Governor Pathetic

According to Public Policy Polling, our governor is the least popular in the nation.

The five least popular Governors we’ve tested are Bill Richardson, Deval Patrick, Jim Doyle, John Baldacci, and Jon Corzine while he was still in office. The only one of those folks running this year is Patrick and I have a really hard time seeing him getting reelected even with three serious candidates in the race.

Here are the bottom five:

Bill Richardson (D-New Mexico) 28/63

Jan Brewer (R-Arizona) 26/43

Pat Quinn (D-Illinois) 25/55

John Baldacci (D-Maine) 25/57

Deval Patrick (D-Massachusetts) 22/59

I guess the back door RMV tax debacle didn’t help the fledgling governor of the Commonwealth.

The Short Lived RMV Tax

That didnt’ last long at all.

Gov. Deval Patrick today announced he’s not only rescinding a controversial new $5 fee levied by the state Registry of Motor Vehicles he will even refund those who already paid it.

The move comes a day after the Herald reported the Patrick administration had quietly slipped in the new fee, surprising even members of the Legislature. Critics branded it a “back door” tax on the poor and the elderly.

Patrick said today the negative response was heard loud and clear.

“I appreciate what the registrar and secretary are trying to do, but we’re going to have to look for another way to do this because the push back has been actually quite understandable,” Patrick said.

“We want to make the government as responsive as possible but I think this is one we need to think about in a different way,” the governor added.

Patrick said earlier today the idea was to move more RMV transactions online, but he didn’t want to burden taxpayers during hard economic times. The fee will be rescinded as soon as possible.

RMV began charging the fee yesterday, for anyone who walked into a branch office to renew a license, a registration or request a duplicate license. Anyone who called and talked to an RMV employee to conduct those transactions was charged the fee, as well.

Motorists who used the RMV’s website to conduct business or their automated telephone system were not charged.

State lawmakers who were stunned by the new fee applauded the decision to rescind it.

I’ve believed for a long time that Deval Patrick is trying to tank his reelection “campaign” in order to keep his promise that he will, in fact, run for reelection–but lose. This sets him up for a cushy job in the ill-fated Obama Administration without being called a liar… he’ll be called a moron, but not a liar when it comes his promise to seek reelection. I think this back-door RMV tax that failed faster than he put new drapes on the windows is as close to proof as we’ve seen this year.

RMV Tax?

If someone can explain the sense in this, I’m all ears:

Gov. Deval Patrick is quietly whacking beleaguered Bay State motorists with a $5 fee to use Registry of Motor Vehicle branches to renew their licenses and registrations, outraging critics who say the “back-door tax” hits poor and elderly drivers the hardest.

The fee, which goes into effect today, comes on the heels of a $10 license renewal increase last year.

“In this economic climate we shouldn’t be nickel-and-diming people for mandated services,” said state Sen. Steve Baddour (D-Methuen), who co-chairs the Legislative Transportation Committee, and is planning to look into repealing the fee.

Republicans said residents ought to be able to walk in and use their RMV branches without penalty.

“This is a back-door tax that hits the poor and elderly the hardest,” said Tarah Donoghue, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Republican Party. “They can’t afford or don’t have Internet access and computers. The Patrick-Murray administration is burdening those people who can afford it the least.”

Customers will incur the new $5 fee if they speak with an RMV representative on the phone or go in to one of the 30 branches for the following services:

• Renewing your driver’s license (except for the 10-year renewal required in person);
• Getting a duplicate license or Massachusetts ID;
• Renewing your registration; or
• Requesting an attested driving record.

The fee won’t be charged for transactions completed online, by mail, or over the RMV’s automated phone system.

I just don’t get this. This is essentially a tax for interacting with state employees in lieu of utilizing automated or online services. I find this particularly odd because it’s usually the other way around, and dubbed a “convenience fee.” I’ve gotten my fair share of parking tickets around the Boston area, and wouldn’t you know it, if I wanted to pay my fine online, I was charged a fee; if I paid in person or by mail, no fee.

So which is it? Are we to be levied with fees for utilizing online services, or in-person services? Either way, it’s absurd. More transactions online mean less people to pay at the RMV, so it ends up in a cost savings and it saves people time. It’s a win-win. But charging people to waste their time in line, dealing with people who really couldn’t care less about helping you, for that you are charging a fee?

Screw that. My license expires next year, and since I renewed online 5 years ago, I have no choice but to go stand in line at the RMV, and I’ll be damned if you try to charge me an extra fee to do that.

