Desperate Coakley Launches Attack Ad

After losing last night’s debate, Martha Coakley decided that desperate situations call for desperate measures, and immediately released an ad attacking Scott Brown.

Why would she go on the attack? I like how Holly Robichaud answers that question.

Do you still believe the Boston Globe’s poll that Martha Coakley is ahead by 15 points?  If you do, I have some swamp land to sell you.

Yesterday Martha Coakley released an ad attacking Scott Brown.  It is the first negative ad by a candidate during this General Election campaign.  It begs the question: If Martha is leading in the polls, then why attempt to discredit a competitor who is behind?  Clearly Scott Brown is running a competitive campaign and this race is neck and neck.  Hence, Martha believes that attacking her opponent is the best way to win.  Furthermore, it also shows that voters are not responding to her message so she needs to make Scott out to be the bad guy. 

Interestingly enough, the ad was reported pulled already because “Massachusetts” is misspelled.

In response to Coakley, false, negative attack, Scott Brown has released a response.

 
Support Scott Brown for U.S. Senate!

Money Grab

Nothing Gov. Patrick does can surprise us anymore.

Gov. Deval Patrick – impatiently demanding that lawmakers pass “meaningful reforms” – yesterday took advantage of a loophole that allows him to raise more than 10 times the legal limit in campaign contributions.

A group of heavy-hitting lawyers – including disgraced ex-state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson’s former defense attorney Cheryl Cronin – hosted a fund-raiser for Patrick’s political committee at the Union Club on Beacon Hill last night.

The fund-raiser’s invitation encourages those “who feel inclined to make a donation larger than $500” to give to the Seventy-First Fund. The group – so named because Patrick is the 71st governor – allows contributors to donate $5,500, which is split between the state Democratic Party and Patrick’s political committee.

The party then uses most of the money to pay off Patrick’s campaign bills. Party chairman John Walsh said the fund complies with current state campaign laws.

UPDATE: More from the Globe.

SECOND UPDATE: More from the Barnstable Patriot, the Globe and Herald.

THIRD UPDATE: From the Herald, Holly Robichaud and Scot Lehigh.

Interesting

What is Gov. Patrick up to now?

Governor Deval Patrick, who once headed the Civil Rights Division of the US Justice Department, plans to appeal a federal court ruling that allows minority police officers to pursue a civil rights lawsuit challenging the state’s promotional exam.

The Patrick administration filed notice Monday that it will appeal an April 7 ruling by US District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Tauro rejected the Patrick administration’s motion to dismiss the suit by 44 black and Hispanic patrol officers from seven departments who contend that the written civil service exam for sergeant is discriminatory.

“We are shocked that Deval Patrick is continuing to defend these exams and opposing our efforts to reform this discriminatory promotional system,” said Shannon Liss-Riordan of Boston, the lawyer for the officers. “With Deval Patrick as the governor, you’d think he’d be trying to fix this problem, rather than throw away the state’s money litigating it.”

Kyle Sullivan, a spokesman for Patrick, said in a statement that the governor “believes that all citizens in the Commonwealth should be afforded the same opportunities for employment.” Nonetheless, the administration, represented by Attorney General Martha Coakley, is seeking dismissal of the claims because the officers are employees of cities and towns, not the state, Sullivan said. Tauro rejected that position.

The lawsuit, which the officers unsuccessfully asked the judge to certify as a class action claim, is scheduled to go to trial next month.

At issue is a multiple-choice promotional exam prepared by the state Human Resources Division and used by about 200 police departments across the state, said Liss-Riordan. The 44 plaintiffs are patrol officers who took the exam since 2005 but have not received promotions. They work in police departments in Boston, Lawrence, Lowell, Methuen, Springfield, Worcester, and the MBTA Transit Police.

The officers say that the exam, which relies heavily on rote memorization of facts about law enforcement, discriminates against members of minority groups and has prevented advancement within the ranks. As a result, they said, supervisors in departments do not reflect the diversity of their communities.

In Lawrence, where minority groups make up three-quarters of the population, only two of the 39 police supervisors were members of minority groups, the officers said when filing the suit in September 2007. Methuen, which is more than 10 percent minority, had no minority members among its 25 supervisors, the suit said.

