CLT
UPDATE
Thursday, April 1, 2004
ConCon recesses without threat
while DNC convention shuts down Boston
Drained by Monday's gay-marriage debate, state lawmakers concluded their Constitutional Convention after less than an hour yesterday, sidestepping votes on 11 proposed amendments and adjourning until May 12....
The legislators briefly debated three measures before sending them back to committees and declined to discuss eight others....
Other amendments that might come up in May include one that would raise the number of signatures required for initiative petitions; a measure mandating universal health care insurance; and a proposal, endorsed by House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, mandating annual, automatic contributions to the state's rainy-day reserve fund.
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Call for longer legislative terms tabled
The circus left town Monday night, but they left all the clowns behind at the State House.
You'd think, after their big moment in the media spotlight these last few weeks, that the solons would get back to doing what comes naturally, namely staying home.
But no. They showed up again yesterday on Beacon Hill to once again meet in "Constitutional Convention," and why not? They had to come into the city anyway - Rep. Tim Toomey was having a "time" at Anthony's Pier 4, and they had heard the two magic words.
"Open bar."
Usually when they don't want to consider a proposed ballot question, the solons just adjourn and flee to the Cape. But the word yesterday was that the solons wanted to make another token appearance, so that it wouldn't look like gay "marriage," so-called, was the only issue on their agenda.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Power-mad Legislature keeps clowning around
By Howie Carr
Lawmakers adjourned their constitutional convention Tuesday by consigning to committee oblivion a grab-bag of proposed amendments. They should have finished the job and
deep-sixed the misguided proposal that would make it more difficult for grass-roots organizations to make law via the ballot box....
In Massachusetts, it has proved to be an effective tool. Initiatives have produced the Bottle Bill, establishment of the campaign finance office and the state Ethics Commission, enactment of conflict-of-interest laws and Proposition 2˝, among others....
The amendment would be a major setback for accountable government. The constitutional convention, which reconvenes on May 13, should reject it.
A Telegram & Gazette editorial
Thursday, April 1, 2004
Kill this bill
Constitutional proposal threatens initiative petition
Commuters leaving Boston during July's Democratic National Convention will probably face a tangled gridlock as a shuttered Central Artery pushes thousands of cars onto local roads during the evening rush hour, officials acknowledged yesterday.
"It could be a zoo," said Karla Karash, vice-president of Transystems, a transit consulting firm.
"Traffic's pretty bad anyway. To take a major facility out (of operation) ... I hope they have a plan," she said.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino and others said the city's best hope might be to frighten people with tales of nightmare traffic jams so many commuters leave town on vacation or call in sick during the Democrats' summer parley.
"What we're doing is ringing the alarm bell and saying the sky is falling," Menino said....
By contrast, Pennsylvania Station, which handles about 600,000 commuters daily, is being kept open during the Republican National Convention in New York a month later.
New York officials are boosting the number of police in the station and riding on trains, but the transit hub, which sits under convention venue Madison Square Garden, will operate normally.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, April 1, 2004
Dire warnings may ease DNC traffic:
Mayor hopes scare tactics prevent road nightmare
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Tuesday's constitutional convention saw the threat to
the initiative process moved to the end of the calendar, behind the
remaining proposed amendments to the state Constitution.
While the proposed amendment to extend legislators'
terms to four years from their current two years, the one to replace
legislators in a time of emergency, and the one calling for election of
judges were sent back to committees for "further study," the
attack on the initiative process is still alive during this ConCon.
We will be watching closely and will keep you
informed.
We got a kick out of Sen. Richard Moore's (D-Uxbridge)
ludicrous argument for extending legislators' term from two to four
terms. He argued that a four-year term would provide legislators with "more of an opportunity to concentrate on the job to which we're
elected," asserting that Massachusetts legislators spend too much time raising money for their reelection campaigns.
While it's true that state legislators spend too much
time raising money and building campaign war chests to intimidate and
discourage challengers, then to bury such insolence if anyone still has
the temerity, the audacity to run against the incumbent. But how does
handing a legislator two additional years to raise even more
money -- build an even bigger campaign war chest -- benefit
democracy and encourage competition for public office?
