Six months later the Globe selected Ortiz as its Bostonian of the Year. The newspaper’s magazine said Ortiz, Boston’s first female and first Hispanic US attorney, “has sent an unambiguous message to the Massachusetts political class to behave, ramped up prosecutions of white-collar crime, and built a new civil rights enforcement team.” The article made […]
Gubernatorial politics
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, The Download, Transportation
The language of guns
When President Obama unveiled his gun reform package yesterday, one month after the Newtown massacre, there was a commonly used phrase that wasn’t uttered by him or Vice President Joe Biden. Same with Gov. Deval Patrick, who also unveiled his measures yesterday. The term that was missing was “gun control” and you can bet as […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Murray raises money, doubts
Lieutenant Gov. Tim Murray has already told the world he wants to be governor. He’s putting some muscle behind those ambitions, outraising the rest of Beacon Hill in 2012. Murray’s problem is, he’s still acting like a guy whose path to higher office is defined by endorsements and party loyalty and fundraising clout. Murray isn’t […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Patrick in a firing mood
When scandal nears his office, Gov. Deval Patrick has learned to take decisive action. He quickly abandoned former Sen. Marian Walsh when emails surfaced that exposed his scheme to give her a $175,000-a-year job. He sacked the parole board after a criminal on parole killed a Woburn cop. He dumped Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Patrick keeps ’em guessing
Gov. Deval Patrick keeps saying that he wants to finish out his term as governor, and then return to the private sector. He keeps insisting that he doesn’t have his eye on higher office. But he keeps making moves that heighten the speculation about his political future, rather than putting the speculation to rest. On […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Gov. Patrick and the tale of two bills
If the end of the General Court’s 187th session precipitated a chaotic though predictable scramble to move the session’s most consequential bills, it was an even more challenging time for Gov. Deval Patrick. After days of will-he-or-won’t-he speculation, Patrick took a deep breath and signed the “three strikes” bill, minus his “judicial safety valve” amendment, […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Where the Pentagon sees guns, Mass. sees butter
With Gov. Deval Patrick gone AWOL more and more, Lt. Gov. Tim Murray has been tapped to lead the fight to forestall cutbacks at Bay State military facilities. So far, the Pentagon is winning. Massachusetts has staved off major cuts before. But with the Department of Defense under pressure to shave nearly $500 billion from […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Murray’s spin-out
Until yesterday, it looked as if Lt. Gov. Tim Murray had been through a very rough patch of misfortune, with two separate big hits to his political standing: a series of Boston Globe stories detailing his deep ties to the disgraced former Chelsea housing authority director, Michael McLaughlin, who was pulling in an astronomical $360,000 […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download, Transportation
Patrick’s transportation strategy
The Patrick administration’s transportation strategy seems to be working. First came the tease, then the hammer, and now the talk — by others — of new taxes or tolls is beginning in earnest. After suffering a humiliating defeat in 2009 when he pushed for a hike in the gasoline tax, Gov. Deval Patrick hunkered down […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Crosby Show
Even Scott Harshbarger, the Bay State’s most irascible casino critic, could find little to quibble with in Gov. Deval Patrick’s “inspired” selection of Stephen Crosby as the state’s first gaming commission chairman. Crosby, dean of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, promises transparency in a process […]