Citizens for Political Reform
PO Box 408 * Peabody, MA 01960
Phone: (508) 539-3900 * Fax: (508) 531-4374 * E-Mail: CPR98@aol.com
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*** UPDATE ***
Friday, January 31, 1997

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Greetings friends:

And the beat goes on. Today, we learned from Boston Herald State House Reporter Carolyn Ryan that there’s even more to "leadership" positions than just the *additional* minimum $7,500-plus bonuses that come with the appointments—on top of one of the highest legislative salaries ($46,410 base) of any of the 50 states.

Being one of almost ninety "leaders" (out of 200 members in the Legislature) sure does make kissing-up and kowtowing to the bosses worthwhile for a career politician! (Only two state sen-ators out of 40 *don’t* receive "leadership" pay—Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, and Sen. Bob Hedlund, R-Weymouth—and take my word for it: they are *not* the followers, which is precisely why they don’t receive the Orwellian "leadership" bonuses!)

All those thousands of additional lobbyists’ bucks pouring in—on top of the advantageous half-year taxpayer-paid vacation from August through December in election years to campaign with—pretty much guarantees that incumbent state legislators never have to worry about challenges for their positions by smuck private sector working stiffs! No challengers, no change in our legislative elite.

Tell us this is not still The Best Legislature Money Can Buy
· and that we still don’t need to reform the whole system of compensation for *our* alleged "representatives"!

Tell us that our cutting their pay and eliminating "leader-ship" bonuses will "damage the democratic process" and "dis-courage potential candidates"; how paying for only six months when they’re in session for only six months—in reality much less! -- is such a terrible thing.

Tell us again with a straight face, opponents of our initia-tive wherever you are, why our proposed Citizen Legislature is such a "bad idea"—why we need a "professional" legislature of entrenched politicians taking care of themselves first.

Yes, please do tell us.

Chip Ford—Chairman

PS. For perspective, I’ve added the total salary amounts, including "leadership" bonuses in brackets [$...] in the following Herald report.
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The Boston Herald
Fri., Jan. 31, 1997

Finneran’s team rakes in thousands
By Carolyn Ryan

House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran’s [Salary: $81,410] new leadership team has raked in thousands of dollars from lobby-ists and political action committees suddenly eager to curry favor with them, records show.

According to Office of Campaign and Political Finance reports, some legislators who were installed on Finneran’s leadership team saw their campaign war chests grow to 10 times their previous size.

· Rep. Paul R. Haley (D-Weymouth) [Salary: $71,410], who was named Finneran’s Ways and Means chairman last April, had raised $6,606 in 1994. In 1996, he collected $68,844.

· Rep. Barbara Gardner (D-Holliston), [Salary: $61,410] a rank-and-filer who Finneran made his assistant majority leader, received $12,303 for her 1994 race. Last year, her campaign coffers bulged to $44,692.

· Rep. William P. Nagle Jr. (D-Florence), [Salary: $68,910] Finneran’s majority leader, raised less than $1,000 in 1994. In 1996, he raised $37,939.

Many of the contributions to the new House leaders were on the donor list for Finneran, who collected $73,285 last year and has the largest war chest in the House.

The concentration of money in the top leadership ranks frus-trates campaign finance watchdog groups who say it makes the Legislature less democratic.

Young rank-and-file lawmakers see gaining chairmanships and floor posts as the route to money and power, said George Pills-bury of the Commonwealth Coalition’s Money and Politics Project.

The legislators already receive bonuses in their salaries when they receive the appointments.

"It makes these legislators even further beholden to top leadership," Pillsbury said. A study Pillsbury’s group produced in 1994 showed that more than half of all money the campaign contributions in the House were given to 20 legislators—com-mittee chairs, vice-chairs and House leadership team.

"The other 140 legislators might as well just not come to session." Pillsbury said. "All the money is flowing to these top people." Pillsbury said limits on how much legislators could collect out of their districts would help reform the system but probably would not go far enough.

Haley defended the system, saying contributions are given to him not because of his closeness to Finneran and influence, but because they see him as having a promising political future.

"People have an interest in saying, ‘You know this person is doing fairly well, he’s going to be around for a while,’" Haley said. Not all Finneran’s backers experienced dramatic upticks in campaign coffers. Some had already occupied powerful posi-tions under Speaker Charles Flaherty, and saw only moderate increases or collected about the same. Rep. Salvatore DiMasi (D-Boston), raised $29,254 in 1994. In 1996, as Finneran’s second asistant majority leader, he collected $34,084.

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