Sen. Moore also made a big point out of how many
other states have four-year terms for legislators, instead of two-years
terms like Massachusetts:
"There are 32 other states that have four-year terms for senators. Of those, six states have terms for both the House and Senate. States with four-year terms are not necessarily the most progressive - Alabama, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi have four-year terms for the House and Senate.
"States with four-year terms have not collapsed. It has not been the end of the world, as some folks currently think it would be."
He didn't mention how many of those 32 states have
"full-time" legislatures. I couldn't keep up with the rambling
list he read off, but I caught only Maryland and Pennsylvania that do. I
would not be "the end of the world" either if we had an
amendment limiting legislative sessions to six months or less, making
legislators part-time like almost all other states do (but maybe seven
that, unlike ours, usually end their sessions eventually and go home
before the year ends). But that proposal has never made it through a
constitutional convention over the many years it's been attempted.
Ah, but he further asserted that having a
four-year term "would save the state the cost of the additional ballot activity. It would save the public, those who support campaigns, significant dollars."
I hope that means we can count on his support when our bill, "An Act to Limit the Financial Burden of Special
Elections," comes before him for his vote.
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Anatomy of an inevitable taxpayer mugging
– Update –
The Democrats' national convention fiasco is
about to shut down Boston. You've got to wonder if someone in the Bush
Campaign has infiltrated the DNC's planning committee intent on
disruption or national embarrassment.
Remember all the pipe-dream promises of an economic
windfall that the convention would provide? How much economic activity
now will be lost when Boston is shut down, brought to a standstill; when
businesses take organizers' and public officials' advice and lock their
doors, shutter their windows, and send their employees homes?
And now, Mayor Menino is intentionally using fear
to promote alleged security!
Organizers and public officials need not worry about
Secret Service security around the FleetCenter that last week of
July: they need to concern themselves with the epidemic of road
rage that's about to descend over gridlocked commuters who can't afford
to just "avoid the city" for the convenience of the coven of
partying Democrats.
Apparently the DNC honchos have begun to recognize
this potential. Not only are they now reaching out to other municipal
police departments across the state to increase force-strength, but
they're also now considering importing other New England state police
departments.
Oh I wouldn't want to miss this PR disaster for
anything -- from a distance! The Bush re-election campaign must be
salivating over what is coming to town here in July. Money can't buy the
kind of negative publicity that's ahead for the Democrats -- and nothing
can buy the votes of the tens of thousands of righteously outraged and
frustrated commuters that will surely follow. How many more Bush votes
will the DNC convention generate?
Make sure you regularly visit our website for "Boston DNC Convention 2004 –
Anatomy of an inevitable taxpayer mugging" to follow the
detailed timeline from 2002 onward and latest news on this ultimate
fiasco. The theme song we've recently assigned this event is reason
enough for a visit!
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Chip
Ford |
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Call for longer legislative terms tabled
By Scott S. Greenberger, Globe Staff
Drained by Monday's gay-marriage debate, state lawmakers concluded their Constitutional Convention after less than an hour yesterday, sidestepping votes on 11 proposed amendments and adjourning until May 12.
The legislators briefly debated three measures before sending them back to committees and declined to discuss eight others. None of the proposed amendments is related to gay marriage.
Senator Richard T. Moore, an Uxbridge Democrat, authored two of the three amendments that reached the floor yesterday. The first would lengthen the terms of legislators to four years from the current two years, a change he said would give them "more of an opportunity to concentrate on the job to which we're
elected." Moore argued that Massachusetts legislators spend too much time raising money for their reelection campaigns and noted that 32 other states have four-year terms for senators.
Moore quipped that if the lawmakers could vote secretly, the idea would be "a sentimental favorite of most members of the convention."
Moore's second amendment would give the Legislature the power to temporarily replace House and Senate members killed or incapacitated in a terrorist attack or other disaster. If more than a third of the seats in either body were left vacant, the governor would appoint replacements, tapping people from the same district and the same political party.
