op Gore aide unmoved by shakeup
About a month ago, Michael J. Whouley, the Dorchester native and Dewey Square Group political consultant, packed up his family and moved from Danvers to Washington, D.C., in order to be closer to Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign.
Only three months after Whouley's wife, Sally Kerans, the former state representative from Danvers, and their two children, Nora, 4, and Peter, 3 months, had been rousted from their home, Gore announced that he is moving his campaign to Nashville. Whouley also discovered that he has emerged as one of the top four advisers among those who survived the shakeup; he will be in charge of running Iowa and New Hampshire.
Despite the new responsibility, Whouley's family is staying put in Washington. And Whouley will shuttle between Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nashville. His assistant, Parisa Golkar, who recently moved from Boston to Washington, heads to Nashville.
Bradley campaign picks up support among Democratic officials here
While Gore moved to jump-start his stalled candidacy, rival Bill Bradley, the former New Jersey senator, was quietly making gains in Massachusetts last week. Democratic political consultant Michael Goldman, an early Bradley supporter, said two Democratic state senators - Brian A. Joyce of Milton and Charles Shannon from Winchester - have signed aboard, as has Representative Barbara Gardner, Democrat of Holliston and House majority whip.
Bradley has also scored with some erstwhile Newton officials, winning the backing of former mayor Tom Concannon, former state representative and congressional candidate David Mofenson, and former schoolcommitteeman Herb Regal.
Independents poised to take the lead
At the current rate, independents will constitute a majority of Massachusetts voters shortly after the 2000 state election. A Sept. 23 compilation by Secretary of State William F. Galvin's office shows that voters unenrolled in any party made up 49.24 percent of the 3.7 million voters. The percentage has grown every year since August 1990, when independents became a plurality of 43.8 percent, surpassing long-dominant Democrats. In the same period, Democrats have dipped from 42.9 percent to 37.3 and Republicans have fallen from 13.3 to 13.1 percent. The only other group qualified for party recognition is the Libertarian Party, with 7,676 voters, two-tenths of one percent. Other parties are condemned to wannabe status because none of their candidates received 3 percent of the vote in the last state election.
Lawmaker tries dancing and loves it until House majority leader cuts in
The maddening state budget impasse is making inroads into legislative decorum. Last week, when House Republican leader Francis L. Marini of Hanson urged his colleagues not to override Governor Paul Cellucci's veto of $50 million in additional highway funding, vocal Democratic Representative Christopher J. Hodgkins of Lee was moved to action - literally. Hodgkins rose at his desk and began swaying his body in what looked like an ill-advised cross between the fandango and disco fever. Hodgkins, illustrating his point that Marini was dancing around the issue, was ordered back into statesmanlike behavior by bemused majority leader William P. Nagle Jr. of Northampton. Fortunately.
Boxford buzzed by imaginary aircraft
East Boston neighborhood activists and politicians gathered on Tuesday to support the Massachusetts Port Authority's initiative to encourage commuter airline flights from Hanscom Field. ''Let's all share the burden,'' was the message. But who, exactly? Boston City Councilor Paul Scapicchio and Senator Robert E. Travaglini should perhaps consult their maps next time. Said Scapicchio, ''The people of Boxford, sure, they're worried about their homes.''
Travaglini referred to people in ''Lexington, Boxford, and Concord.'' Not Bedford, where the bulk of Hanscom is located?
Joe Malone's advice on how to hire
Former state treasurer Joe Malone was hosting a talk show on Boston's newest talk station, 96.9FM, late last month and heard from a caller so upbeat about public service he said he might run for office. Malone, clearly reflecting on the scandals involving friends and employees who allegedly stole millions from the state treasury on his watch, told caller Mike: ''I'd recommend against it.'' He added: ''If you do run, hire the best people, who aren't going to rip you off.''
Councilor's chair rudely pulled away
Robert Yaffe, appointed by former governor Michael S. Dukakis to the Public Health Council, the policy-making body for the Department of Public Health, got a rude shove out of the door, Cellucci administration style.
Yaffe, a wealthy philanthropist from Fall River, showed up at the council meeting last week and his replacement was sitting in his seat. No one bothered to tell him he had been removed from the council.
But perhaps Yaffe should not have been surprised, given that he recently told Cellucci apparatchiks at the increasingly politicized department that he would make decisions based on public health, not on the political agenda of the governor.
Jill Zuckman, Scot Lehigh, Brian C. Mooney, Brian MacQuarrie, Thomas C. Palmer Jr. and Frank Phillips, all of the Globe Staff, contributed to this report.
