Today an eminent group of petitioners asked the State Ethics Commission to act to ensure that Massachusetts residents from all walks of life can serve in elected office, while continuing to protect the public from any real conflicts of interest.
I am pleased to co-sign with this distinguished coalition.
This initiative both respects the Ethics Commission’s mandate, and furthers the cause of participatory government. Its adoption would also allow me to continue in public service and face the fundamental challenge in our state and nation: rebuild our economy from the middle out, invest in education and infrastructure, acknowledge that the “recovery” is not working for too many, and work for economic and social justice.
The petition, attached below, creates greater harmony between the spirit and letter of the conflict of interest law. A broad coalition, embodied by the signers of the petition, has endorsed this important reform.
Francis X. Bellotti, former Attorney General
William D. Delahunt, former District Attorney for Norfolk County and former U.S.
Representative for Massachusetts’s 10th congressional district
Elizabeth J. Dolan, former justice of the Massachusetts Superior and Probate Courts and former
Commissioner, State Ethics Commission
Nancy Gertner, former United States federal judge for the United States District Court for the
District of Massachusetts
Scott Harshbarger, former Attorney General, former President and CEO of Common Cause,
former General Counsel, State Ethics Commission
Jeanne M. Kempthorne, former Assistant U.S. attorney, former Commissioner, State Ethics
Commission
James Roosevelt, President and Chief Executive Officer, Tufts Health Plan
Augustus F. Wagner, Jr., former justice of the Massachusetts Superior and Probate Courts and
former Chair, State Ethics Commission
Pam Wilmot, Executive Director of Common Cause Massachusetts
Daniel B. Winslow, former presiding justice of the Wrentham District Court, former chief legal
counsel to Governor Mitt Romney, current State Representative for the Ninth Norfolk District
Daniel A. Wolf, State Senator, Cape & Islands District, founder and CEO, Cape Air
Thomas Zampino, former Deputy Chief, Legal Division, State Ethics Commission
I LOVE that line!
Finally, something I diagree with Dan Winslow about! This petition is the ultimate ‘But I’m SPECIAL!’ statement.
Instead of debating and fixing the law, the petition seeks to create the ability to enforce law on an unequal and selective basis.
Only people we like will be exempted? How is the poor Ethics Commission to decide? Free ride for everybody?
Has ANYONE – including Sen. Wolf – addressed the law itself?
…calling for special treatment based on who someone likes. As for the law I think they are saying that the law as it stands is being misinterpreted.
….then somebody needs to tell them they need to go to a court of law, which is where differing opinions on interpretation of law are decided.
Tell me – when Sen. T.E. Edwards of the asphalt companies want to become head of the Transportation Bonding Committee, will he be entitled to a similar special exemption? What exactly is the trigger to allow the UNCHANGED LAW to be disregarded?
That would be a really awesome example if Wolf was trying to get a seat on the board of MassPort.
I get the thrust of your argument — by going to the Ethics Commission at all to get them to change their opinion in this case, that creates ‘special’ rules. I can see where you’re coming from, but disagree: If the Ethics Commission ever did exempt or re-find in this case, it could pretty much be assumed that the next time a case like this comes along that they’ll take a much broader view, which seems like a good thing.
I agree Wolf should have gone to the courts — and the fact that he hasn’t has hurt him in my book — but going back to the Ethics Commission is still working within the system. There’s nothing against the rules about it — and no reason to expect that any result will be more or less fair than if he had gone to court, or that an Ethics Commission finding would be interpreted more or less broadly in the future than at the courts.
He just wants to appoint the people who do.
You do realize he would get no special treatment right? There is a huge difference between setting rates that all comers pay and negotiating a unique contract with the state. If this were about Cape Air becoming the official airline for state business or other favorable treatment that would be a whole different story.
Like…50% rate cut for all airlines with corporate HQ within MA, for instance. Under the guise of promoting MA businesses and growing jobs, of course.
LOTS of ways to benefit from such a power, to appoint the board that just happens to make policy that just happens to benefit you.
If Wolf were a GOP candidate, you’d have demanded his public dunking on the Common for having the temerity to challenge the ruling.
The double standards of the BMG hive mind is extraordinary.