Truth Be Told

Joan Vennochi on the 2010 gubernatorial race.

Deval Patrick, asterisk.

The Bay State’s first black governor, and the first Democrat to win the corner office in 16 years, is at risk of turning into a blip in Massachusetts political history – a one-term governor whose legacy becomes the zeal to replace him with a Republican.

In the early voting – money – Republican Charlie Baker is winning.

Baker raised $1.85 million over five months of campaigning, giving him three times more cash on hand than Patrick. That’s a fairly serious wake-up call for an incumbent Democrat who is best friends with a president.

Some of Baker’s money is coming from traditional Democratic donors, including previous Patrick supporters.

Baker’s big bucks mean one thing to Lawrence DiCara, a longtime Democrat. “He’s for real, which I knew anyway,’’ said DiCara, who remains a Patrick supporter.

Still, it’s only Round One. It’s a winning one for Baker, the former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, but there’s a long way to go before a knock-out. One question, said Democrat Scott Harshbarger, a former attorney general and gubernatorial candidate, is whether this is “one-shot money’’ – contributions from people who know Baker, like him and owe him what Harshbarger labels “the chits of good will’’ – or something deeper and more dangerous for Patrick.

Baker was “able to translate his reputation and record into a significant fundraising event. If the next round demonstrates significant political strength . . . don’t kid yourself, this is going to be a major fight,’’ Harshbarger said.

Rob Gray, Baker’s chief strategist, predicts the money flow to the Republican’s campaign is “eminently sustainable.’’ He attributes the fundraising success to “a combination of people knowing Charlie as a government leader and a business leader and believing in his ability . . . plus a dissatisfaction with the way Deval Patrick has managed, or really not managed effectively, the state budget.’’

The landscape is tough for Democrats nationwide, from the president to members of Congress to governors. Voters are angry over fallout from the poor economy and unhappy over some policies, such as healthcare reform.

In Massachusetts, disappointment over Patrick’s tenure is translating into a real sense of political vulnerability. He was elected with expectations so high they would be difficult to meet under the best circumstances. A poor economy, plus Patrick’s own missteps, worsened the gap between promise and reality.

UPDATE: More from Howie Carr and the Herald.

SECOND UPDATE: More from the Globe, Herald and Metro.

THIRD UPDATE: More from Public Policy Polling.

Oh Happy Day

Charlie Baker surges financially.

In one of the most aggressive political fund-raising pushes in recent memory, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Charles D. Baker has amassed a $1.85 million war chest over roughly five months of campaigning, tapping into a broad range of supporters and establishing himself as a major threat to Governor Deval Patrick’s reelection bid.

Baker doubled, in less than half the time, what Patrick raised for the entirety of 2009, despite a fund-raising visit by President Obama this past fall for the Democratic governor. Baker’s coffers currently hold more than 10 times the amount in Patrick’s campaign account.

The Republican has also raised 3 1/2 times the amount that state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, an independent rival in the governor’s race, collected last year. Baker’s rival for the Republican nomination, Christy Mihos, lags far behind, relying mostly on personal wealth.

Baker’s fund-raising haul, which has broken records for a nonincumbent candidate who is not yet a party nominee, provides another jolt for Democrats already discouraged over Patrick’s underwhelming poll numbers and comparatively slow pace of fund-raising.

“This is the political fund-raising version of shock and awe,’’ said Warren Tolman, a Democrat and former state senator who ran for governor in 2002. “Baker has cast a pretty wide net.’’

Campaign finance records show that Baker has collected $2.3 million since late summer, when he assembled a team of Republican fund-raisers and set up events almost nightly from Labor Day into late December. In addition, his running mate, Richard Tisei, the Senate minority leader, who joined the ticket in late November, raised $313,000.

Last month, typically the toughest of the year to collect political donations, Baker reported raising a whopping $726,000, ending the year with a donor base of 7,449 people. Raising money every year is key for candidates in Massachusetts, because the annual contribution limit for individuals is $500.

The fund-raising success has allowed the campaign to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars already to position itself for this election year.

Baker’s feat exceeds the expectations his aides had when the former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care decided to jump into the 2010 governor’s race.

UPDATE: Tune in Wednesday night at 8:00pm EST for the latest edition of The Notes on Blog Talk Radio. Our guests will be Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz, authors of From Poverty to Prosperity. Plus, more from WBZ and the Herald.