UPDATE: More from the Herald and Globe.

SECOND UPDATE: From Michael Graham.

THIRD UPDATE: More from Holly Robichaud, Mass. News Platoon, the Seattle Examiner, Somerville News, New Hampshire Business Review, the Herald and the Globe.

FOURTH UPDATE: From the Globe and Herald.

Public Enemies

Michele McPhee vs. Gov. Patrick.

So, Deval Patrick wants lawmakers on Beacon Hill to “speak the truth” about the Bay State’s grim financial outlook.

Okay, Governor, let’s speak the truth. The truth is that within days of taking office, Patrick attempted to appoint a campaign fundraiser to the $75,000-a-year job of working as a personal secretary for his wife Diane.

That ill thought out plan was barely scuttled when he picked out a fancy Cadillac, and told the press that he was forced to upgrade the governor’s ride because Ford no longer made the Crown Vic — which of course was not even close to the truth.

Then there was the $55,000 upgrade to his office, courtesy of the taxpayer, and the unrelenting junkets, including one to China that cost us $250,000. While he was in the Orient, Patrick picked out an office in Beijing. That’s right. Beijing.

Right now, we are paying rent on office space in China, and you will be happy to hear that, “in addition to the state’s Beijing office, Massachusetts will maintain a satellite contact office in Shanghai,’’ according to the state’s own press release. What a relief.

We also pay for an office for Patrick in Washington D.C. — just in case he decides to go on an interview for a shot at a seat on the Supreme Court.

Then, of course, there are the patronage appointments that do not end. First his neighbor landed a $120,000-a-year job that never existed before. Then there was the Marian Walsh debacle. Between those two incidents — which I would argue are bordering Mafia-like corruption — there were other campaign contributors and Patrick supporters rewarded with contracts and jobs.

UPDATE: More from Holly Robichaud, the Globe, Herald and USA Today.

SECOND UPDATE: From Jon Keller, the Globe and the Herald.

THIRD UPDATE: More from the Globe, WBZ and the Herald.

FOURTH UPDATE: From the Herald and Holly Robichaud.

Deval Patrick Thinks You Are Stupid

When Joe the Plumber asked Barack Obama a tough question, Barack Obama attacked Joe the Plumber.

The citizens of the Commonwealth are complaining about Pike toll increases, Bechtel Parsons getting a $30 million parking garage contract, the Turnpike Authority giving out raises, all this while Massachusetts is losing jobs and trying to impose a gas tax hike, and Deval Patrick is calling us cynics, and stupid.

Enough with the “cheap shots,” said Gov. Deval Patrick, complaining again about media coverage and blaming criticism of his proposals on “cynicism.”

Oh yeah? Enough with the whining, countered a couple of critics.

Patrick was at Suffolk University to mark the state’s No. 1 ranking in a national survey of economic competitiveness when he made his remarks.

“We are awash in cynicism in the commonwealth, but the cynical are not smart; they’re just pretending to be,” Patrick said. “The truth is, we’ve got big problems, and we better start thinking big about the solutions. Ideological purity from the left or the right, in times like these, is like trying to put a Band-Aid on a broken bone.”

He wouldn’t say who he was talking about. Some pols have criticized Patrick’s proposal to abolish the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and other plans out of the Corner Office have been tossed back and forth on talk radio and in the opinion pages. GOP political consultant Holly Robichaud and state GOP party chair Barney Keller said Patrick has been his own worst enemy, citing unkept promises, such as lowering property taxes and adding 1,000 new cops.

Governor Patrick, GO SCREW! Who do you think you are calling stupid? Take a long, hard look in the mirror buddy, because staring back at you is the face of a man who will undoubtedly go down in Massachusetts history as the worst governor…ever. Go screw, Governor. We are tired of your broken promises.

If you are fed up with Deval Patrick and these cockamamie plans to jack up the Pike tolls while the Turnpike Authority is giving out raises, and Beacon Hill schemes to raise our taxes, think about attending the ‘Stop The Pike Hike’ Rally on December 3rd. For more information on the rally, visit stopthepikehike.org.

More on this story at Deval Patrick Watch.