Posted on 03/31/2007 10:22:52 PM PDT by raccoonradio
The Fifth Congressional District of Massachusetts will soon elect a new U.S. representative, and today voters in the Merrimack Valley have only one question on their minds:
“How much of a pension is that @#$%&*! Marty Meehan going to get?”
The answer: $38,000 a year, at age 62, which is 12 years away.
U.S. Rep. Marty “Midas” Meehan is about to become the chancellor of UMass-Lowell, which should be good for just under $300,000 a year, plus whatever pension comes behind it. Which raises yet another burning question. Can Marty, the former state hack, “buy back” his years in the state pension system that he cashed out for $44,000 when he was first elected to Congress in 1992?
The answer to that, and all other state retirement questions: unclear.
A distant third in the voters’ minds is who exactly will replace Marty in a special election that will cost the taxpayers about $625,000. That too is uncertain, because we don’t even know the date that the primary and general elections will take place.
Filling a congressional vacancy in Massachusettsused to be fairly straightforward. But it all changed in 2004, when the political wizards in the delegation, including Midas Meehan, became convinced that Sen. John Kerry was going to be elected president.
And so they got the legislature to change the law, to start the clock running for a new election from the date of the pol’s resignation letter, rather than the date of the actual resignation from Congress itself. That way, they figured that when President-elect Kerry officially announced his resignation from the Senate in November, they could have themselves a special election to fill his seat in the winter of 2005, when only their hack supporters, and no one else, would want to venture out in the cold.
But it was not to be, thank God. And now the first special election under the new rules will fill the seat, not of the next president of the United States, but of the next chancellor of UMass-Lowell.
Of the current candidates for Meehan’s seat, three either don’t live or have only very recently moved into the district. And until late February one candidate wasn’t even a member of the party whose primary she is now running in. In other words, it’s a typical special election.
The field currently includes, among others, Middlesex Sheriff Jim DiPaola, Lowell City Councilor Eileen Donoghue and state reps Jamie Eldridge, Barry Finegold and Jim Miceli.
The front-runner, though, is Niki Tsongas, late of Charlestown, the widow of the late Paul Tsongas. With her name recognition, and the support of the Beautiful People (think Natalie Jacobson interview), Niki wants the election held ASAP. But be careful what you wish for, Mrs. Tsongas.
Suppose she got her wish and the primary election were to be held just before, say, the Fourth of July. Will Niki’s core constituents jet back from Nantucket and the Vineyard to mingle with the hoi polloi? Doubtful.
Another contender, or maybe pretender, is the High Sheriff of Middlesex, Jimmy DiPaola of Malden, which is not in the district. The sheriff’s scenario supposes that his supporters - that is, his employees - live in the district and will provide the necessary organization in a low-turnout fight.
It’s a nice theory, but whenever a guy with a lot of patronage appointees runs for a higher office that has fewer coat-holder jobs available for filling, he almost always loses. Why would any hack work hard to elect someone who will then no longer provide him with a paycheck?
I already feel the dimes dropping on Sheriff DiPaola, and it’s his own people who’ll be ratting him out, to save their own jobs. This is why sheriffs never move up. The biggest win a sheriff can hope for is that the grand jury declines to indict. Just ask Andrea Cabral.
Right now, it’s Niki Tsongas to lose. Lucky for her, it’s probably already too late for a July 3 primary. But if it isn’t, it could be another Moonbats Uber Alles night.
Tell me again how that one worked out the first time.
Howie column ping
Half the Clinton administration took the Fifth. Any of them will fit right in.
It is nice to see Marty finally follow through on his term limits now going to work (so called work) in another demagoguery profession of academia on indoctrinated leftist term papers.
Well, thank God the scumbag is out.
Now there is Frank, Kennedy and Kerry to get out the door.
IE. Bourbon, Rum, Vodka ect.
Meehan's bad enough, God knows, but I think he's, if not the best of a bad lot, far from the worst. Why couldn't they have offered the job to Markey? :(
>>Now there is Frank, Kennedy and Kerry to get out the door.
They'll only exit when the Grim Reaper eventually claims them. In other words, you'll pry their Congressional and
Senatorial seats out of their cold, dead hands.
Hello Racoon and all other Howie fans!
Does anyone know what the deal is regarding the Red Sox games pre-empting Howie's show? Is WRKO just going to drop the last hour?
If so, that really, really sucks. I like WEEI, but we rally don't need a dozen sports radio stations.
Any info is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
For the opener tomorrow (4 pm) and the home opener on April 10 (2 pm), the game will probably be on BOTH stations. WCRN and WXTK-FM may also carry it. Try WGAN Portland or the webstreams for WRKO, WNTK, etc. to get Howie
After that daytime games (1 pm starts usually) during the
regular season will be on WEEI. So will Wed. night games
I believe, or was it Friday nights.
Most Red Sox games at Fenway start at 7 pm. I thought I
read that WEEI is doing the pregame but if not, expect
to hear lots of pre-emptions of Howie's last half hour...
(i.e, for pregame coverage...)
Thank you for the info!
you're welcome. It does look like WRKO will do pre-game
coverage of the weeknight 7 pm starts so WRKO will cut away
from Howie at 6:30 when that happens
It's so foolish...the "Local Hour" usually is the best part of the show (in my opinion).
I'll have to see if I can pick him up on one of the other stations.
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