Verdict ends Walsh’s gubernatorial hopes
What’s next for Boston Mayor Marty Walsh?
Well, it’s highly unlikely that he will run for governor the next time around, not with the conviction last week of two top aides on charges of conspiracy to extort officials of a music festival.
In an unexpected verdict in an unusual case, Timothy Sullivan, 39, Walsh’s former intergovernmental affairs head, and Kenneth Brissette, 56, former tourism chief, were found guilty of conspiracy. Brissette was also found guilty of extortion.
The two men were accused of pressuring Crash Line Productions to hire unneeded union workers as stagehands for a 2014 Boston Calling concert on City Hall Plaza. No money passed hands.
While most government observers consider what the two men did as normal city or state government behavior — like officials negotiating with a shopping mall developer for jobs and community benefits — the U.S. Attorney considered what they did a crime. So did the jury.
While U.S. Judge Leo Sorokin can still rule in favor of acquittal, the men face an extraordinary sentence of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Talk about unusual punishment. And no money was involved.
If that is not enough to persuade a normal person to avoid serving in government under any circumstances, then nothing will.
Contrast that potential punishment with the slap on the wrist meted out to all the state cops who pleaded guilty or were convicted of stealing hundreds of thousands in phony overtime.
Regardless of the outcome, the verdict has damaged any hope of Walsh, a big union guy, successfully running for governor. In addition, he surely will be seriously challenged by a Michelle Wu, an Ayanna Pressley or a Rachael Rollins if he seeks re-election.
Modern Boston mayors have no luck running for governor anyway.
The last Boston mayor to try was the late Kevin H. White, whose gubernatorial candidacy was wrecked by his opponent’s one-liner.
That was when the late suburban Yankee Republican Gov. Frank Sargent, in a 1970 television debate with urban Democrat White, turned to the cameras and said, “I am not a Boston politician.” That’s all it took, and White was toast.
Sargent even carried Boston. No Boston mayor has run for governor since.
Even though Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has made hash out of his second term, he will still be tough to beat if he seeks a third term in 2022.
He is still furiously raising campaign funds, which is a strong indication that he will run again.
Right now, though, his administration is bogged down and entangled with serious problems on at least three fronts: overtime theft at the State Police, scandal and incompetence at the Registry of Motor Vehicles and a breakdown in service at the Massachusetts Bay Trauma Authority.
Baker maintains that he knew nothing about these problems until they were brought to his attention. That is what former Gov. Deval Patrick used to say. In Patrick’s case it was true. He governed more in poetry, not prose.
But Baker was elected and re-elected because of his alleged management skills which, given the problems he faces, have so far been well hidden.
If there are any certainties in Massachusetts life these days, they are that there will be weekend shootings in Boston, traffic will be horrendous, and at least one, or possibly two, segments of the Massachusetts Bay Trauma Authority will break down Monday morning.
All of which opens the door for progressive Democrat Attorney General Maura Healey to run for governor in 2022.
With or without Walsh out of the way, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren having abandoned the state to run for president, Healey is emerging as the party’s top statewide Democrat.
And while she has generally been soft on the Republican governor, Healey did go after Baker over the blatant failure of the RMV to revoke the driver’s licenses of people who had their licenses suspended in other states, namely Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, the Massachusetts man who allegedly killed seven bikers in a New Hampshire crash.
She told Jim Braude of WGBH’s “Greater Boston” last week that Baker was “ultimately responsible,” even though an internal investigation was pending.
“We’ll await the findings of that internal investigation,” she said “but, boy, what a serious case of lack of leadership, lack of management, lack of accountability, that apparently may have contributed to serious and devastating harm.”
The next question should have been: “Are you running for governor?”
But nobody asked.