Marian Walsh
Ed Coppinger reports; latest sign the West Roxbury state senator won't be seeking re-election this year?
David Ertischek at Wicked Local West Roxbury discovers that state Rep. Mike Rush already has a his state Senate campaign site up (you may recall he said he'd be running this year no matter what incumbent Marian Walsh does). Eagle-eyed Ertischek also notices the phone number on the site's contribution page is Rush's current State House office number, which may just violate the state law that prohibits the use of state property for campaigning.
Rush has been a state rep since 2002, so you'd think he'd know these things by now.
Wicked Local West Roxbury reports that, in addition to state Rep. Mike Rush, Brad Williams, chairman of the Ward 20 Republican Ward Committee, is running for the seat Marian Walsh has yet to say whether she'll try to retain next year.
West Roxbury state Rep. Mike Rush plans to run for Marian Walsh's Senate seat next year even if she decides to seek re-election, State House News Service reports.
Why? Rush thinks she's running on fumes; pointing to her acceptance, then rejection of a good paying job with the Patrick administration earlier this year. There was also her rumored, then never-happened judicial appointment last year, which led to a secret meeting between handlers for Rush and sometimes Westie rival, City Councilor John Tobin, over who would run for her seat.
In recent years, Rush and Walsh have not exactly gotten along. He's represented the 10th Suffolk District since 2002.
ParkwayBoston.com reports and wonders if that means the state senator who accepted, then turned down a job with the Patrick administration, is moving somewhere.
Walsh withdrew her name from nomination today for that state housing-finance job, Wicked Local West Roxbury reports, adding she'll instead stay in the state Senate (so Mike Rush? John Rogers? That state rep from Dedham whose name I can never remember? Never mind).
OK, so Deval Patrick now regrets calling complaints about Marian Walsh's salary and stuff "trivial," but while Jay Fitzgerald finds that commendable, he adds:
... The thought that cutting Walsh's planned salary will quell the uproar is almost laughable. The damage is already done. Even more laughable is the thought that the permanent bureaucracy hasn't already figured out how to get around wage-freeze demands. ...
The Outraged Liberal is still outraged:
What's still lacking is a solid justification why the job is needed at all after sitting vacant for a dozen years. Or why there needs to be separate agencies with initials and cute names like HEFA and MassDevelopment at all.
What's the difference in the duties that requires two quasi-independent boards with their own hierarchy, power structure and pay scale? If we can eliminate the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, why can't we reduce the number of agencies selling bonds to support economic development? ...
Because our alleged leaders are displaying a notable lack of brains, from Deval Patrick finding a good hack job for Marian Walsh to, well, Marian Walsh accepting a good hack job, as the state sinks deeper into debt, the Outraged Liberal fulminates.
State Sen. Marian Walsh is resigning. More to come, but who'll run for her seat? Tobin? Rush, Consalvo? That guy who boycotted Gary's Liquors?
The Transcript reports that state Sen. Marian Walsh managed to deep-six a measure by state Rep. Mike Rush to spend $1.5 million to do something with Havey Beach, that inviting looking area off the VFW Parkway that hasn't actually been useful to anybody except kids having drunken campfires for the past 50 years or so. Walsh claims it's a great idea, but says there needs to be more public input before anything's done.
Maybe she was taken out of context - because otherwise a quote from Sen. Walsh in the Daily News Transcript might be enough to give her Boston constituents some pause.
In a story about an increase in state aid to cities and towns, the paper reports:
"Maintaining and increasing local aid, especially for the schools in Dedham, Norwood and Westwood, is my priority," said Sen. Marian Walsh, D - West Roxbury.
In addition to West Roxbury, Walsh also represents those three towns, along with Roslindale and Hyde Park.
ParkwayBoston.com has the scoop: She'll be running for re-election this fall.
So John Tobin might want to start thinking about running for mayor in 2009.
Sco explains why you should contact your legislator to demand creation of a subpoena-issuing board to get to the bottom of the Big Dig mess, as proposed by state Sen. Marian Walsh:
... How can we ever ask Massachusetts to support a public works project again if we can't reasonably claim that the mistakes of the Big Dig are understood and won't be repeated?