Aaron Maloy's Blog

Megalomania on Cape Cod

Mr. Madden: do the honorable thing and give that money to the suffering poor in your district!

Timothy Madden's primary defeat to Dan Larkosh in the race for State Representative of Barnstable, Dukes, Nantucket district not only took Madden by surprise, it must have bothered soon to retire Representative Eric Turkington who was running for Barnstable County Register of Probate. Turkington wanted to choose his successor, not the voters. Perhaps he figured that he would win the Probate position since it was a bad year for Republicans, position his friend and colleague in the Islands' legislative seat, double his pension, and expand his sphere of governmental influence.

Turkington suffered a major smackdown from Republican Anastasia Welsh-Perrino in the general election, making him the only Democratic candidate in the Commonwealth to be defeated by a Republican.

Turkington made no public endorsement in the race but apparently campaigned behind the scenes along with a ring of influential hacks for Madden, the candidate REJECTED by voters in the Democratic Primary. His efforts paid off, at least partially. While Madden ended up winning the seat as an Independent, Turkington suffered a major smackdown from Republican Anastasia Welsh-Perrino in the general election, making him the only Democratic candidate in the Commonwealth to be defeated by a Republican.
Speaking of Republicans.

During the campaign Madden tried to compete for the Republican vote by pledging to lower legislators' salaries and cut the pork in State government. Obviously such a promise was beyond realistic for a freshman legislator to propose. But he got the ear of fiscal conservatives .

Now less than one month after the election the Martha's Vineyard Times is reporting that Representative-elect Tim Madden is touting the importance of keeping a Martha's Vineyard "liason" position in addition to his legislative aide at the State House. Not only is this inconsistent with his campaign promises, it's also reprehensible given the current economic downturn.

The Cape Cod Times recently reported on the number of homeless people on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. This doesn't even include people who aren't homeless who will go without food, heat, and health care this winter. If Tim Madden was a man of integrity he would take the public dollars for the creation of this position and redistribute the money directly to those who have emergent need. The Vineyard liason position is part-time and only active approximately 6 months during the year, if that, yet it pays a $33,400 salary. There is definitely something wrong with this picture. Needy families in the district will not have enough food and will shiver at night so that a friend of the Representative elect can be "hooked up."

But unfortunately the gentry-Democrats here on the Cape got their way again ( Madden only won the vote on Nantucket and in the one small town on the Vineyard - Chilmark). Insofar as this kind of elitistism pervades Cape politics, the young and the poor will continue to leave the Cape. Sadly,they are almost gone.

Mr. Madden, if you are listening, do the honorable thing and give that money to the suffering poor in your district!