Dear Hecate,
Check this out from the State House News Service......FINNERAN'S COMING-OUT PARTY AT PARKER HOUSE: State lobbying rules restricted former House Speaker Thomas Finneran's lobbying of his former colleagues for one year after his departure from the Legislature. In his now year-old role as president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, Finneran has served as a spokesman for the industry, but hasn't been able to wield the skills and legacy he developed during a 26-year State House career in a full-fledged effort to influence state officials. That changes Wednesday, when Finneran throws his coming-out bash at the Omni Parker House, an event entitled "A Prescription for Growth and Maintaining Our Edge," with big names from the industry lining the marquee. Scheduled speakers include Cavan M. Redmond, executive vice president of BioPharma Business Unit at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals; Jack Wilson, president of the University of Massachusetts; Merrill Matthews Jr., Ph.D., director of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance; Frank Douglas, Ph.D. M.D., executive director of the MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation; Kollol Pal, principal at PureTech Ventures LLC; Abi Barrow, head of tech transfer at UMass; and Michael Astrue, interim president and CEO of EPIX Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge. Finneran, whose trial for federal perjury charges is in a holding pattern, will host the event and emcee. The former Democratic leader from Mattapan is expected to address biotech interests in the economic stimulus package under consideration in a legislative conference committee. (Wednesday, 11:30 am - 2:30 pm, Omni Parker House Hotel, 60 School Street, Boston)
Is Tom Finneran our Jack Abramoff?
Hecate says
No. There is no equivilant to Jack in Massachusetts, in part because of your strict campaign reform laws, in part because you don't have any big profit centers stupid enough to think they need to pay huge amount of money to crush potential competition. (That's what the casino operators thought they were paying Abramoff to do.)
Being a very smart man, Tom Finneran is going to be very careful to carry out any lobbying activities on behalf of his association/client legally. By holding a briefing session at the Parker House, no doubt to be followed by perfectly legal un- bundled contributions to attending elected officials, he is only following the recent 10 year trend that he started himself in the middle 90s.
It used to be that every elected official in Massachusetts held a couple of fundraisers a year at at Anthoney's Pier 4 or Jimmy's Harborside and every lobbyists was expected to bring clients (and their checks) to key elected officals fundraiser to stand in long lines for a 30 second handshake and chance to nibble on pretty dreadful finger food. This meant lobbyists had to get over to the waterfront a couple of times a week and one lobbyist was famous for carving his initals into the base of the standard giant cheese ball at Anthony's to see how many days and weeks it stayed. Smart lobbyists counseled their clients to stick to the fresh vegtables and shrimp, hoping they could not be so readily recycled.
Tom Finneran preferred his contributors -- lobbying firms, trade associations and individual lobbyists -- to organize and host small fundraisers -- usually breakfasts-- at private offices. This allowed for longer and more specific discussions of pending issues of interest to a smaller group of clients all interested in the same issues. Again all perfectly legal.
That's the trend today. Individual lobbyists, corportations, business groups, trade associations, law firms, non-profit institutions and special interest groups routinely organize small fundraisers for individual elected officals in private venues where their clients are able to have longer conversations about their issue and much better food. For the same amount of money.
The Massachusetts Money and Politics Project documented the changing trends in fundraising and spending through 2002 and some of those reports are available by emailing George Pillsbury at mailto:gpillsbury@nonprofitvote.org
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Brains Will Only Get You So Far, and Luck Will Always Run Out
Hecate!
Our organization stepped up to the plate and offered a substantive policy solution to one of the most difficult and complicated public policy problems of our day, namely health care.
We were brave enough to speak truth to power, namely businesses who do not provide affordable health insurance to their employees. Our bill mandated them to contribute to the cost of the health care of their own employees who were forced into the taxpayer supported free care system. They call it a business tax, we call it paying their fair share.
We were smart enough to figure out a way to direct those fair share taxes to a range of health care programs for almost all of the uninsured in our state.
We were lucky enough to find a champion in the new Speaker of the House who, Lord knows needed way to demonstrate his policy prowess, and now everybody is coming out of the woodwork to pick pick pick at every single little thing.
Now the Speaker is being forced to meet with every single special interest group to fix their little problem instead of getting this comprehensive bill through. Can't we fix all these little problems later?
Hecate says;
"Brains will only get you so far, and luck will always run out." That's a line spoken by Harvey Kietel playing the Police Officer chasing Thelma and Louise, who five minutes later drive off a cliff rather than get caught.
