- Ras came out with a new poll, showing Patrick’s lead is holding steady. As has been the nature of this campaign, there’s been little fluctuation in the polls and the lead is real, but it’s not large — we must remain vigilant.
- The Globe’s got two stories on Baker and the Big Dig today. The first is catching Baker in a Big Dig lie, saying the project never faced cost overruns while he was head of Administration and Finance. Oops.
“It was an $11 billion project . . . when I got there in 1994,” the gubernatorial candidate said, after the second question, “and it was an $11 billion project when I left state government in 1998.”
But in 1996, Baker told bond buyers a different story. According to a Globe review, Baker signed documents for potential investors in June and September of that year saying the project would cost $7.7 billion and $7.8 billion. By January 1998, the figure had risen to $11.6 billion in a subsequent bond offering signed by Baker.
- The second Big Dig story is about how Baker wasn’t directly responsible for the T’s huge debt burden today (though he was responsible for the MTA’s debt problems).
The story misses the point, though. It was the policy of 16 years of Republican Governors and their administrations — in which Baker is firmly attached to the hip — which resulted in the fiscal mess agencies like the T are in today. On Page 2, the Globe goes on to note how the Big Dig did explode the T’s debt — by forcing the T to pay for environmental concessions caused by the Big Dig. So, no, Baker wasn’t directly responsible for that debt, but had he left in 2000, instead of 1998, he almost certainly would have been, as he was with the MTA. Such is the nature of Republican leadership in this state — spend enough so that no one’s unhappy with you now, put off paying for it until it’s someone else’s damn problem.
A sixth question, I guess: Do we really want more of that? No thanks.
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My thoughts are mine and mine alone. They should not be considered representative of any other organization, group or person – save me.
~Ryan
