Jane Swift
First female governor [of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts]
After Governor Paul Cellucci resigned to become the US ambassador to Canada in 2001, then-lieutenant governor Swift took over his post and became the first woman to hold the state’s highest office.
She was also the first governor to give birth while in office – to twin girls, Lauren and Sarah.
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Re: www.advocateweekly.com/ci_10788158, "Lecture" on Monday, Oct. 27, 2008, - Williams College, former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift will discuss "Lipstick Republicans and Why They Make the Left Crazy," 8 p.m. Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall, Williamstown. Info: williams.edu. Source: ("AdvocateWeekly.com", Thursday, October 23, 2008):
JANE SWIFT bankrupted the Commonwealth of Massachusetts during her tenure as Acting Governor! Due to her poor leadership, the state government made brutal fiscal cuts to many important programs, including public education, state aid to local governments, social services, and the like. I sat at political events where medical doctors and municipal officials pleaded with corrupt Legislators to not endorse JANE SWIFT's brutal budget cuts! If anyone sold out Berkshire County more than "Luciforo", it was Jane Swift!
Other Jane Swift public disservices:
As Berkshire County's State Senator in the early to mid-1990s, Jane Swift was always against the death penalty. In 1998, Governor Paul Cellucci picked Jane Swift as his running mate and overnight she changed her position without conscience!
The cornerstone of John McCain and Sarah Palin's presidential campaign is their cultural war against WOMEN, especially a woman's right to choose. Jane Swift has always been pro-choice on abortion! Now, again without conscience, Jane Swift is defending Sarah Palin's platform AGAINST women.
On the Big Dig: The following Boston Globe Op-Ed says it all about Jane Swift's terrible tenure as Massachusetts Governor! ...
www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/11/15/what_went_wrong_at_the_big_dig/
When Jane Swift was brought to court over Big Dig related issues, the local (Boston) news station showed the evidence of Jane Swift's notes during her Big Dig meetings. She had doodles on every page that reflected the mentality of a sixth-grade student! The newsman called Jane Swift a "ditz"!
Why would WILLIAMS COLLEGE be so shallow as to host Jane Swift's lecture on "Lipstick Republicans"? Is this a joke? I hope so. The biggest joke of them all is Jane Swift! And, sad to say, she is not very funny!
In Dissent!
Jonathan A. Melle
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The Boston Globe, Op-Ed, PETER PENDERGAST
"What went wrong at the Big Dig"
By Peter Pendergast, November 15, 2004
ONE NEED ONLY consider the Grand Canyon to be reminded of the magnitude of the corrosive effect of water over sand and stone -- and to understand the gravity of the problem we face with over 400 leaks breaching the tunnel walls of the Big Dig.
How could we spend $14.25 billion -- and counting -- and end up with a tunnel gushing millions of gallons of water?
At one level, the answer seems simple: soil and clay deposits in concrete poured to create the (now leaking) tunnel walls. Then add in shoddy work and an unimaginable lack of oversight and quality control by the construction manager, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff. But from a broader governmental and management perspective, the answer is even more troublesome.
On Nov. 16, 2001, then Acting Governor Jane Swift fired then Turnpike Vice Chairman Christy Mihos and Director Jordan Levy. We are now paying for those firings and may for some time.
As the direct result of the firings and her appointment of Matt Amorello as Turnpike chairman, Swift stopped the ongoing management restructuring of the Big Dig, including the cornerstone of the reform, to hire an owner's engineer to oversee the otherwise unsupervised Bechtel/Parsons.
Mihos's restructuring initiative could have mitigated or prevented the leaks, as well as other flaws, during construction, when errors could have been avoided or repaired. The result is tragic and devastating.
The leading candidate at the time to become the owner's engineer supervising Bechtel/Parsons was legendary "Chunnel" construction manager Jack Lemley. In the mid-1990s, Lemley had written a report critical of Big Dig construction management. Ironically, Lemley is now leading the investigation of the leaks he might have prevented.
But as the new Turnpike chairman, Amorello refused to implement the board's resolution to hire an owner's engineer. Indeed, Bechtel/Parsons remains unsupervised today.
Instead, Amorello forced out the entire legal staff of the Office of the General Counsel. The staff had played an important role in investigating Bechtel/Parsons and in restructuring management of the firm, including taking over its authority to make decisions to pay contractor's claims for extra work. The general counsel had also interviewed the candidates for owner's engineer as well as other construction management firms capable of replacing the Bechtel hierarchy.
A month before Swift's firings, her office had asked about purported plans by the Turnpike Board to terminate Bechtel/Parsons for mismanagement. Just after 7 a.m. on Oct. 9, Turnpike CEO Richard Capka called me at home. Capka said he had just spoken to Steve Crosby, Swift's secretary of administration and finance, who had told him that Bechtel had contacted Swift at her home in North Adams and voiced concerns that the Turnpike Board would terminate the company at the board's meeting two days later. As general counsel, I informed Capka that I had no knowledge of such a plan.
One day later, Swift again intervened on behalf of Bechtel/Parsons and undermined the Turnpike Authority's ongoing negotiations with the company. The negotiations included issues of restructuring of Big Dig management, and a demand for reparations from Bechtel/Parsons in the amount of $250 million.
Prior to the morning session of the negotiations, a Turnpike employee received a phone call from a friend who was an aide to the acting governor. The aide stated that the Bechtel/Parsons team participating in the negotiations had a meeting scheduled in Swift's office prior to the afternoon negotiating session.
In the morning meeting, Bechtel made an offer of payment to the Turnpike of $50 million, with contingencies. That afternoon, within minutes of returning from the meeting in Swift's office, Bechtel/Parsons walked away from the negotiations.
One month later, Swift announced the firings and left the Commonwealth with the problems that have now come to light. She cited as her reasons "micromanagement" and "financial irresponsibility" for delaying toll increases for six months.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court saw through Swift's pretense and declared her terminations unlawful. The court reinstated the board members. It was too late, however, to save the reforms that could have avoided the disaster we now face. In the meantime, the Legislature expanded the Turnpike Board by two members to be able to vote out the management reform at the Big Dig.
It did not have to happen.
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Peter Pendergast was the general counsel of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority from August 2000 to July 2002.
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Pittsfield's political inbred, dark prince: Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr.! -(below)-
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"What happens to Sarah Palin now?"
Wednesday, November 5, 2008, 3:37pm EST, By Steve Holland - Analysis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin was a phenomenon as the Republican vice presidential running mate to John McCain, and the question for the self-styled moose-hunting hockey mom is: What now?
Alaska Gov. Palin, plucked from obscurity and thrust on to the national stage to mixed reviews, was publicly cool to talk that she might have caught the presidential bug and seek to run against Democrat Barack Obama in 2012.
"I don't know politically where in the world I'll be then," she told reporters on Wednesday in Phoenix.