Lawmakers also discussed a third proposed amendment, offered by Senator Michael R.
Knapik, a Westfield Republican. Under his plan, voters could weigh in on an appointed judge's performance every six years, either removing or keeping the judge on the bench. Knapik's measure would apply to all judges, including the Supreme Judicial Court, but an aide said Knapik was reacting to lenient sentences meted out by judges in his district, not the SJC's gay marriage ruling.
Before sending the Knapik amendment back to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, lawmakers replaced it with a measure that would give the Senate the power to confirm or reject the governor's judicial appointments, a function currently performed by the Governor's Executive Council.
Other amendments that might come up in May include one that would raise the number of signatures required for initiative petitions; a measure mandating universal health care insurance; and a proposal, endorsed by House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, mandating annual, automatic contributions to the state's rainy-day reserve fund.
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The Boston Herald
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Power-mad Legislature keeps clowning around
By Howie Carr
The circus left town Monday night, but they left all the clowns behind at the State House.
You'd think, after their big moment in the media spotlight these last few weeks, that the solons would get back to doing what comes naturally, namely staying home.
But no. They showed up again yesterday on Beacon Hill to once again meet in "Constitutional Convention," and why not? They had to come into the city anyway - Rep. Tim Toomey was having a "time" at Anthony's Pier 4, and they had heard the two magic words.
"Open bar."
Usually when they don't want to consider a proposed ballot question, the solons just adjourn and flee to the Cape. But the word yesterday was that the solons wanted to make another token appearance, so that it wouldn't look like gay "marriage," so-called, was the only issue on their agenda.
The problem is, if they're around, the Legislature can get into trouble. Like cattle, they've been known to stampede at the slightest provocation. As someone named Gideon J. Tucker observed in 1866: "No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session."
Then there was the question of whether judges should be elected, or at least approved or rejected by the voters after a certain amount of time on the bench. The voters picking judges - wouldn't that be an "evolving paradigm," as SJC Chief Justice Margaret Marshall might say?
The election of judges was originally proposed by Holyoke police Chief Anthony Scott. But it didn't get far - a substitute motion was approved at the suggestion of Sen. Robert
Creedon, whose brother, Mike, by an amazing coincidence, just happens to be a judge himself.
Don't worry, though: the judges' bill was sent to a judicial committee, a bourne from which no legislation has yet returned. Neither Sen. Creedon's brother, nor Sen. Marian Walsh's husband, for that matter, are in any danger of having to get up off their couches and go out and start shaking hands.
Then there was the proposal to double the legislators' terms from two to four years. You think your local solon doesn't care about you now - wait'll they only have to face the voters every four years. It was proposed by Sen. Dick Moore, the Alfred Hitchcock lookalike from Uxbridge.
"It would save significant dollars," he said. But how? There's already a statewide primary and election every even-numbered year - for Congress and either the president or governor.
The proposal was sent back to committee, as was another of his that would allow for the appointment of elected officials in what he termed "the event of a major disaster."
Excuse me, senator, the Legislature already is a major disaster.
After an hour or so, they tired of the charade and began wandering off to wet their whistle in preparation for Rep. Toomey's open bar. They decided to wait until May to consider a proposal by Sen. Stanley Rosenberg of Amherst that would pretty much abolish the initiative-petition process, as if the whole idea of ballot questions aren't on their last legs anyway. Already the Legislature just ignores them, even when they're passed with 2 million votes.
But the way they look at it, this proposal would save them the trouble of having to thumb their noses at the electorate.
That wonderful idea returns for consideration on May 13. But there may yet be a way to kill it - get some rep to hold his "time" at noon. That way, they won't have time to even have a quorum call before they start drinking. In the meantime, someone call Barnum & Bailey - they're missing 200 clowns.
Howie Carr's radio show can be heard every weekday afternoon on WRKO AM 680, WHYN AM 560, WGAN AM 560, WEIM AM 1280, and WXTK 95.1 FM.
