Governor's Council
Court to Governor's Council: Don't pester us with idle, hypothetical questions
By adamg - 2/8/12 - 3:01 pmThe Supreme Judicial Court today refused to answer a question from the Governor's Council on whether the council could order people before it for judicial nominations to tell the truth.
In an "answer" to the council, an obscure elected board that dates to colonial days that gets to grill prospective judges, the state's highest court said the council failed to prove the issue had actually come up, that the five members who signed the question failed to show they had consulted the three other members about asking the court about the matter and that the council really should get to know Attorney General Martha Coakley, whose office is full of lawyers versed in constitutional issues.
The court said the separation of powers enumerated in the state constitution requires justices to tread very lightly on issues of how the executive branch of government runs its affairs and to consider such affairs only on serious matters arising from "solemn" instances:
Poll: Time to ditch the governor's council?
By adamg - 5/10/11 - 6:28 amRed Mass. Group puts it to a vote.
Governor's councilor refuses to redefine worms as spaghetti
By adamg - 4/27/11 - 6:34 amDavid Boeri talks to our newest Governor's Councilor, Charles Cipollini of Fall River, who has no plans to stop voting against every single one of the governor's picks for the judiciary, including openly gay Supreme Judicial Court nominee Barbara Lenk, for whom he provides an analogy:
I like spaghetti. And if they change the definition of the spaghetti to give me a bunch of worms on the plate and say, 'That's spaghetti,' I'm not going to accept it.
Obviously, Cipollini doesn't know what vermicelli means.
Democrats organize to keep Kelly Timilty from running for re-election as a governor's councilor
By adamg - 2/11/10 - 12:55 pmA group of Democrats say long-time Governor's Councilor Kelly Timilty forfeited the right to represent her district when she circulated a bogus, forged endorsement from Deval Patrick two years ago.
Mary-Ann Greanier said she decided to organize a letter and e-mail campaign to urge Timility to step aside after fellow Democrats expressed concern and outrage that Timilty might run again this fall. Greanier is chairwoman of the Democratic Town Committee, although she says her campaign to get Timilty to step down is not a town-committee effort.
Candidate who wasn't fake-endorsed by Deval Patrick running for obscure office again
By adamg - 2/4/10 - 11:15 pmKevin McCrea alerts us that Adam Chandler sorta lookalike Robert Jubinville of Milton is running again for the Governor's Council seat held by Kelly Timilty.
Price set for forging the governor's signature on a phony endorsement
By adamg - 11/24/08 - 10:48 amPolitickerMA reports Governor's Councilor Kelly Timilty will pay an $8,000 fine for those bogus Patrick endorsement mailers.
Kelly Timilty must really be worried
By adamg - 9/18/08 - 6:55 am
The name-dropping governor's councilor has done what any Massachusetts pol with a sudden ethics issue would do: She's hired a well connected mouthpiece.
No, not George "Angel of Death" Regan. Even better: Larry Rasky, co-founder of Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, which touts its ability to "aggressively fight to protect the image and reputation of individuals and companies facing unwanted, and often unwarranted, public exposure." Raskey is a confidant of Joe Biden, friend of Sal DiMasi (or, at least, frequent contributor to), in general, a regular Massachusetts fixer (oddly, the Globe refers to Rasky as a spokesman "who said he was representing Timilty," as if there's been an spate of fake spokesmen of late).
It turns out that making up an endorsement from a sitting governor and then forging his signature on it isn't just a memory lapse. It's a potential criminal offense. The statute mentions jail time.
The Globe quotes Rasky expressing remorse for "the terrible error" on behalf of Timilty (who sent out another card that would imply endorsements by Tip O'Neill, Joe Moakley and Ed King, but they're not complaining). However:
Rasky declined to say how it happened or to detail who sent out the 116-word letter and why.
Memo to Globe editors: It wasn't a letter; it was a post card.
Meanwhile, Tom Driscoll explains why Timility should do the honorable thing and just quit.
But why? That would deprive her of her weekly monthly chats with fellow councilor Marilyn "Curling Iron" Devany, who, come to think of it, could probably give Timility some legal tips, should it come to that.
Guess it's a good thing we hadn't voted yet
By adamg - 9/16/08 - 3:26 pm
PolitickerMA is reporting that this mailer from incumbent Governor's Councilor Kelly Timilty (my governor's councilor) has a forged endorsement from Gov. Patrick.
Sources close to the governor told PolitickerMA.com that the statement did not come from Patrick and the signature at the bottom of the mailing is forged.
Oh, you mean this signature?
Timilty is running for re-election (remind me again why this job is even elected anymore, somebody?) in District 2 against Robert Jubinville of Milton, about whom I know absolutely nothing except that he's a lawyer and has white hair, which I gleaned from the roughly 47,000 palm cards his campaign has sent to our house over the past few weeks. But at least he didn't forge anybody's endorsement on them.