But her interest in playing some kind of national role was evident from the words of McCain himself on Tuesday night in his concession speech after he was defeated by Obama.
"We can all look forward with great interest to her future service to Alaska, the Republican Party and our country," he said.
Palin, 44, drew huge crowds on the campaign trail, bigger than McCain's. She proved to be a powerful performer in stump speeches, energizing the Republican base.
But she was less effective in television interviews, botching a couple of early media encounters to the point that some prominent conservatives said she was too inexperienced to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Her folksy, "you betcha" style was both refreshing and grist for countless jokes on late-night television, giving a career boost to her actress doppelganger, Tina Fey of NBC's "Saturday Night Live."
"She clearly has a future in national politics," said Republican strategist Scott Reed. "She has to work to rebuild the parts of her image that became a caricature. But she's extremely popular with the grassroots."
"Palin needs to take some time back in Alaska and regroup with her day job. There's plenty of time to plot and scheme after the Christmas holidays," he said.
REPUBLICAN VISIONS
While Palin was selected by McCain in 2008, if she ran in 2012 she would compete against formidable members of her own party with their own visions like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Republican strategist Tony Fabrizio said Palin is not the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2012. He noted in particular some revelations uncovered by the news media during what amounted to a public vetting of her record once she was picked by McCain.
Her acceptance of thousands of dollars in daily travel expenses from the state while living at home and the Republican Party's costly shopping spree to equip her and her family with designer clothing may come back to haunt her.
"She needs to go back home and face all of the stuff that's been raked up in the presidential race. Voters in Alaska found out a lot of stuff about Sarah Palin that they didn't know about Sarah Palin. She's got to go back and get herself re-elected," Fabrizio said.
Palin's future may depend on how the Republican Party itself changes in response to its defeat.
Social conservatives who are warmest to Palin represent a dwindling minority in the party, which was rocked by the Obama victory and will now undergo a period of reflection and soul-searching about the future.
Palin was said to have little time for people who did not agree with her socially conservative views.
"If she wants to be a voice for a part of the new failed Republican Party, she's going to have to broaden her appeal," said a McCain staff member who asked not to be named.
Linda Fowler, a political science professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, said a drop in oil prices could hit Alaska's budget and make her job as governor much tougher, jeopardizing her high approval rating in the state.
"I think there will be a different environment for her in Alaska both because of the national exposure, which won't necessarily be positive, and because the internal politics of the state will probably change," she said.
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www.aboutamherst.blogspot.com/2008/11/show-me-way.html
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www.palinology.blogspot.com
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"Quotes of note", boston.com, January 10, 2009
"We will perhaps be able to prove that there is a class issue here."-- Alaska Governor SARAH PALIN, on media treatment of her and Caroline Kennedy.
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"Jane Swift offers her wisdom"
By Dennis Shaughnessey, The Lowell Sun, Friday, February 20, 2009
LOWELL — Jane Swift didn't look like anyone else on Beacon Hill when she was first elected to the state Senate in 1990.
"I was 25 years old. I had been a staffer for a few years and I had strong opinions about things that were being handled badly," Swift told political science students at University of Massachusetts Lowell yesterday. "Like most 25-year-olds, I was sure I was right about everything upon which I took a position. I had no fear."
Swift, a Republican, was part of the anti-incumbent wave that swept the state that year. She was elected lieutenant governor under Gov. Paul Cellucci in 1999, and slid into the corner office two years later when Cellucci became the ambassador to Canada. Swift served for 20 months.
"I was never popular with the Legislature. I knew that," Swift said. "Because I wasn't elected, I never felt I had a political mandate and all the strength that comes with that."
Swift, a Williamstown resident, told the students, some of them aspiring politicians, that they can learn from her successes and mistakes.
"I presided over a budget crisis much like we're going through today. And as tempting as it is to delay solutions and pick your way through a crisis, the best thing you can do is act quickly and decisively to get through the pain," she said. "The sooner you cut, the better the opportunity to recover quickly."
She made hard decisions that did not curry favor with the Democrat-laden Legislature, she said.
"It was hard to stem their spending appetite when times were good. It's not that they didn't want to put money aside; it's that they didn't want to not spend it," she said with a broad smile. "They couldn't help themselves. It was hard to get them to realize that the good times wouldn't last forever."
Swift told the story of meeting a former high school classmate who was working as a cashier at a local supermarket. As governor, Swift had rescinded dental coverage for adults on Medicare in order to protect funding for children's coverage.
"She was packing my groceries and said, 'Jane, did you really cut my dental coverage? Why would you do that to me?' " she recounted. "It was not a fun moment, and the reasons I could have given her were good public policy but would have been completely irrelevant to her. The thing you believe you can live without is exactly the thing that your neighbor across the street cannot live without."
The 45-minute lecture featured questions from the students. On the stimulus package, Swift advised caution at the state level.
"It needs to be spent is such a way that it doesn't create a structural deficit and it can be sustained over a long period," she said, adding that there is always a danger of funding programs that will not be there in the long term.
On public higher education, Swift said the focus for too long has been getting students into college with little thought given to completion rates.
"We have to deal with the fact that we have given a lot of money to a lot of students to start college but many of those students never finish and are left to deal with the debt that comes with it," she chastised.
After the lecture, Swift said she has no desire to re-enter public life.
"I'm very happy being a wife and mother and getting out to speak to groups like this. It's very satisfying."
Her decision not to run for the governor's office in "00" simply came down to timing, she said.
"In 1990, I thought I was the best candidate since sliced bread," she said. "It was pure brilliance on my part to decide to run, when the truth is, I ran at exactly the right time. Compare that to "00," when it was absolutely the wrong time."
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www.topix.net/forum/source/berkshire-eagle/TFKEN3D9Q56SUEGOJ
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Jane Swift in 2007 at her Williamstown home. ''I can't think of a better use of the funds,'' she said of her donation. (Christine Peterson for The Boston Globe/File 2007)
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"Swift donates $159,000 in campaign funds to foster-care charity"
By Stephanie Ebbert, Boston Globe Staff, April 7, 2009
Seven years after she bowed out of an uphill battle for the governor's office, Jane Swift, the former acting governor, is officially dissolving her state political campaign account and donating the funds to a charity for foster children.
Though she does not rule out a future run for Congress, Swift said she is no longer mulling a state campaign.
"I think it's the right time. I don't have any short-term plans to run for statewide office," Swift said in a phone interview. "It was really important to keep my political options open, all of them, after I left office. It wasn't a long-planned departure so I wanted to make sure I didn't do anything hastily, but it's pretty clear to me from a personal and professional standpoint that a statewide campaign isn't in the near future."
