Go Away, Kelly Timilty

To delve into the minutiae of Massachusetts politics again, which, I know, drives away all 12 of my readers, Kelly Timilty is a governor's councilor. She's also the sister of a state representative and a state senator, and the daughter of a former longtime Boston city councilor and mayoral candidate who was convicted of a federal felony (though apparently wrote a well-regarded book about it).

As governor's councilor, Ms. Timilty only has one job, and, fortunately, it's a part-time one: confirm the Massachusetts governor's judicial appointments. I often have an internal debate about this elected body: Another example of all the antiquated vestiges of the state's bloated government or actually a good idea because there should be a check on a governor's power to control the judicial bench? Fortunately, Ms. Timilty puts both of her thumbs on the scale for the former. Not only is her attendance record for her part-time job embarrassing (unfortunately Mass. Lawyers Weekly's story about this is hidden behind a pay-for-content wall; they're an industry publication, so I understand), but when facing a challenger in this past summer's primary, she forged Gov. Deval Patrick's endorsement. That's right: In her final campaign mailing, a few days before the Sept. 16 vote, there was a picture of her and Patrick, with Patrick's forged signature and a fabricated comment attributed to him, urging everyone to return to Timilty to office! It even had typos in it! (Gov. Patrick's campaign committee first said it would consider its legal options against Timilty, but then decided to drop the matter.)

And, of course, Timilty won soundly. While her competitor seemed qualified and competent, she didn't appear to campaign much beyond the forged endorsement and gave the worst speech that I've ever seen any politician give "on the trail." It was so bad someone suggested to me she was drunk while giving it, and I actually spent an afternoon pursuing this to see if it could be proved or was true. (It couldn't and I don't think it was.) But she won because she has the last name Timilty, which, even in the post-machine politics of 2008, is enough for the governor's council because all one needs to win are a few thousand votes that are easy to round up when you're part of the old Boston politician families who know a lot of people who know a lot of people, most of them in unions, which, for all their faults, still head to the polls reliably, for which they must be recognized.

Her apology for it all, issued a few days after the election and a few days after it came from the lips of one of Boston's top P.R. guys, who all the "elite" hire temporarily when they're in trouble and need someone to rhetorically massage the press: "I was with him at a couple of events, and I guess I just assumed it was OK. I can't blame anybody but myself."

This incident has irritated me for the past six weeks, so, on Election Day eve, when Massachusetts state politics are again engulfed in scandal, I suppose the point of this rant is, We get the government for which we vote. Vote for intelligence and inspiration tomorrow.

Update: Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, a Democrat, has fined Timilty $8,000 for faking Patrick's endorsement, which is eight times the maximum penalty a criminal conviction could have imposed. Good for Coakley.