Massachusetts Politics

On Thursday, July 20, Andrew Bisignani pleaded guilty in Essex Superior Court to procurement fraud, destroying public records, municipal bid-rigging and other crimes related to his service, from January 1, 2009 to June 30, 2014, as the town manager first in Saugus and then in Nahant, communities north of Boston.    Judge Timothy Feeley sentenced Bisignani, age 70, to two years of probation, including six months of home confinement to begin after the federal home confinement sentence he’s currently serving is completed in January, 2018.   Judge Feeley also hit Bisignani with a $60,000 fine.   According to a press release from the office of the Essex County District Attorney, had the case against him gone to trial, evidence would have been introduced “that would have proven that, during his tenure as Town Manager of Saugus and Nahant, Mr. Bisignani orchestrated a misleading scheme that violated many procurement laws pertaining to the expenditure of municipal funds...

I don’t know if they’ll ever put up a statue of Brian Dempsey in Haverhill but they should. During the seven or so years he chaired the Ways & Means Committee of the Massachusetts House, Dempsey did what Ways & Means chairs have done throughout the history of our republic: he delivered the goods to his district. As the Eagle Tribune newspaper said in its edition of Sunday, July 23, “The last seven state   budgets authored   by Haverhill Rep. Brian Dempsey gave the city millions of dollars to offset   its debts, boost education and create projects to establish Haverhill as a hub of activity in the Merrimack Valley.” The Eagle Tribune cited a number of large, local projects and developments that came to fruition on Dempsey’s watch because he had the power to get them into the state budget.   These included: Harbor Place, a $70-million downtown development “that benefited from more than $40 million from the state.” $24 million in state funds to offset the debt t...

Kissing Not Welcome in this Room.   Here’s another reason to like Tackey Chan, the Quincy rep just appointed House chair of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure: he does not like to be flattered.   As Chan was co-presiding at a meeting of the committee for the first time this past Tuesday, together with Senator Barbara L’Italien of Andover, witness after witness opened his testimony by congratulating Chan on being appointed the House chair, wishing him well in this important new endeavor, etc., and/or predicting confidently Chan’s success at the helm of the committee. Not once did Chan nod, smile, acknowledge or reply to the praise.   I was there for the entire hearing and marveled at how the witnesses kept effusing when it was obvious that Chan did not wish to have his backside kissed.   Could it be that Chan, a graduate of Boston College High School, Brandeis and the New England School of Law, has taken to heart one of my favorite p...

This past Thursday, July 13, Haverhill’s Brian Dempsey surprised most everybody in the Massachusetts legislature -- and everyone who follows the workings of the legislature -- when word got out that he will soon be resigning from the House and relinquishing the chairmanship of Ways & Means Committee to direct a large Boston lobbying team.    The House chair of Ways & Means is one of the five most powerful persons on Beacon Hill, the others being the governor, the president of the Senate, the Senate chair of Ways & Means, and the speaker of the house. For years Dempsey has been seen as the speaker-in-waiting, the man destined to succeed Bob DeLeo when DeLeo decides to step down, whenever that may be.   The sound of long-held expectations shattering is always loud.   It echoes impressively, like the blast from a large bomb dropped in a mountain range.   Immediately, speculation began on DeLeo’s choice of a new Ways & Means chair. Although his name ...