Swift, who at 25 was the youngest woman elected to the Massachusetts state Senate, ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 1996. Then she was tapped as Governor Paul Cellucci's running mate, won office, and vaulted to the governor's office when Cellucci left midterm. Her tenure was marked by controversies, however, and by the time she made history nationally - as the first woman in the country to have a baby while serving as governor - she was considered politically vulnerable in Massachusetts.
With plummeting approval ratings, she bowed out of the race for governor in 2002 when Mitt Romney stepped in and siphoned off party support. Last year, Swift campaigned for US Senator John McCain, who claimed the party's presidential nomination over Romney.
Although Swift has held the door open for a political comeback, she is now focused on consulting for private, for-profit education companies, and raising her three daughters in Williamstown. Her husband, Chuck Hunt, has opened a riding ring and is running their farm as a business. Swift yesterday was coordinating a Shakespeare festival.
"I enjoy doing that stuff," she said. "There are lots of ways to make your community and state and country better."
Several other former officeholders continue to retain their state accounts after surrendering their titles. After leaving the State House for a presidential campaign in 2007, Romney has $18,665 left in his account, even after spending $12,500 in partial payments for his official portrait in January, state records show. Romney's lieutenant governor and 2006 candidate for governor, Kerry Healey, still had $19,690 in her political account at the end of March, according to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
Politicians who close down their campaign accounts have four options for the remaining funds: donating to a local city or town, to the state's general fund, to a charity, or to a scholarship fund, according to the political finance office.
Swift committed the remainder of her campaign funds - about $159,000 - to the DCF Kids Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to the 45,000 children in foster care through the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. The charity provides foster children everything from car seats and clothes to piano lessons and SAT training.
"The fact that I was a high-profile mom when I was in politics and focused a lot on children's and family and education issues made finding and identifying a charity pretty easy," Swift said.
"I can't think of a better use of the funds. It's really a tribute to all the people who supported me through my time as an elected official."
Her donation is a significant one for DCF Kids Fund, which raised about $370,000 last year, said Saf Caruso, executive director of the fund.
"I am just so, so touched by her kindness," said Caruso. "I could barely sleep I was so excited. This is going to help us in so many ways. We are just eternally grateful."
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www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/07/swift_donates_159000_in_campaign_funds_to_foster_care_charity/
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READERS' COMMENTS:
On 4/7/2009, wbc363 wrote:
Please, give me a break. She wants credit for donating money that was not even hers? Should have been done years ago. She is so egotistical she must have been dreaming that she might get elected to something. Glad she woke up. She was one of the worst things to happen to this state.
On 4/7/2009, FattyArbuckle wrote:
wbc363 is absolutely right.
While I have no problem with any charity receiving assistance in this lousy economy, the monies being donated were never Jane Swift's in the first place and she shouldn't come across as some knight in shining armor arriving to save the day.
She always kept her option open to run for another state office which basically gave her permission to spend thousands of dollars on travel and meals long after she left Beacon Hill provided it was itemized as a "campaign expense".
I'm sure even Jane herself really couldn't believe that after her disaster as "acting governor" that she would ever be elected to any public office again, except maybe perhaps as dog catcher in Williamstown.
On 4/7/2009, christy11 wrote:
The Acting Governor broke state law, federal law and conspired to protect Bechtel and the other entities that mismanaged the Big Dig. Class Act? Class Action lawsuit would better describe what the Taxpayers should have done.
On 4/7/2009, TyroneJ wrote:
Six years ago, when Jane Swift dropped out of the campaign for the GOP nomination, she had almost $1.2M in her campaign war chest. Six years later, with no public office bids, she's only got $159k left? Sounds like that's the real story here.
On 4/7/2009, roxy63 wrote:
TyroneJ is on the money. How the heck does the reporter leave those facts out of the story? Swifty spends over $1MM of other people's money on meals, hotel rooms and gifts and then donates the leftover change and is made to look like some kind of hero? What am I missing?
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"Swift's generous donation"
The Berkshire Eagle, Editorial, Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Life isn't always easy for foster children and parents, but it will be better for many of them because of former acting Governor Jane Swift's decision to donate the $159,000 remaining in her state campaign fund to the DCF Kids Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to the 45,000 children in foster care through the state. Children's issues are important to Ms. Swift, who became the first woman in the country to have a baby while serving as governor, and her donation will help foster children in a variety of ways, from new clothes to music lessons to educational assistance. Ms. Swift, who as lieutenant governor took over for Paul Cellucci mid-term, chose not to run for governor once the Republican Party became infatuated with white knight Mitt Romney, and is now consulting for education companies, participating in community activities, and raising her three daughters in Williamstown with her husband, Chuck Hunt. She is young enough to have a political future, but more immediately, she has done a good deed for needy kids and the parents building lives for them.
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"[Jane] Swift Donates State War Chest to Charity"
iBerkshires.com - April 09, 2009
WILLIAMSTOWN, Massachusetts — Former Gov. Jane Swift has decided decisively against running for a spot on Beacon Hill with the dissolution of her state campaign account.
According The Boston Globe, the state's first woman governor has donated the remaining funds in the account, about $159,000, to DCF Kids, a nonprofit that provides assistance from child-care items to educational opportunities to some 45,000 foster chidren across the state.
She told The Globe, however, that while she hasn't ruled out running for Congress, it was "the right time" to close the state account.
The Berkshire County Republican unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst, in 1996.
Children and education have the main focus of the mother of three, who volunteers regularly at Williamstown Elementary School and other activities with her daughters. She's an educational consultant and sits on the board of Sally Ride Science.
Elected lieutenant governor in 1998 and appointed acting governor when A. Paul Celucci stepped down to become ambassador to Canada, Swift had a short troubled term and was pushed aside when Mitt Romney became the darling of the state Republican Party.
Swift hasn't been completely out of the public eye since leaving office in 2002. She signed on early to Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign as an education adviser and headed the "truth squad" when his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin came under fire. She also backed West Springfield businessman Nathan Bech in his unsuccessful bid to unseat Olver.
"It was really important to keep my political options open, all of them, after I left office," she told The Globe earlier this week. "... it's pretty clear to me from a personal and professional standpoint that a statewide campaign isn't in the near future."
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"Sarah Palin Goes to W.A.R."
ABC News - The World Newser - April 15, 2009
ABC News' Stu Schutzman reports:
Smoke is rising from the Alaska state legislature this week and it's Sarah Palin's pick for Attorney General who is on the hot seat. Anchorage attorney Wayne Anthony Ross -- W.A.R. on his Hummer vanity plate -- has been grilled to a turn by some members who consider his radical right wing views over the top for high public office.
"Do you recall," asked one member, "ever making a statement, 'it's OK for a man to rape his wife?'"
"That's a bunch of crap," replied Ross.
Ap_sarah_palin_pulls_out_090331_mai But, according to Leah Burton, an Alaska women's rights activist quoted by The Daily Beast.com, Ross apparently told a father’s rights group in 1991 -- "If a guy can't rape his wife, who's he gonna rape?"
