wo races do not make a trend, but the results in a pair of Democratic legislative primaries Tuesday should give pause to House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran and his lieutenants. In Brookline, Frank I. Smizik made Representative Ronny Sydney's support of Finneran on House rules changes a central issue. Sydney lost. In Arlington, challenger John Carey slammed Representative Jim Marzilli for being an anti-Finneran rebel. Marzilli won with 69 percent of the vote, a 10-point increase in his margin of two years ago against another primary opponent.
Pet drug charge has a familiar ring
Vice President Al Gore is not the only Democrat going around bashing drug companies for charging people far more for their prescriptions than is charged for their pet prescriptions. Early this year, two US House members from Massachusetts, Edward J. Markey of Malden and William Delahunt of Quincy, used the same charge - even though only a tiny fraction of drugs are approved for both human and animal use. In both cases, news reports said the two Democrats ''released'' the report, suggesting they were taking credit for a report that was done by House Democrats and made widely available. Unlike Gore, however, neither congressman claimed that his dog and mother-in-law take the same drug.
Records indicate Swift got a break
on her North End apartment rent
Was Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift given special treatment, and charged a lower rent when she lived in a North End apartment building last year? New records strongly back up allegations that she was.
From December 1998 to September 1999, Swift paid $1,100 for a one-bedroom unit in an Atlantic Avenue building owned by a politically connected developer who receives state housing subsidies, according to records from the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency. Other tenants were paying at least $1,200 for similar units.
And as soon as Swift moved out, the rent was raised to $1,300 for the tenants who replaced her. Swift was referred to the building owners by James Connolly, Governor Paul Cellucci's former chief fund-raiser and now a top State House lobbyist.
Speaker has expensive taste buds
F inneran may have the physique of someone who follows a low-calorie diet, but some of his documented dining-out habits paint a far different picture of his culinary habits. In fact, Finneran seems to insist on the most posh eating establishments in Boston. According to his campaign committee's records, Finneran is using some of the funds that he raises from special interests to take friends and colleagues to Boston's most desirable restaurants. For example, he had a $1,900 tab at the Capital Grille on Newbury Street last May 30. He ran up $978 in bills at Locke-Ober on two visits and another $693 charge at Maison Robert June 29.
For 42 years and counting, democracy
has served Middlesex court clerk
Now that he handily brushed aside his first opponent in years, Middlesex County Superior Court Clerk Edward J. Sullivan can cruise to victory in November, because Republicans have no candidate to oppose him. That expected victory guarantees that Sullivan will keep the distinction of being the only Massachusetts state or county elected official holding onto power longer than Fidel Castro. Sullivan was first elected in 1958.
Another close loss for Buonomo
Poor John Buonomo. The former Somerville alderman may now officially qualify for the political heartbreak hall of fame. Last year he lost a mayoral race to Dorothy Kelly Gay by 397 votes out of 13,343 cast. Ten years earlier, he lost his first mayoral campaign to Michael Capuano by 363 votes out of 18,403 cast. Worse still, on Tuesday came the clincher. Former Newton mayor Thomas B. Concannon Jr. edged him by 40 votes for the top spot in the nine-candidate Democratic primary for Middlesex County register of probate. That's less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the 58,073 ballots cast. A recount is likely.
Appeal by Galvin helped state
increase US Census response rate
Secretary of State William F. Galvin took heat from lawmakers last year when he spent $300,000 in state funds on a public service announcement urging Massachusetts citizens to fill out their Census forms. But the campaign, which emphasized that each uncounted person would cost the state $1,118 in federal aid, seems to have worked. Massachusetts is one of five states that met the US Census Bureau's challenge this year of increasing response to the census questionnaires by 5 percent over 1990, the bureau announced last week. Other states that met the 5 percent improvement goal were California, Rhode Island, Nevada, and Wyoming. The most improved county in the country was Suffolk County in Massachusetts, where the response rate went up 11 percent. Massachusetts spent $900,000 on the Census effort, which included paying for foreign language translators.
Goodbye State House cherry blossoms
Amassive two-year renovation of the State House is being undertaken to restore the 200-year-old building to its earlier elegance. But the project is also ripping up another Beacon Hill treasure: 23 cherry blossom trees on the east and west plazas around the building. Government workers are not taking the news well that the soft, white and pink petaled blossoms will disappear from view. Staffers in state Senator Robert Antonioni 's office, who have a view overlooking some of the trees, were shocked to learn of the uprooting. Antonioni's scheduler, Rosalie Bradanese , tried to stop the removal, and when that didn't work staffers asked if the trees could be replanted after the project. But Dennis Smith, the superintendent of the Bureau of State Buildings, said that according to arborists, half of the trees were already diseased, and there is little chance they could survive the replanting.
Globe Staffers Brian C. Mooney, Walter V. Robinson, and Frank Phillips, and Globe correspondent Regina Montague contributed to this report.