Your brains have gotten you pretty far, and now you need to take advantage of what luck has brought you and trust the Speaker's instinct to try and fix what he can fix now. He has no interest in driving off a cliff, and I hope you don't either.
Our organization stepped up to the plate and offered a substantive policy solution to one of the most difficult and complicated public policy problems of our day, namely health care.
We were brave enough to speak truth to power, namely businesses who do not provide affordable health insurance to their employees. Our bill mandated them to contribute to the cost of the health care of their own employees who were forced into the taxpayer supported free care system. They call it a business tax, we call it paying their fair share.
We were smart enough to figure out a way to direct those fair share taxes to a range of health care programs for almost all of the uninsured in our state.
We were lucky enough to find a champion in the new Speaker of the House who, Lord knows needed way to demonstrate his policy prowess, and now everybody is coming out of the woodwork to pick pick pick at every single little thing.
Now the Speaker is being forced to meet with every single special interest group to fix their little problem instead of getting this comprehensive bill through. Can't we fix all these little problems later?
Hecate says;
"Brains will only get you so far, and luck will always run out." That's a line spoken by Harvey Kietel playing the Police Officer chasing Thelma and Louise, who five minutes later drive off a cliff rather than get caught.
Your brains have gotten you pretty far, and now you need to take advantage of what luck has brought you and trust the Speaker's instinct to try and fix what he can fix now. He has no interest in driving off a cliff, and I hope you don't either.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
The Road to Perdition
Hecate:
I am a local elected official responding to your last comment excusing rank and file legislators who don't read long complex and complicated legislation being pushed through by the "leadership" in the closing hours of a long session because they (the rank and file legislator)don't have the time or the technical expertise to interpert all the information distributed via fact sheets and briefings.
That excuse sounds like the one the Democrats in Washington are using to whine about their stupid vote for the war that was based on bad information from a President they neither trusted or respected at the time. I think the Vice President has a point calling this kind of behavior "shameless, reprehensible, dishonest and corrupt".
I know I read every single local ordinance before I have to vote on it, and carry out some independent research to boot. If I'm suspicious of bad information, I move to postpone the vote or if I lose the postponement, I abstain from the vote, and make a public statement accordingly. To behave otherwise is to take the first step on the road to perdition.
Hecate responds:
You are a practically perfect person, and the Road to Perdition is pretty crowded anyway.
I am a local elected official responding to your last comment excusing rank and file legislators who don't read long complex and complicated legislation being pushed through by the "leadership" in the closing hours of a long session because they (the rank and file legislator)don't have the time or the technical expertise to interpert all the information distributed via fact sheets and briefings.
That excuse sounds like the one the Democrats in Washington are using to whine about their stupid vote for the war that was based on bad information from a President they neither trusted or respected at the time. I think the Vice President has a point calling this kind of behavior "shameless, reprehensible, dishonest and corrupt".
I know I read every single local ordinance before I have to vote on it, and carry out some independent research to boot. If I'm suspicious of bad information, I move to postpone the vote or if I lose the postponement, I abstain from the vote, and make a public statement accordingly. To behave otherwise is to take the first step on the road to perdition.
Hecate responds:
You are a practically perfect person, and the Road to Perdition is pretty crowded anyway.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
It was a long and complicated bill but at least I didn't have time to read it........
Hecate:
Last week our legislature passed a "first in the nation" comprehensive health reform legislation that really really screws our little agency that serves low income uninsured people. We did everything you told us to do..........we developed short easy to understand fact sheets and background papers that we used to brief our legislative delegation, the staffs of both Ways and Means committee , the Speaker and the Senate President. We got the commitment of two key legislators who promised to protect our interests. We walked our so called champions, and their staffs through about two inches of detailed background and made our policy analysts available to them at a moments notice. When the leadership tried to rush a 160 page bill through in less than 24 hours, our legislative sponsors were at least able to file a couple of amendments (that we wrote), but they weren't even brought up for debate!! It was all over so fast after months and months of lobbying. And the kicker was when one member of our legislative delegation made a joke about it --"It was a long and complicated bill, but at least I didn't have time to read it." I think that's just reprehensible!!!
Hecate says:
Well s/he was problably a little tired and cranky from trying to figure out the bill in the first place, never mind trying to figure out how the bill impacted your agency. Sounds like you did everything right but still failed to convince the Leadership that it was a top priority to protect your agency. Hard to swallow, I know.