And there's more. Burton quotes Ross, during a debate on women's rights issues, allowing that "if a woman would keep her mouth shut, there wouldn’t be an issue with domestic violence."
Moving on from one controversy to the next...According to the Anchorage Daily news, during a debate on anti-discrimination law, Ross wrote a missive to the Alaska Bar calling gays 'immoral...degenerates."
Legislators asked him how he would deal with a gay attorney applying for a state job.
"My personal opinions in that regard have no place," he replied, "and I decline to state my opinion."
Ross has referred to Dr. Martin Luther King as a "communist subversive" and in an op-ed piece he wrote called "KKK 'Art' Project Gets 'A' For Courage," Ross attacked an African American student for being offended by a Ku Klux Klan statue on a local campus.
"It might have been fun to see{her} try to remove the display," he wrote, "then she could have been arrested..."
During his run for governor in 2002, Ross heartily opposed Alaska's Native Americans' subsistence rights, that is their federally protected rights to hunt and fish. He said as governor, he would "hire a band of junkyard attorneys" to reverse the law. Alaska Indians felt candidate Ross was "rubbing our face on the ground."
Says Governor Palin about this -- "Obviously, I am not anti-Native and would never appoint anyone who is."
But the question of the day is, what is Sarah Palin really up to? Will she stick with this nominee? Will she dump him before his confirmation vote? A big decision which could have a profound impact on her presidential aspirations for 2112. Risky business...like going to W.A.R.
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Reader's Comment - Posted by: "mickey" on April 15, 2009
The research in this blog post is lacking at best. Leah Burton is an anti-palin person who wrote an entire book attacking the woman. She wrote a letter to the house and senate hearings panel outlining here charge but it all pretty much come out as rumours and nothing more as she had no one to back up her statements.
As for gays, W.A.R did state he would hire a gay person because his feelings (whatever they may be) does not influence his work. He seems to have a libertarian streak in him.
The stance on natives and subsistance has nothing to do with natives but the alaska consitution which states that all alaskans have to the same rights to fish and hunting. Natives lobby that this is unfair and they require a larger share (i'm okay with that because they live in more rural areas). W.A.R's stance is if the natives want that then they should lobby to amend the alaska constitution instead of breaking it.
As for the display of the KKK thing it was actually a display by a student on his representation of an evil monster or something and W.A.R defends the students right to express his opinion (does anyone know the ACLU?).
why would palin pick him? no idea but he does appear to have more of a backbone than the last A.G. who resigned.
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(Essdras M. Suarez/Globe Staff/File)
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The Boston Globe, Op-Ed
JOAN VENNOCHI
"Palin still an easy target"
By Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe Columnist, May 7, 2009
EVERYONE is piling on Sarah Palin, even though she will never be president of the United States.
The Alaska governor is everyone's favorite foil, from the left-wing Huffington Post to the ever-posturing Mitt Romney. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee who cynically chose her as his running mate, now snubs her with relish.
They all act like she has a real chance to win the White House, when they all know the truth. When it comes to be taken seriously by the general electorate as a potential president, it's as over for her as it was for Dan Quayle.
Quayle was doomed even after he served four years as vice president. He was the proverbial heartbeat away from the first President Bush, but could never overcome the perception that he lacked gravitas.
Palin only ran for vice president; she never made it from Wasilla to Washington. And her political problem is bigger than Quayle's, because it extends to her family.
Think about the picture-perfect Obama family, from adorable First Daughters to adorable First Puppy. And speaking of adorable, what is more adorable than the president and his wife strolling hand-in-hand around the White House grounds after a Saturday night date? Their family image is managed expertly by the White House with help from the media.
Palin's family portrait is much more complicated and gritty. In some ways, it is more reflective of the reality of American family life. But it brings baggage that is especially difficult for a female candidate to overcome.
From the moment Palin appeared on the national scene as a surprise pick for vice president, her family attracted critical attention. Palin had to fight off Internet-spawned rumors that her youngest child, Trig, who was born with Down syndrome, was really her daughter's. Then came the real news. Bristol Palin, her 17-year-old daughter, was unwed and pregnant, despite her mother's abstinence-only platform.
Palin weathered those headlines and others about her snowmobiling husband, Todd. As the campaign moved forward, she was undercut more by her own performance in a series of nationally televised interviews. They revealed an inexperienced candidate with a superficial understanding of economic and foreign policy matters. Palin managed to survive a debate with Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, and remained popular on the campaign trail with her core conservative constituency.
But she was a major turnoff to the very voters she was supposed to attract - Hillary Clinton's female supporters.
Palin is still extremely popular with the hard-core conservative base and was recently named to the National Council for a New America, a group aimed at rebranding the GOP. A recent CNN/Opinion Research poll of 429 Republicans gave Palin a slight edge over fellow Republicans like Romney and Mike Huckabee. Palin also made Time magazine's list of influential people, causing Romney to crack: "But was that the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people?"
Romney is smarter and more accomplished than Palin, and just as good-looking. But Palin has something he lacks: a core set of unwavering conservative principles. It gives her an early advantage with Republican primary voters.
Lucky for rivals like Romney, Palin also faces an ongoing family soap opera that continues to undercut her political message. Bristol Palin broke up with Levi Johnston, the father of their child. The two are not getting married, as announced during the presidential campaign. Johnston's mother faces a drug possession trial. His sister accused Bristol Palin of calling her family "white trash." After giving one interview in which she said abstinence is "not realistic at all," Bristol Palin is now speaking out as a teen advocate for abstinence.
None of that should matter. But family issues do matter, especially for female candidates. When it comes to temperament, accomplishments, and work/family balance, women always walk a line. The line Palin walks as a working mother of five and new grandmother continues to trip her up as a presidential candidate.
That makes her an easy target for Democrats and Republicans, who enjoy running against her.
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Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com.
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"Campaign 2012: Palin retakes stage, hits Obama's policies"
Boston.com - Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor, June 8, 2009
She's back.
Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee last year, returned to her job as Alaska's governor and laid low for weeks, avoiding high-profile appearances.
But she made several appearances in New York over the weekend, she's stayed in the first tier of candidates in the early handicapping for 2012, and she's now making the rounds of the cable talking head shows.
Unsurprisingly, she takes a rather dim view of how President Obama is doing.
“A lot of this is wrapped in good rhetoric but we’re not seeing those actions," she says in an interview airing tonight on Fox News Channel's "Hannity" show. "And this many months into the new administration, quite disappointed, quite frustrated with not seeing those actions to rein in spending, slow down the growth of government. Instead Sean, it is the complete opposite. It’s expanding at such a large degree that if Americans aren’t paying attention, unfortunately our country could evolve into something that we do not even recognize. Certainly that is so far from what the founders of our country had in mind for us.”
