Left In Lowell

Being a busy week, I thought I’d post a roundup of things I’ve read or heard on statewide races in the last week, since there seems to be plenty of fodder.

No Nice Guy

First up, the despicable personality of Guy Glodis, who is running in the Dem primary for State Auditor. In 2003, he sent around a disgusting, racist (and also, false) screed about Muslims (via BMG):

(Bold mine) Glodis is generating controversy over his decision to distribute what Muslim activists charge was a racist flier to his 39 Senate colleagues. On June 25 [2003], the pol sent out an e-mail with the message, “Thought this might be of interest to you.” To it, he attached a leaflet purporting to tell the story of General “Black Jack” Pershing, a US military man stationed in the Philippines. In 1913, so the story goes, Pershing was combating his own brand of terrorism: “Muslim extremists.” He executed 49 of them with bullets soaked in pig’s blood because Muslims believe, the flier states, “touching a pig … is to be instantly barred from paradise (and those virgins) and doomed to hell.” Then, he buried their bodies in pig entrails — an act that supposedly deterred terrorism for 42 years. The flier closes with this final sentiment: “Maybe it is time for this segment of history to repeat itself, maybe in Iraq? The question, where do we find another Black Jack Pershing?”

Glodis, for his part, seems untroubled by the matter. … Glodis stresses that he never meant to offend anyone. “If I have,” he says, “I regret it.” He received the “news item” — this is what he calls the leaflet because, he says, “It was news to me when I read it” — from a constituent, and he thought he saw the past event’s relevance to today’s war on terrorism. Do we take a passive approach to terrorism? Or do we fight terrorism by the same means?

Nevermind that this whole story is a myth, so Glodis is an idiot as well as a racist jerk. He sent this to his Senate colleagues, folks. What does this say about his judgment and fitness for statewide office?

Many BMG’ers who live in the Worcester area commented that this is pretty par for the course with Glodis. So I say no thanks. (There are two others in the race for Auditor, Susanne Bump and Mike Lake. Right now I am a leaner for Bump.) Is there any hope of keeping Glodis (who, I believe, has some insider support) off the Democratic ballot at our convention in a couple weeks? He is, at best, an embarrassment to our state and our party.

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Cahill Peaked Too Soon

Between our friend Charlie “I know no-ting! I see NO-TING!” Baker (who was the guy with the reigns while the state lege and agencies screwed the funding pooch on the Big Dig) and Tim “I used to be a Dem and now am a teabagger” Cahill, this governor’s race has at a minimum shaped up to be entertaining.

BMG has had a ton of stuff on both candidates, but it was the recent article by the Globe (and special sections like this) tracing the cronyism in the Probation Dept that has Cahill backed up against a wall.

Cahill is friends with Probation Commissioner John O’Brien, and hired his wife and daughter. Ruh Roh!

Independent gubernatorial candidate Timothy Cahill said Monday that patronage is a part of politics…

Let that one sink in for a second. Of course, now he is backing down and says we need to do something about the Probation Dept…since it’s become evident that his friendship with now-suspended O’Brien is a bit, well, toxic. Both Baker and Cahill now say we should bring the Probation Dept under the judiciary, explicitly not the executive.

But that’s not how most states do it. Governor Patrick, back in January, sent a bill to Beacon Hill to put oversight of Probation under the Executive branch. (The lege sat on it and it went nowhere. Wonder why?)

In this great Radio Boston interview, UMass Lowell longtime Professor of Criminal Justice James Byrne went into detail on what’s going on, and how other states do it. Professor Byrne tells the audience that the majority of states are actually overseen by the executive, “so the Deval Patrick recommendation was consistent with what’s considered best practice around the country…which is essentially to consolidate corrections organization…into one agency.” He also mentions that a few states are judicially overseen as well, but are the exception to the rule.

Other great quotes from Professor Byrne:

Well…the basic problem you have is one I heard when I came here to Massachusetts, which is, if you want to become a probation officer, you should get involved in a political campaign.

In Massachusetts we’re the only state I’ve seen that is…I would call it a legislative model, because it essentially cuts the judiciary out of hiring and promotion process. It’s not technically, but in terms of practice.

When asked, have these practices of crony hiring had an impact on public safety, Byrne said:

You could make a strong argument that…we do not know about the performance of the Mass probation system and we haven’t known since the days of Don Cochrain, who was big on transparency, and he found using performance measures and publishing performance measures an important part of the system. …Since O’Brien…you won’t find any statistics [on the website], they won’t be in the state system, and you won’t find them in the national reporting…Massachusetts doesn’t report their basic information on the performance of the system.

So Cahill hires his political bud’s wife and daughter, but claims it had nothing to do with that friendship, and O’Brien is caught in an investigative whirlwind on his bad hiring practices, which at first Cahill tries to excuse and doesn’t want to change, then of course changes his mind.

Oh Timmy, we hardly knew ye…