Big complicated bills with lots of competing interests from a couple of hundred different stakeholders with millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs at stake, often are rushed through quickly after a couple of months of figuring out how to balance all the different interests. The goal is to make sure all the "big guys" don't get everything they want, but most of them get something. Lots of drafting mistakes are made in the margins because every section that benefits one stakeholder affects a dozen others, and vice versa. Trust me the leadership will be releasing several bills in the near future offering "technical corrections" to the big bill. Your champions still can make things right.
Last week our legislature passed a "first in the nation" comprehensive health reform legislation that really really screws our little agency that serves low income uninsured people. We did everything you told us to do..........we developed short easy to understand fact sheets and background papers that we used to brief our legislative delegation, the staffs of both Ways and Means committee , the Speaker and the Senate President. We got the commitment of two key legislators who promised to protect our interests. We walked our so called champions, and their staffs through about two inches of detailed background and made our policy analysts available to them at a moments notice. When the leadership tried to rush a 160 page bill through in less than 24 hours, our legislative sponsors were at least able to file a couple of amendments (that we wrote), but they weren't even brought up for debate!! It was all over so fast after months and months of lobbying. And the kicker was when one member of our legislative delegation made a joke about it --"It was a long and complicated bill, but at least I didn't have time to read it." I think that's just reprehensible!!!
Hecate says:
Well s/he was problably a little tired and cranky from trying to figure out the bill in the first place, never mind trying to figure out how the bill impacted your agency. Sounds like you did everything right but still failed to convince the Leadership that it was a top priority to protect your agency. Hard to swallow, I know.
Big complicated bills with lots of competing interests from a couple of hundred different stakeholders with millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs at stake, often are rushed through quickly after a couple of months of figuring out how to balance all the different interests. The goal is to make sure all the "big guys" don't get everything they want, but most of them get something. Lots of drafting mistakes are made in the margins because every section that benefits one stakeholder affects a dozen others, and vice versa. Trust me the leadership will be releasing several bills in the near future offering "technical corrections" to the big bill. Your champions still can make things right.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
It's About Time Don't You Think?
Dear Hecate,
What's going on with all of this talk about health care "reform"? It seems as though every state in the union is responding to their own health care "crisis" and deciding they have to "do something". Some states are cutting their health care programs and others are expanding their health care programs and still others are creating blue ribbon commissions to study their health care programs. What's the big deal? As far as I can tell, there is a "crisis" in public education, public transportation and public safty, never mind climate changes and global warming. Why health care? Why now?
Hecate says;
Aside from those of you who like to suffer or who have no loved ones to shield from suffering, most of you humans seem to value having good health care if you or your loved ones need it. That includes politicans in your country, who increasingly are becoming aware that getting good health care seems to be a increasingly difficult for more and more people in their districts. And sometimes even for themselves and their loved ones. So, they're trying to figure out what do about it. It's about time, don't you think?
What's going on with all of this talk about health care "reform"? It seems as though every state in the union is responding to their own health care "crisis" and deciding they have to "do something". Some states are cutting their health care programs and others are expanding their health care programs and still others are creating blue ribbon commissions to study their health care programs. What's the big deal? As far as I can tell, there is a "crisis" in public education, public transportation and public safty, never mind climate changes and global warming. Why health care? Why now?
Hecate says;
Aside from those of you who like to suffer or who have no loved ones to shield from suffering, most of you humans seem to value having good health care if you or your loved ones need it. That includes politicans in your country, who increasingly are becoming aware that getting good health care seems to be a increasingly difficult for more and more people in their districts. And sometimes even for themselves and their loved ones. So, they're trying to figure out what do about it. It's about time, don't you think?
Monday, October 31, 2005
How Many Times in a Political Career.............
Dear Hecate,
How many times during a political career can a Legislative Leader take the bold step of creating really good public policy that finally redistributes government resources and services more fairly and pisses off powerful provider and interest groups at the same time?
Hecate's Answer
That's why they're called leaders, and she can do it as many times as she can hold on to her own seat in her own district,as many times as as she can absorb the political heat herself, and as many times as she can help her members get reelected by making sure they each have a couple of hero opportunities for their own district.
By the way, it's the same way strong legislative leaders make bad public policy too.
How many times during a political career can a Legislative Leader take the bold step of creating really good public policy that finally redistributes government resources and services more fairly and pisses off powerful provider and interest groups at the same time?
Hecate's Answer
That's why they're called leaders, and she can do it as many times as she can hold on to her own seat in her own district,as many times as as she can absorb the political heat herself, and as many times as she can help her members get reelected by making sure they each have a couple of hero opportunities for their own district.
By the way, it's the same way strong legislative leaders make bad public policy too.
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