According to excerpts released by Fox, she also hits Obama on the government's actions on General Motors, which declared bankruptcy last week in hopes of emerging a streamlined company that can survive.
“America is digging a deeper hole - and how are we paying for this government largesse? We’re borrowing. We’re borrowing from China and when you consider that now we own sixty percent of General Motors – or the U.S. government does," Palin says… "But who is the U.S. government becoming more indebted to? It’s China. So that leads you to have to ask - who is really going to own our car industry in America?”
Asked whether she missed the spotlight, Palin replied: “I love my time in Alaska. At the same time though I crave, if not my voice, other voices out there being bold, being strong letting Americans know that those that are concerned about the growth of government and about national security issues, they’re not alone. There are others who are empathizing and more than empathizing are wanting to take action to make sure that economically and physically that our homeland is safe and secure.”
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Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska made the surprise announcement in Wasilla. (Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman)
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"Palin to quit, stunning her state, party: News fuels rumors of a 2012 run"
By Philip Rucker and Eli Saslow, Washington Post, July 4, 2009
WASHINGTON - Sarah Palin, the Republican Alaska governor who captivated the nation with a combative brand of folksy politics, announced her resignation yesterday in characteristic fashion: She stood on her back lawn in Wasilla, speaking into a single microphone, surrounded by friends and neighbors in baseball hats and polo shirts. Noisy geese interrupted the speech.
The announcement that she would step down by the end of July, with 18 months left in her first term, stunned the political establishment, providing an endpoint to this chapter of her career and fueling speculation about her plans.
Palin said she arrived at her decision in part to protect her family, which has faced withering criticism and occasional mockery, and to escape ethics probes that have drained her family’s finances and hampered her ability to govern. She said leaving office is in the best interest of the state and will allow her to more effectively advocate for issues of importance to her, including energy independence and national security.
“I love my job and I love Alaska, and it hurts to make this choice, but I’m doing what’s best for them,’’ Palin said, the sun glinting off a seaplane on Lake Lucille behind her.
Palin, 45, said that she knew she would not run for reelection as governor and that she did not want to be a “lame duck’’ merely for the sake of serving out the remainder of her term.
“I cannot stand here as your governor and allow the millions of dollars and all that time go to waste just so I can hold the title of governor,’’ she said.
She stood at a makeshift lectern surrounded by the family that accompanied her along one of the most unusual arcs in modern American politics: from obscure small-town mayor to Senator John McCain’s running mate; from mother of five to tabloid sensation; and from making the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention to delivering the roundabout remarks yesterday at her waterfront home.
Eleven minutes into an 18-minute speech that covered the history of Alaska and her dedication to the state, Palin said she will relinquish the governorship to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell.
“All I can ask is that you trust me with this decision and know that it is no more politics as usual,’’ she said.
Palin, who has widely been seen as a leading 2012 presidential contender, said she had tired of “superficial, wasteful political blood sport.’’ She did not specify what she will do next.
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said later in a statement that Palin is “an important and galvanizing voice’’ in the GOP and will help the party’s gubernatorial candidates this fall in Virginia and New Jersey.
Nick Ayers, executive director of the Republican Governors Association, said Palin plans to expand her role in the national party. “Part of her decision is she wants to spend more time campaigning for candidates,’’ Ayers told Fox News.
He added that some lawmakers and activists in Alaska have been doing “everything they can to stymie her progress,’’ and that Palin determined she could no longer “make significant change in the state.’’
The state of Alaska has spent almost $300,000 investigating ethics complaints against Palin and her staff, including her firing of a public safety commissioner who said he was terminated over his refusal to dismiss a state trooper involved in a messy divorce with the governor’s sister.
Palin said she and her husband, Todd, have spent $500,000 “just to set the record straight.’’ She has been the subject of 15 ethics probes, 13 of which have been resolved by the state Personnel Board with no findings of wrongdoing. The other two are pending. One of the resolved complaints led to Palin’s agreement to reimburse the state by $8,100 for costs associated with trips she took with her children.
Recent Alaska polls put Palin’s approval rating in the low- to mid-50s, a far cry from her high of about 90 percent.
The governor has remained in the news lately, and rarely for political reasons. Her last months have included a spat with David Letterman over jokes she considered inappropriate, a critical profile in Vanity Fair that fueled a public squabble among McCain’s former campaign aides about Palin, questions about her appearance at a Republican fund-raiser, and near-constant coverage of her daughter’s breakup with her fiance, Levi Johnston.
Using a sports analogy, the former high school basketball star once nicknamed “Sarah Barracuda’’ said: “A good point guard, here’s what she does. She drives through a full-court press, protecting the ball, keeping her head up because she needs to keep her eye on the basket, and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so the team can win. That’s what I’m doing. I’m passing the ball.’’
Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton rejected the notion that the governor was better positioning herself for a national bid. “She is not focused on 2012. She is focused on making a difference on the topics she finds so dear: energy independence [and] national security,’’ Stapleton said.
Republican officials in Alaska said they had been talking with Palin and her advisers about whether she would run for reelection in 2010, but had no idea she was considering stepping down before her term was finished. “I was very surprised that she elected to step down, that she didn’t want to be a lame-duck governor for 18 months,’’ said Alaska Republican Party chairman Randy Ruedrich.
Palin said her children encouraged her to leave office, in part because they were upset at seeing their little brother, 14-month-old Trig, who has Down syndrome, “mocked and ridiculed by some pretty mean-spirited adults.’’ She said her decision had been in the works “for a while’’ and was based on prayer and talking with her family.
“I polled the most important people in my life, my kids, where the count was unanimous,’’ she said. “Well, in response to asking, ‘Hey, you want me to make a positive difference and fight for all our children’s future from outside the governor’s office?’ It was four yeses and one ‘Hell, yeah!’ And the ‘Hell, yeah’ sealed it.’’
The decision by one of the Republican Party’s most popular grass-roots politicians to leave office sent shockwaves through the GOP, a party still reeling from its 2008 electoral losses and from the sudden falls of Senator John Ensign of Nevada and Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina, two stars once considered presidential hopefuls.
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Re: www.advocateweekly.com/ci_10788158, "Lecture" on Monday, Oct. 27, 2008, - Williams College, former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift will discuss "Lipstick Republicans and Why They Make the Left Crazy," 8 p.m. Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall, Williamstown. Info: williams.edu. Source: ("AdvocateWeekly.com", Thursday, October 23, 2008):
JANE SWIFT bankrupted the Commonwealth of Massachusetts during her tenure as Acting Governor! Due to her poor leadership, the state government made brutal fiscal cuts to many important programs, including public education, state aid to local governments, social services, and the like. I sat at political events where medical doctors and municipal officials pleaded with corrupt Legislators to not endorse JANE SWIFT's brutal budget cuts! If anyone sold out Berkshire County more than "Luciforo", it was Jane Swift!
