The Massachusetts Democratic Party is all about ‘ideas in action.’ These ideas apparently include bribery, sexual harassment and granting multi-million dollar contracts that benefit their friends rather than the state. Some legislators accused of these unethical actions have already faced the consequences. Voters did not re-elect historically corrupt State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, and State Sen. James Marzilli didn’t even bother to run following accusations that he sexually harassed four women.
In response, Gov. Deval Patrick has pledged to create an ethics task force that makes ‘regaining the public’s trust’ a top priority. However, Mass. residents are not going to take Patrick’s commitment to reforming ethics seriously unless he deals with the elephant in the room: Speaker of the House Salvatore Dimasi, who has been accused of using his position to serve his friends, instead of citizens. Adding fuel to the political fire, he is currently refusing to comply with the State Ethics Commission’s request for records of these dealings. If Gov. Patrick is truly committed to ethics reform, he should start at the top and find out what Speaker Dimasi is hiding.
If the powers that be in this state’s Democratic party think they can escape the consequences of corrupt government, they are dead wrong. The nation has seen this story play out before. From 2004 until the 2006 midterm elections, Republicans had control of the White House and both houses of Congress, but their hopes for a continued majority were dashed when voters punished GOP congressmen for their greed and immoral behavior by voting the other party into power.
With Democrats controlling nearly 90 percent of the state Legislature, it is highly unlikely that they will suffer the same fate as Republicans in Congress and become the minority party anytime soon, but there are other ways Bay State voters could show their dissatisfaction. Gov. Patrick may have a difficult time winning re-election if he is seen as the ringleader of a corrupt party. If the Mass. Republican party can convince voters that it’s time for a change, they may slowly but surely regain a foothold in Mass. politics.
Important issues to Mass. residents are put on the back burner when the governor has to worry more about the state legislators’ conduct than the laws they are passing. Corrupt officials need to be removed from their positions of power, and Patrick must work with his colleagues to clean up the mess immediately, or the Democratic Party and all the citizens it serves in Mass. will suffer.
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