Massachusetts

Any reports, based on this Tuesday's election, that Massachusetts politics have gone clean must be unfortunately classed as premature. There were some impressive victories for the good guys, to be sure: corruption-busting Attorney General Edward Brooke won by a tremendous 725,000 vote margin; the indictment-marred Governor's Council lost its statutory powers; the "man you can trust" is now our next Governor; and the grasping General Court has lost its pay raise.

But beneath the surface these victories are not so impressive. Brooke has benefited enormously from evidence he has presented before a grand jury, but it was perhaps luck for him that most of the cases have not gone to trial. So far, of the two cases tried, it is likely that both will end up as acquittals. State Representative Turo of Worcester was acquitted by the jury in his trial and Governor's Councilor Stasiun's conviction will probably be overturned by a higher court since the State's evidence is on the flimsy side. Furthermore, Brooke's opponent, state Senator James Hennigan, was never serious about winning--Hennigan, who is almost unknown outside Boston, concentrated on building up his organization for a serious effort two years hence.

Question 5, which takes away from the Governor's Council the power to confirm nearly all appointments, passed easily but on the basis of an irrelevant consideration: the indictment of three current and one former councilor. The logic which demands that the Council be abolished when its members come under a cloud presumably should have called for the abolition of the State Police after its commissioner was indicted, but that has not happened. Furthermore, since it takes two to give a bribe, one can hardly expect that the practice of buying one's appointment will cease just because the storekeeper has changed. The Council, a body without any responsibility, should have been abolished, with its functions given to the Senate, which can confirm appointments in a responsible manner. But since the people were under the impression the Council was a bunch of crooks they abolished the power, leaving the Governor free to appoint whom the chooses.

The election of the trustworthy candidate, former Governor Volpe, does not necessarily promise a real revolution in the Commonwealth's political morals. The first 22 months of his first term, until he lost the election, were marked by unusual if colorless honesty, but in the mad scramble afterwards by his supporters and staff to get jobs before the Democrats took over, he did little to distinguish himself. The Democratic Governor's Council, uncertain of its relations with the new Governor, Chub Peabody, and anxious to get his friends into office, was more than cooperative in making deals with Volpe who had a lot of appointing to do before clearing out.

It may be true that the members of the Great and General Court showed crass stupidity in voting themselves retroactive pay raises after an earlier referendum for a smaller increase lost, but it is unlikely Massachusetts will get a better class of men for its legislators until it pays a better wage. The passage of the referendum simply denying a pay raise for the second time sweeps the question of what to do about the woefully underpaid ($5200 per year) legislature under the rug. Simultaneously, however, voters approved a pay hike for Boston policemen, boosting their starting salary to $6900. Neither salary is adequate, but the legislators ought not to be put under a greater compulsion to steal for a living than the police.

Other election results are almost as disappointing. The voters registered little protest against the Common-wealth's rotten system which gives away most elections below the top of the ticket by default to one party or the other. All of the state's 12 congressmen, for instance, who had token opposition at most, were easily re-elected. Some of them, like Representative Silvio O. Conte and Edward Boland, deserved re-election anyway, but it would do the others a lot of good if they had to campaign. Similarly, if the Republicans would nominate real candidates for the lower constitutional offices (Secretary, Treasurer and Auditor), they might at least prevent the the Democrats from running mostly hacks whose only qualifications are their ambitions. As it stands now, the voters, having heard of neither candidate, and knowing no evil of the Democrats, vote for him.

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There are some bright spots, as there inevitably must be, even in a Massachusetts election. Ted Kennedy's tremendous victory coupled with Bellotti's defeat insures the Senator control over the party apparatus, and the continuation of his policy of reform begun by the appointment of Democratic state chairman Gerry Doherty. Kennedy has been trying to build up a liberal party organization that can work for candidates in the primary, and unify the various personal followings that make up the party. Bellotti's defeat after his divisive primary victory, should tend to strengthen the convention system and discourage primary races based purely on ambition.

Volpe's unexpected triumph proves that, at the top of the ticket anyway, the Commonwealth's electorate can distinguish Barry Goldwater from native Republicans--a million voters split their tickets for Johnson and Volpe. Brooke's victory also demonstrates that, at least in theory, the voters are against sin and corruption (though they re-elected the two indicted Councilors and the felon running for the General Court).

The impact of Goldwaterism in this state was just about nil. With some other Republican, Johnson, while still winning by a big margin, would probably have run somewhat behind Kennedy and Bellotti would have sunk like a stone under a tidal wave of Volpe votes, since few Republicans would have had reason to split their tickets. There was no Ken Keating in Massachusetts. Even somebody as unknown and as vulnerable to a Democratic landslide as Elywnn Miller, the Republican aspirant for Auditor, held on to the usual number of GOP votes as he lost in the usual fashion. Lloyd Waring, the local Goldwater man, is going to be very lonely in the next two years as Saltonstall, Volpe, Brooke and Richardson all ignore him and proceed with business as usual.

But if there were any doubt that the Commonwealth's ways would be changed, it was dispelled the day after the election in Wellfleet, a charming Cape Cod summer community. For his part in the construction of some harbor improvements, Deputy Sheriff Lawrence Gardinier was convicted on eight counts of larceny and adjudged "a common and notorious thief."