Other Jane Swift public disservices:
As Berkshire County's State Senator in the early to mid-1990s, Jane Swift was always against the death penalty. In 1998, Governor Paul Cellucci picked Jane Swift as his running mate and overnight she changed her position without conscience!
The cornerstone of John McCain and Sarah Palin's presidential campaign is their cultural war against WOMEN, especially a woman's right to choose. Jane Swift has always been pro-choice on abortion! Now, again without conscience, Jane Swift is defending Sarah Palin's platform AGAINST women.
On the Big Dig: The following Boston Globe Op-Ed says it all about Jane Swift's terrible tenure as Massachusetts Governor! ...
www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/11/15/what_went_wrong_at_the_big_dig/
When Jane Swift was brought to court over Big Dig related issues, the local (Boston) news station showed the evidence of Jane Swift's notes during her Big Dig meetings. She had doodles on every page that reflected the mentality of a sixth-grade student! The newsman called Jane Swift a "ditz"!
Why would WILLIAMS COLLEGE be so shallow as to host Jane Swift's lecture on "Lipstick Republicans"? Is this a joke? I hope so. The biggest joke of them all is Jane Swift! And, sad to say, she is not very funny!
In Dissent!
Jonathan A. Melle
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The Boston Globe, Op-Ed, PETER PENDERGAST
"What went wrong at the Big Dig"
By Peter Pendergast, November 15, 2004
ONE NEED ONLY consider the Grand Canyon to be reminded of the magnitude of the corrosive effect of water over sand and stone -- and to understand the gravity of the problem we face with over 400 leaks breaching the tunnel walls of the Big Dig.
How could we spend $14.25 billion -- and counting -- and end up with a tunnel gushing millions of gallons of water?
At one level, the answer seems simple: soil and clay deposits in concrete poured to create the (now leaking) tunnel walls. Then add in shoddy work and an unimaginable lack of oversight and quality control by the construction manager, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff. But from a broader governmental and management perspective, the answer is even more troublesome.
On Nov. 16, 2001, then Acting Governor Jane Swift fired then Turnpike Vice Chairman Christy Mihos and Director Jordan Levy. We are now paying for those firings and may for some time.
As the direct result of the firings and her appointment of Matt Amorello as Turnpike chairman, Swift stopped the ongoing management restructuring of the Big Dig, including the cornerstone of the reform, to hire an owner's engineer to oversee the otherwise unsupervised Bechtel/Parsons.
Mihos's restructuring initiative could have mitigated or prevented the leaks, as well as other flaws, during construction, when errors could have been avoided or repaired. The result is tragic and devastating.
The leading candidate at the time to become the owner's engineer supervising Bechtel/Parsons was legendary "Chunnel" construction manager Jack Lemley. In the mid-1990s, Lemley had written a report critical of Big Dig construction management. Ironically, Lemley is now leading the investigation of the leaks he might have prevented.
But as the new Turnpike chairman, Amorello refused to implement the board's resolution to hire an owner's engineer. Indeed, Bechtel/Parsons remains unsupervised today.
Instead, Amorello forced out the entire legal staff of the Office of the General Counsel. The staff had played an important role in investigating Bechtel/Parsons and in restructuring management of the firm, including taking over its authority to make decisions to pay contractor's claims for extra work. The general counsel had also interviewed the candidates for owner's engineer as well as other construction management firms capable of replacing the Bechtel hierarchy.
A month before Swift's firings, her office had asked about purported plans by the Turnpike Board to terminate Bechtel/Parsons for mismanagement. Just after 7 a.m. on Oct. 9, Turnpike CEO Richard Capka called me at home. Capka said he had just spoken to Steve Crosby, Swift's secretary of administration and finance, who had told him that Bechtel had contacted Swift at her home in North Adams and voiced concerns that the Turnpike Board would terminate the company at the board's meeting two days later. As general counsel, I informed Capka that I had no knowledge of such a plan.
One day later, Swift again intervened on behalf of Bechtel/Parsons and undermined the Turnpike Authority's ongoing negotiations with the company. The negotiations included issues of restructuring of Big Dig management, and a demand for reparations from Bechtel/Parsons in the amount of $250 million.
Prior to the morning session of the negotiations, a Turnpike employee received a phone call from a friend who was an aide to the acting governor. The aide stated that the Bechtel/Parsons team participating in the negotiations had a meeting scheduled in Swift's office prior to the afternoon negotiating session.
In the morning meeting, Bechtel made an offer of payment to the Turnpike of $50 million, with contingencies. That afternoon, within minutes of returning from the meeting in Swift's office, Bechtel/Parsons walked away from the negotiations.
One month later, Swift announced the firings and left the Commonwealth with the problems that have now come to light. She cited as her reasons "micromanagement" and "financial irresponsibility" for delaying toll increases for six months.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court saw through Swift's pretense and declared her terminations unlawful. The court reinstated the board members. It was too late, however, to save the reforms that could have avoided the disaster we now face. In the meantime, the Legislature expanded the Turnpike Board by two members to be able to vote out the management reform at the Big Dig.
It did not have to happen.
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Peter Pendergast was the general counsel of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority from August 2000 to July 2002.
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Pittsfield's political inbred, dark prince: Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr.! -(below)-
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"What happens to Sarah Palin now?"
Wednesday, November 5, 2008, 3:37pm EST, By Steve Holland - Analysis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin was a phenomenon as the Republican vice presidential running mate to John McCain, and the question for the self-styled moose-hunting hockey mom is: What now?
Alaska Gov. Palin, plucked from obscurity and thrust on to the national stage to mixed reviews, was publicly cool to talk that she might have caught the presidential bug and seek to run against Democrat Barack Obama in 2012.
"I don't know politically where in the world I'll be then," she told reporters on Wednesday in Phoenix.
But her interest in playing some kind of national role was evident from the words of McCain himself on Tuesday night in his concession speech after he was defeated by Obama.
"We can all look forward with great interest to her future service to Alaska, the Republican Party and our country," he said.
Palin, 44, drew huge crowds on the campaign trail, bigger than McCain's. She proved to be a powerful performer in stump speeches, energizing the Republican base.
But she was less effective in television interviews, botching a couple of early media encounters to the point that some prominent conservatives said she was too inexperienced to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Her folksy, "you betcha" style was both refreshing and grist for countless jokes on late-night television, giving a career boost to her actress doppelganger, Tina Fey of NBC's "Saturday Night Live."
"She clearly has a future in national politics," said Republican strategist Scott Reed. "She has to work to rebuild the parts of her image that became a caricature. But she's extremely popular with the grassroots."
"Palin needs to take some time back in Alaska and regroup with her day job. There's plenty of time to plot and scheme after the Christmas holidays," he said.
