imagine many here don’t.
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p>Here’s what he’s saying:
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p>In Buonomo’s election for the post, he was running against a woman. At a late hour, another woman got into the race.
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p>Buonomo won. The latecomer got a job at his department for $74K a year.
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p>It just gets better and better.
what is inappropriate about someone losing an election getting a job in the department she ran for office for? presumably if she ran for buonomo’s position, she has some qualifications in the area. you’ll have to provide more details if you want people (me) to be concerned.
The suggestion is that there was some sort of deal to get her to enter the race in order to make it easier for Buonomo to win, in exchange for getting the job. Depending on the political dynamics of that race, it might’ve been evident which of the original two candidates would benefit from the entry of a particular third candidate.
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p>I don’t know the specific facts, but that is the suggestion in the comment you’re replying to.
When John was elected there was huge field, seven or eight if I recall correctly.
That just makes it harder for us to figure out who would’ve been most helped or hurt by the entry of a new candidate, without knowing the full context. But it certainly doesn’t mean that it wasn’t possible to make a good guess about that, if you did know the field and the dyanamics of the race.
This guy was a high school classmate and friend of mine. He was President of student government at Somerville High School.
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p>{{{{{shakes head}}}}}
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! In a spot of light-heartedness, can anyone identift where I lifted the quote from?