matthew j. lee/globe staff
Governor Deval Patrick’s travel funding has been questioned.
When Deval Patrick first ran for governor in 2006, he campaigned against politics as usual, or what he cleverly dubbed “the Big Dig culture.’’ Now well into his second term, Governor Patrick has embraced enough politics as usual to make believers in his earlier crusade feel like chumps.
Indeed, the business of politics can’t get more usual than this:
According to a recent story
by the Globe’s Noah Bierman, Gregory Bialecki, Patrick’s economic development secretary, is president, treasurer, clerk, and sole director of a nonprofit whose mission is to raise money from business executives to help fund the governor’s international travel and trade missions. The powerful executives who have so far contributed have significant financial interests before the state.
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The use of a nonprofit to help pay for the trips was signed off on by administration lawyers in consultation with the state Ethics Commission.
Still, it looks very cozy and for those with institutional memory, it sounds vaguely familiar.
In June 1992, the Globe reported that top aides in Governor Weld’s economic affairs office turned the names of firms and top executives over to the governor’s chief political fundraiser. Some of the money raised via this fundraising pipeline was used for trade missions, which critics said also advanced Weld’s national political ambitions. There were headlines decrying Weld’s frayed ethics, hand-wringing from outraged Democrats and investigations by the state attorney general (a Democrat) and the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
Twenty years later, things are different but not necessarily better. Instead of a cabinet official turning over the names of business executives to a political fundraiser, a cabinet official is directly soliciting business executives. On the positive side, there’s more transparency. Patrick disclosed the donations to the state Ethics Commission, detailing all sources of funding for the trade missions.
According to the Patrick administration, the nonprofit headed by Bialecki, called Moving Massachusetts Forward, was enabled by legislation approved in 2010, which encouraged more cooperation with the private sector; however, Patrick officials could not point to specific language in the bill that directs the state to establish such a fundraising entity.
The business executives who contributed are all honorable people who care about Massachusetts. They can’t be blamed for saying yes to direct solicitations from the top economic official in the Patrick administration. After all, they also care about their business interests.
The largest donation — $50,000 — came from a charitable foundation controlled by John Fish, chief executive of Suffolk Construction, which worked on the modernization of a terminal at Logan International Airport and is building an MBTA transit facility in Revere, among other government projects.
Jack Connors, chairman of the board of Partners Healthcare, donated $25,000 through his family foundation. One of the state’s hottest policy debates involves proposed changes to the medical payment system, including controls on spending that could affect Partners’ cost structure.
The State Street Foundation, the charitable arm of Boston-based State Street Corporation, gave $25,000. The financial services giant, which at one time had a contract with the state’s pension fund, could pursue the business again.
The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, one of Beacon Hill’s top business lobbies, gave $25,000. Staples contributed $5,000.
Connors told The Globe it would be “kind of an insult to me and the governor” to question whether his donation was intended to curry favor.
Actually, it’s kind of insulting that Patrick and his benefactors can’t see how their arrangement might look to others. Maybe in their hearts they believe all that money means nothing — and maybe it does mean nothing — but it’s hard for people outside their bubble to believe it. Can’t they at least acknowledge that much about appearances?
As Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican who serves as Senate minority leader, said: “It’s good that these folks are willing to participate in helping the state on its economic mission. But on the other hand, you have to wonder if it concentrates too much focus on just a few large players in the economy.”
With uncommon eloquence, Patrick, the candidate, promised to change the state’s political culture. Under Patrick, the governor, it doesn’t look or feel that different.
What’s really depressing is the persistence of politics as usual, no matter which party wins.
Try BostonGlobe.com today and get two weeks FREE.Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @Joan_Vennochi.