Weekly round-up: Ice cold
A hot summer week turns from icy to fishy for Baker
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The beats of Vanilla Ice reverberated off the capitol's brick facade as presidential punditry took hold and Gov. Charlie Baker went fishing, figuratively.
Beacon Hill settled into the August summer recess for real this week. Those not sunning themselves on a beach, or avoiding sharks at the Cape, whiled away the hours and days by dumping ice over their heads and monitoring the latest news out of a federal courtroom in New York where Tom Brady was being unflatteringly sketched.
Keeping tabs on President Barack Obama's Vineyard golfing companions - Hint: a lot of them play or played in the NBA - provided some welcome distraction, while a briefing on a delayed foreclosure title clearing bill lured at least eight senators back to the office, if only for a day.
"I'm going to the Post Office. That should kill a little time," remarked one aide stuck behind at the State House, manning the office.
Baker got the party started on Monday when he summoned his Cabinet, staff, and willing lawmakers to the front steps of the State House where they were all joined by Pete Frates and his family to take part in the 2nd annual Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness and money for ALS research.
There were songs (Foreigner's "Cold As Ice"), cheerleaders (a.k.a., Scott Conway) and of course an icy shower in the name of medical advancement.
"Wicked cold," was how Baker would later describe the bucket bath he took while donning a "Free Brady" T-shirt, a sartorial choice that the governor said he cleared with the Frates family first. Baker, nevertheless, touched a nerve in the heated competition for the claim to the authentic Deflategate merchandise.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, taking a break from his feud with casino mogul Steve Wynn, would later accept Baker's challenge and hold his own Ice Bucket event at City Hall on Friday, while Treasurer Deborah Goldberg had so much fun with Baker that she did it again with her own staff later in the week. Walsh even wore a specialty "Free Baker" T-shirt, whatever that means.
The festive start to the week for the governor would quickly turn fishy.
While there were no tears shed (that we know of), Baker quietly snuck away to Marshfield on Wednesday for an unpublicized appearance at a "fisherman's event," according to the owners of Haddad's Ocean Café, who posted on Facebook after the governor stopped by for a visit.
After that, Baker would travel to the North Shore on Thursday to meet with the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association where he laid into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's looming mandate that fisherman cover the $700-a-day cost of taking catch monitors out to sea with them.
"This is about the most perfect example of an unfunded mandate," Baker said, calling the policy "ridiculous" and "outrageous."
The week was scheduled to wrap for the governor and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito with a visit to the North End Fisherman's Feast.
When he wasn't mingling by the docks, Baker, as well as other GOP electeds, allowed himself to be drawn into his party's presidential nominating contest, breaking from his safe, boilerplate talking points about the national race to take on the summer's poll-leader Donald Trump.
Specifically asked during a radio appearance about The Donald's comments toward women - and no, not the quote about how much Trump cherishes them - Baker said he'd been raised better: "I was raised by my parents, you know, in a certain way, and I find a lot of those comments to be reprehensible, outrageous an ridiculous and I wish he would take them back."
The governor's Republican colleagues in the Legislature largely agree. While most GOP lawmakers seem undecided for the moment, most agreed that Trump's bombastic bedside manner could be bad for the party and bad for the country.
"To me, Donald Trump is the letter to the editor you write late at night and hopefully put in your top drawer and never send," House Minority Leader Brad Jones lamented. On the positive side, Republicans said Trump was at least drawing attention to the race where voters might see someone else they like, someone like, say, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
State Sen. Vinny deMacedo, one of the few decideds on Beacon Hill who mostly seem to be breaking for Rubio at the moment, said he finds inspiration in the former Florida House speaker and son of a Cuban immigrant. "He articulates the American dream better than anyone I've seen since Ronald Reagan," deMacedo said.
After getting out on the right foot with the Governor's Council with his nomination of Judge Scott Kafker to lead the Appeals Court, the administration appears to be testing that good will with the selection of Suffolk County prosecutor Paul Treseler to head the Parole Board.
Treseler, if confirmed by the council next month, would replace Charlene Bonner as chair of the board, but, perhaps more importantly for the Governor's Council, he would take the seat of Lee Gartenberg, a Patrick holdover who one councilor called the "most qualified" person in the state to decide parole cases.
Despite a letter signed by six of the eight councilors urging Baker to reappoint Gartenberg, the governor and his team decided to move in a different direction.
The Treseler nomination wasn't the only personnel news made this week. The administration also filled the last open spot on the expanded MassDOT Board of Directors - held for a union representative - with
former UPS mechanic Russell Gittlen, the New England Area director of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
former UPS mechanic Russell Gittlen, the New England Area director of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
The MassDOT board is now at full strength, as is the new financial control board with special oversight of the MBTA.
The Department of Public Safety also got a new commissioner as Matt Carlin, a Baker donor and CEO of Resource Options Inc., took the oath to replace Thomas Gatzunis, who had served as commissioner since at least 2004.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Trump may be up in the polls, but his antics are falling flat with Massachusetts Republicans, including the governor.
About the Author »
Matt Murphy covers major media, lobbying firms, government agencies, political junkies as well as towns Statewide. He likes to cover politics and campaigns.
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