Last year, Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua spent more money on printer toner ($1,545) than he spent on political catering ($1,525). In fact, according to reports on file with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Lantigua only paid for two fundraisers all of last year — a year in which he hauled in $38,615 in donations. If those numbers appear to strain credulity, it’s because they do: According to a Sunday Globe report, Lantigua’s campaign finance disclosures are littered with “yawning gaps in his records and potentially serious violations of campaign finance law by both the candidate and his contributors.”
The Globe found at least 15 incidents over the past three years in which Lantigua failed to report any expenses related to fundraising events. That’s a red flag, because one way or another, political fundraising should create a paper trail. Political candidates routinely hold fundraisers at restaurants and function halls, providing food and beverages to donors. Somebody has to pay the bills connected to a fundraising event. Candidates can’t legally accept free food, alcohol, or room rentals from businesses. If supporters pick up the tab, that action has to be reported, and individuals’ contributions are capped at the state’s $500 legal donation limit.
The Globe also reported that Lantigua appears to have not filed any disclosure reports for the first four months of 2009.
The apparent campaign finance violations, which are sure to draw state regulators’ interest, are just the latest in a long strong of woes for the mayor of the struggling mill town. Lantigua is engaged in a running feud with his police force. He’s facing allegations of stacking the public payroll with patronage hires. Earlier this month, it was revealed that Lantigua’s live-in girlfriend received improper public heating assistance. That same girlfriend also served as campaign treasurer — a position that she, as a public employee, is prohibited from holding. And the mayor is reportedly the subject of both state and federal corruption investigations.
It’s against this backdrop that the Globe wonders aloud whether Lantigua is skimming free food from Lawrence’s restaurants, or whether he’s encouraging others to pick up the bill while keeping it off the state’s campaign finance books. Either route would appear to be both arrogant and crude. Campaign finance data isn’t buried in a city clerk’s office anymore. It lives online. It’s free and open to anyone who cares to take a peek. So when expenses that should appear don’t, the omissions can be glaringly obvious.
–PAUL MCMORROW
BEACON HILL
Gov. Deval Patrick invokes a Clintonesque defense in his testimony in the trial of Sal DiMasi.
Irony: A Globe editorial this morning calls out the cynical, go-along ways on Beacon Hill, citing, among other things, ex-state rep Robert Coughlin’s testimony in the DiMasi trial that it was “an honor” to sponsor an amendment for the speaker on performance management software even though Coughlin had no hand in drafting the amendment and had no understanding of its subject matter. On the paper’s op-ed page, Coughlin, now president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, says an aspect of last year’s federal health care reform leaves seniors vulnerable to the dictates of unaccountable government bureaucrats because it “takes our elected officials out of the decision-making process.”
The Globe reports that the state Probation Department gave the ax earlier this month to the agency’s one-time chief counsel, Christopher Bulger, who had been under suspension since last November, when he admitted to keeping then-suspended department chief John O’Brien in the loop on developments in the investigation of the patronage scandal roiling the agency.
Off the island: House Minority Leader Bradley Jones likens redistricting to “Survivor.”
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Fall River could be in line for an additional $600,000 to hire more police officers under a budget amendment the Senate approved for grant money to urban communities with increased crime and reduced police forces.
A discussion over decorative banners leads to complaints about tourism and has at least one Lenox resident worrying that the town will end up “like the Cape.”
Salem mayor Kimberly Driscoll wants a cruise ship terminal, and not a new apartment or office complex, to replace the city’s coal-fired power plant. The 62-acre plant is scheduled to be shuttered in 2014.
Barnstable County first responders worry about the lack of funding for emergency medical radio.
It’s a boy: Newton Mayor (and US Senate candidate) Setti Warren and his wife Tassy Warren welcome John David Warren into the world.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Rep. Anthony Weiner has his Twitter and Facebook accounts hacked.
ELECTION 2012
The initial burst of excitement that drew a lot of small-dollar donors to Scott Brown has waned — and so have the Joe Six-Pack donations, the Globe reports.
Never mind that his Medicare proposal is proving a bit radioactive for some fellow Republicans, Paul Ryan is just what the doctored ordered for a wobbly Republican Party looking for a solid presidential candidate, according a group of conservatives trying to draft the Wisconsin congressman.
The Washington Post profiles the Herminator.
James Buchanan will be relieved: Mitt Romney calls Barack Obama one of the country’s “most ineffective presidents.”
Sarah Palin’s down-home media sideshow family road trip kicks off.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Many Danversbank directors could pocket more than $1 million as a result of recent mergers, the Salem News reports.
Housing prices hit a new national low.
EDUCATION
The MetroWest Daily News says the draft teacher evaluation rules should be stronger. In the latest CommonWealth magazine Face to Face video feature, Mass. Teachers Association president Paul Toner and Linda Noonan of the Mass. Business Alliance for Education discuss the draft regs.
The Cape Cod Times worries that fee hikes are making public higher education unaffordable.
NONPROFITS
The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a story (subscription required) about how Paul Grogan has opened the once-staid Boston Foundation’s checkbook to expand its influence and advocacy and make a few waves.
HEALTH CARE
In the first of a series, the Globe’s Brian Mooney offers a detailed look at exactly how the state’s health care reform law, individual mandate and all, was developed under Mitt Romney. Mooney got some face-time with Romney for the piece. Even more surprising, he seems to have some current quotes about the landmark legislation from former House speaker Sal DiMasi, whose public comments in recent months have otherwise been limited to brief statements about looking forward to having all the facts come out in court and things like that. The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn assesses the Globe story as well as a New Yorker piece [abstract only for non-subscribers] on Mitt and health care.
In an editorial, the Lowell Sun starts asking questions about health care payments in the wake of a state study showing Lowell General Hospital performs lots of procedures just as effectively as larger hospitals but for a lot less money. The Lowell hospital was the focus of this story in the current issue of CommonWealth looking at a pilot program it is running to look at a “global payments” system for health insurance.
Federal officials plan to introduce a new measurement, Medicare spending per beneficiary, as a metric for hospital performance.
LOTTERY
While Lottery officials say sales are bouncing back after a couple of flat years, per capita sales in about half the state’s cities and towns were down in 2010.
TRANSPORTATION
Up to 1.4 million gallons of water leak into the Big Dig tunnels every month, and the trust fund that pays for tunnel maintenance could come up $200 million short, the Herald reports.
Car pooling is on the rise, reports the Globe. MBTA ridership hits highest level since 2008, NECN reports.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Germany will close its 17 nuclear reactors by 2022.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Thieves are going to great lengths to steal and sell scrap metal, such as breaking into the homes of elders home alone in Taunton and taking copper pipes out of the basements.
Hundreds of brawling teens descended on South Boston’s Carson Beach over the weekend, the Globe reports, prompting a massive police response yesterday and a vow by law enforcement officials to get a handle on calls for gatherings of gang members that are being spread via online social media sites.
MEDIA
The Lowell Sun reports on a journalism professor at Middlesex Community College caught in a war between the administration and the now-closed student newspaper.