REPUBLICAN VISIONS
While Palin was selected by McCain in 2008, if she ran in 2012 she would compete against formidable members of her own party with their own visions like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Republican strategist Tony Fabrizio said Palin is not the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2012. He noted in particular some revelations uncovered by the news media during what amounted to a public vetting of her record once she was picked by McCain.
Her acceptance of thousands of dollars in daily travel expenses from the state while living at home and the Republican Party's costly shopping spree to equip her and her family with designer clothing may come back to haunt her.
"She needs to go back home and face all of the stuff that's been raked up in the presidential race. Voters in Alaska found out a lot of stuff about Sarah Palin that they didn't know about Sarah Palin. She's got to go back and get herself re-elected," Fabrizio said.
Palin's future may depend on how the Republican Party itself changes in response to its defeat.
Social conservatives who are warmest to Palin represent a dwindling minority in the party, which was rocked by the Obama victory and will now undergo a period of reflection and soul-searching about the future.
Palin was said to have little time for people who did not agree with her socially conservative views.
"If she wants to be a voice for a part of the new failed Republican Party, she's going to have to broaden her appeal," said a McCain staff member who asked not to be named.
Linda Fowler, a political science professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, said a drop in oil prices could hit Alaska's budget and make her job as governor much tougher, jeopardizing her high approval rating in the state.
"I think there will be a different environment for her in Alaska both because of the national exposure, which won't necessarily be positive, and because the internal politics of the state will probably change," she said.
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www.aboutamherst.blogspot.com/2008/11/show-me-way.html
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www.palinology.blogspot.com
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"Quotes of note", boston.com, January 10, 2009
"We will perhaps be able to prove that there is a class issue here."-- Alaska Governor SARAH PALIN, on media treatment of her and Caroline Kennedy.
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"Jane Swift offers her wisdom"
By Dennis Shaughnessey, The Lowell Sun, Friday, February 20, 2009
LOWELL — Jane Swift didn't look like anyone else on Beacon Hill when she was first elected to the state Senate in 1990.
"I was 25 years old. I had been a staffer for a few years and I had strong opinions about things that were being handled badly," Swift told political science students at University of Massachusetts Lowell yesterday. "Like most 25-year-olds, I was sure I was right about everything upon which I took a position. I had no fear."
Swift, a Republican, was part of the anti-incumbent wave that swept the state that year. She was elected lieutenant governor under Gov. Paul Cellucci in 1999, and slid into the corner office two years later when Cellucci became the ambassador to Canada. Swift served for 20 months.
"I was never popular with the Legislature. I knew that," Swift said. "Because I wasn't elected, I never felt I had a political mandate and all the strength that comes with that."
Swift, a Williamstown resident, told the students, some of them aspiring politicians, that they can learn from her successes and mistakes.
"I presided over a budget crisis much like we're going through today. And as tempting as it is to delay solutions and pick your way through a crisis, the best thing you can do is act quickly and decisively to get through the pain," she said. "The sooner you cut, the better the opportunity to recover quickly."
She made hard decisions that did not curry favor with the Democrat-laden Legislature, she said.
"It was hard to stem their spending appetite when times were good. It's not that they didn't want to put money aside; it's that they didn't want to not spend it," she said with a broad smile. "They couldn't help themselves. It was hard to get them to realize that the good times wouldn't last forever."
Swift told the story of meeting a former high school classmate who was working as a cashier at a local supermarket. As governor, Swift had rescinded dental coverage for adults on Medicare in order to protect funding for children's coverage.
"She was packing my groceries and said, 'Jane, did you really cut my dental coverage? Why would you do that to me?' " she recounted. "It was not a fun moment, and the reasons I could have given her were good public policy but would have been completely irrelevant to her. The thing you believe you can live without is exactly the thing that your neighbor across the street cannot live without."
The 45-minute lecture featured questions from the students. On the stimulus package, Swift advised caution at the state level.
"It needs to be spent is such a way that it doesn't create a structural deficit and it can be sustained over a long period," she said, adding that there is always a danger of funding programs that will not be there in the long term.
On public higher education, Swift said the focus for too long has been getting students into college with little thought given to completion rates.
"We have to deal with the fact that we have given a lot of money to a lot of students to start college but many of those students never finish and are left to deal with the debt that comes with it," she chastised.
After the lecture, Swift said she has no desire to re-enter public life.
"I'm very happy being a wife and mother and getting out to speak to groups like this. It's very satisfying."
Her decision not to run for the governor's office in "00" simply came down to timing, she said.
"In 1990, I thought I was the best candidate since sliced bread," she said. "It was pure brilliance on my part to decide to run, when the truth is, I ran at exactly the right time. Compare that to "00," when it was absolutely the wrong time."
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www.topix.net/forum/source/berkshire-eagle/TFKEN3D9Q56SUEGOJ
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Jane Swift in 2007 at her Williamstown home. ''I can't think of a better use of the funds,'' she said of her donation. (Christine Peterson for The Boston Globe/File 2007)
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"Swift donates $159,000 in campaign funds to foster-care charity"
By Stephanie Ebbert, Boston Globe Staff, April 7, 2009
Seven years after she bowed out of an uphill battle for the governor's office, Jane Swift, the former acting governor, is officially dissolving her state political campaign account and donating the funds to a charity for foster children.
Though she does not rule out a future run for Congress, Swift said she is no longer mulling a state campaign.
"I think it's the right time. I don't have any short-term plans to run for statewide office," Swift said in a phone interview. "It was really important to keep my political options open, all of them, after I left office. It wasn't a long-planned departure so I wanted to make sure I didn't do anything hastily, but it's pretty clear to me from a personal and professional standpoint that a statewide campaign isn't in the near future."
Swift, who at 25 was the youngest woman elected to the Massachusetts state Senate, ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 1996. Then she was tapped as Governor Paul Cellucci's running mate, won office, and vaulted to the governor's office when Cellucci left midterm. Her tenure was marked by controversies, however, and by the time she made history nationally - as the first woman in the country to have a baby while serving as governor - she was considered politically vulnerable in Massachusetts.
With plummeting approval ratings, she bowed out of the race for governor in 2002 when Mitt Romney stepped in and siphoned off party support. Last year, Swift campaigned for US Senator John McCain, who claimed the party's presidential nomination over Romney.
Although Swift has held the door open for a political comeback, she is now focused on consulting for private, for-profit education companies, and raising her three daughters in Williamstown. Her husband, Chuck Hunt, has opened a riding ring and is running their farm as a business. Swift yesterday was coordinating a Shakespeare festival.
"I enjoy doing that stuff," she said. "There are lots of ways to make your community and state and country better."
Several other former officeholders continue to retain their state accounts after surrendering their titles. After leaving the State House for a presidential campaign in 2007, Romney has $18,665 left in his account, even after spending $12,500 in partial payments for his official portrait in January, state records show. Romney's lieutenant governor and 2006 candidate for governor, Kerry Healey, still had $19,690 in her political account at the end of March, according to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
Politicians who close down their campaign accounts have four options for the remaining funds: donating to a local city or town, to the state's general fund, to a charity, or to a scholarship fund, according to the political finance office.
