Scot Lehigh, of the Globe, asked the candidates for Governorship whether they will make public their written responses to the usual list of questions sent to them by endorsing organizations (i.e., our environmental, education, business organizations and unions).
In response, only Juliette Kayyem and Charlie Baker announced they will unconditionally make their questionnaire responses public.
Steve Grossman would release the questionnaires only if the special interest who elicited them would permit. Ditto for Don Berwick. And Martha Coakley, not to be outdone by the rest of the pack, will only do it if all other candidates do it.
Why, I am asking – why is this so hard?
Why are these candidates planning to submit everything to the special interests in writing, signature attested, while telling the electorate at large to look the other way?
I attended the debate in Lexington. Grossman and Berwick did sound impressive to me. But their reluctance to be transparent on the questionnaires is very disappointing.
Andrei Radulescu-Banu
If the special interests won’t permit their questions to be published, then the candidates should not fill them out…period, end of story. Shame on those who would cower and only release the questionnaire if given the okay by the special interest. That is not leadership, Steve Grossman, Martha Coakley, and Don Berwick, you failed the Will Brownsberger test of open transparency.
I am glad to know Kayyem and Baker won’t be pushed around.
…that the organizations in question be the ones releasing the surveys. Candidates who respond should always assume their answers will get out eventually.
I assume you’ve seen some of these questionnaires. They often cover very obscure issues that are VERY important to the group in question. And often the issue of concerned is addressed in the bowels of government and not widely covered by the media. So the general public has no idea what the candidate promised, or that the promise was fulfilled by administrative actions that the media covered.
That does not pass my transparency test.