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The Telegram & Gazette
Thursday, April 1, 2004
A Telegram & Gazette editorial
Kill this bill
Constitutional proposal threatens initiative petition
Lawmakers adjourned their constitutional convention Tuesday by consigning to committee oblivion a grab-bag of proposed amendments. They should have finished the job and
deep-sixed the misguided proposal that would make it more difficult for grass-roots organizations to make law via the ballot box.
The proposed amendment, first drawn up as legislation by state Sens. Stanley C. Rosenberg and Richard T. Moore and state Rep. Robert P.
Spellane, would require groups to gather the signatures of 2.5 percent of registered voters to place a proposal to change a state law on the ballot — boosting the count from the already daunting 65,825 signatures to nearly 100,000. Groups would be required to collect signatures from 3 percent of registered voters to place a proposed constitutional change on the ballot — 120,000 signatures.
The proposed amendment is a reaction to the English-immersion initiative bankrolled by billionaire Ron
Unz. In fact, it would do little to deter deep-pocketed interests and their armies of hired signature collectors. However, it would heavily burden grass-roots movements that depend largely on volunteers.
Initiative petition, established in 1917, was never intended to create an ad hoc people’s legislature or to usurp legislative authority. It was intended to be used sparingly, allowing voters to make laws when lawmakers will not.
In Massachusetts, it has proved to be an effective tool. Initiatives have produced the Bottle Bill, establishment of the campaign finance office and the state Ethics Commission, enactment of conflict-of-interest laws and Proposition 2˝, among others.
Indeed, many of the initiatives have been ignored or eviscerated by the Legislature, including term limits, legislative salaries, income tax rates, charitable deductions and more. But even if they are rejected at the polls or later subverted, initiative petitions stimulate public debate on issues lawmakers are loath to confront.
The amendment would be a major setback for accountable government. The constitutional convention, which reconvenes on May 13, should reject it.
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The Boston Herald
Thursday, April 1, 2004
Dire warnings may ease DNC traffic:
Mayor hopes scare tactics prevent road nightmare
By Jack Meyers
Commuters leaving Boston during July's Democratic National Convention will probably face a tangled gridlock as a shuttered Central Artery pushes thousands of cars onto local roads during the evening rush hour, officials acknowledged yesterday.
"It could be a zoo," said Karla Karash, vice-president of Transystems, a transit consulting firm.
"Traffic's pretty bad anyway. To take a major facility out (of operation) ... I hope they have a plan," she said.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino and others said the city's best hope might be to frighten people with tales of nightmare traffic jams so many commuters leave town on vacation or call in sick during the Democrats' summer parley.
"What we're doing is ringing the alarm bell and saying the sky is falling," Menino said.
He acknowledged security-related closings in the transportation system - unveiled yesterday by the Secret Service and state and local police - could be a nightmare.
"On the face of it, it seems that way," said the mayor. But by working with local leaders from in and around Boston to reroute traffic, "hopefully, we can alleviate some of the problem," he said.
A section of Interstate 93 near the FleetCenter, both northbound and southbound, will be closed during evening hours for the four-day convention, the time when politicians, delegates, protesters and the media will flood the area.
In addition, the 24,000 people using commuter rail on average each workday will be dropped off at suburban stations, where they will be ferried by preinspected buses to South Station using dedicated lanes.
The MBTA's North Station stop will be closed from the weekend before the convention until July 30.
When asked if commuters should take vacations, state police Col. Foley said, "Take a look at it. If you feel you're going to be inconvenienced and you can't deal with that inconvenience, it's probably a good idea."
By contrast, Pennsylvania Station, which handles about 600,000 commuters daily, is being kept open during the Republican National Convention in New York a month later.
New York officials are boosting the number of police in the station and riding on trains, but the transit hub, which sits under convention venue Madison Square Garden, will operate normally.
Robert Nagi, a project manager at VHB/Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., one of the largest traffic consulting firms in the area, said terrorizing commuters might relieve some of the problems.
"My gut feeling is that people are ultimately going to hear enough horror stories that people will avoid the city," said
Nagi.
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