Swift committed the remainder of her campaign funds - about $159,000 - to the DCF Kids Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to the 45,000 children in foster care through the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. The charity provides foster children everything from car seats and clothes to piano lessons and SAT training.
"The fact that I was a high-profile mom when I was in politics and focused a lot on children's and family and education issues made finding and identifying a charity pretty easy," Swift said.
"I can't think of a better use of the funds. It's really a tribute to all the people who supported me through my time as an elected official."
Her donation is a significant one for DCF Kids Fund, which raised about $370,000 last year, said Saf Caruso, executive director of the fund.
"I am just so, so touched by her kindness," said Caruso. "I could barely sleep I was so excited. This is going to help us in so many ways. We are just eternally grateful."
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www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/07/swift_donates_159000_in_campaign_funds_to_foster_care_charity/
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READERS' COMMENTS:
On 4/7/2009, wbc363 wrote:
Please, give me a break. She wants credit for donating money that was not even hers? Should have been done years ago. She is so egotistical she must have been dreaming that she might get elected to something. Glad she woke up. She was one of the worst things to happen to this state.
On 4/7/2009, FattyArbuckle wrote:
wbc363 is absolutely right.
While I have no problem with any charity receiving assistance in this lousy economy, the monies being donated were never Jane Swift's in the first place and she shouldn't come across as some knight in shining armor arriving to save the day.
She always kept her option open to run for another state office which basically gave her permission to spend thousands of dollars on travel and meals long after she left Beacon Hill provided it was itemized as a "campaign expense".
I'm sure even Jane herself really couldn't believe that after her disaster as "acting governor" that she would ever be elected to any public office again, except maybe perhaps as dog catcher in Williamstown.
On 4/7/2009, christy11 wrote:
The Acting Governor broke state law, federal law and conspired to protect Bechtel and the other entities that mismanaged the Big Dig. Class Act? Class Action lawsuit would better describe what the Taxpayers should have done.
On 4/7/2009, TyroneJ wrote:
Six years ago, when Jane Swift dropped out of the campaign for the GOP nomination, she had almost $1.2M in her campaign war chest. Six years later, with no public office bids, she's only got $159k left? Sounds like that's the real story here.
On 4/7/2009, roxy63 wrote:
TyroneJ is on the money. How the heck does the reporter leave those facts out of the story? Swifty spends over $1MM of other people's money on meals, hotel rooms and gifts and then donates the leftover change and is made to look like some kind of hero? What am I missing?
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"Swift's generous donation"
The Berkshire Eagle, Editorial, Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Life isn't always easy for foster children and parents, but it will be better for many of them because of former acting Governor Jane Swift's decision to donate the $159,000 remaining in her state campaign fund to the DCF Kids Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to the 45,000 children in foster care through the state. Children's issues are important to Ms. Swift, who became the first woman in the country to have a baby while serving as governor, and her donation will help foster children in a variety of ways, from new clothes to music lessons to educational assistance. Ms. Swift, who as lieutenant governor took over for Paul Cellucci mid-term, chose not to run for governor once the Republican Party became infatuated with white knight Mitt Romney, and is now consulting for education companies, participating in community activities, and raising her three daughters in Williamstown with her husband, Chuck Hunt. She is young enough to have a political future, but more immediately, she has done a good deed for needy kids and the parents building lives for them.
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"[Jane] Swift Donates State War Chest to Charity"
iBerkshires.com - April 09, 2009
WILLIAMSTOWN, Massachusetts — Former Gov. Jane Swift has decided decisively against running for a spot on Beacon Hill with the dissolution of her state campaign account.
According The Boston Globe, the state's first woman governor has donated the remaining funds in the account, about $159,000, to DCF Kids, a nonprofit that provides assistance from child-care items to educational opportunities to some 45,000 foster chidren across the state.
She told The Globe, however, that while she hasn't ruled out running for Congress, it was "the right time" to close the state account.
The Berkshire County Republican unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst, in 1996.
Children and education have the main focus of the mother of three, who volunteers regularly at Williamstown Elementary School and other activities with her daughters. She's an educational consultant and sits on the board of Sally Ride Science.
Elected lieutenant governor in 1998 and appointed acting governor when A. Paul Celucci stepped down to become ambassador to Canada, Swift had a short troubled term and was pushed aside when Mitt Romney became the darling of the state Republican Party.
Swift hasn't been completely out of the public eye since leaving office in 2002. She signed on early to Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign as an education adviser and headed the "truth squad" when his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin came under fire. She also backed West Springfield businessman Nathan Bech in his unsuccessful bid to unseat Olver.
"It was really important to keep my political options open, all of them, after I left office," she told The Globe earlier this week. "... it's pretty clear to me from a personal and professional standpoint that a statewide campaign isn't in the near future."
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"Sarah Palin Goes to W.A.R."
ABC News - The World Newser - April 15, 2009
ABC News' Stu Schutzman reports:
Smoke is rising from the Alaska state legislature this week and it's Sarah Palin's pick for Attorney General who is on the hot seat. Anchorage attorney Wayne Anthony Ross -- W.A.R. on his Hummer vanity plate -- has been grilled to a turn by some members who consider his radical right wing views over the top for high public office.
"Do you recall," asked one member, "ever making a statement, 'it's OK for a man to rape his wife?'"
"That's a bunch of crap," replied Ross.
Ap_sarah_palin_pulls_out_090331_mai But, according to Leah Burton, an Alaska women's rights activist quoted by The Daily Beast.com, Ross apparently told a father’s rights group in 1991 -- "If a guy can't rape his wife, who's he gonna rape?"
And there's more. Burton quotes Ross, during a debate on women's rights issues, allowing that "if a woman would keep her mouth shut, there wouldn’t be an issue with domestic violence."
Moving on from one controversy to the next...According to the Anchorage Daily news, during a debate on anti-discrimination law, Ross wrote a missive to the Alaska Bar calling gays 'immoral...degenerates."
Legislators asked him how he would deal with a gay attorney applying for a state job.
"My personal opinions in that regard have no place," he replied, "and I decline to state my opinion."
Ross has referred to Dr. Martin Luther King as a "communist subversive" and in an op-ed piece he wrote called "KKK 'Art' Project Gets 'A' For Courage," Ross attacked an African American student for being offended by a Ku Klux Klan statue on a local campus.
"It might have been fun to see{her} try to remove the display," he wrote, "then she could have been arrested..."
During his run for governor in 2002, Ross heartily opposed Alaska's Native Americans' subsistence rights, that is their federally protected rights to hunt and fish. He said as governor, he would "hire a band of junkyard attorneys" to reverse the law. