Tag Archives: Probation Department

Campaign Finance: the New Brown Paper Bag?

I’ve had a hypothesis for a while and not enough time to do the research to test it, but here goes anyway: whereas in times past the greatest danger of political corruption was the straight out bribe, these days it is the fattening of campaign finance accounts. Lt. Governor Tim Murray is the latest politician to run afoul. The campaign finance account is the new brown paper bag.

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Sal DiMasi Comes Home

Sal DiMasi should be getting off the Bureau of Prisons bus by now, possibly to testify against former legislative colleagues in the Probation Department case. DiMasi’s reintroduction to Massachusetts calls to mind the changing face of political corruption. Yes it’s still about money, but the ultimate repository of the money is different. Despite the DiMasi case, Dianne Wilkerson stuffing greenbacks down her bra, and Chuck Turner’s preacher’s handshake, the cascade of money into campaign finance and independent expenditure accounts is the bigger scandal.

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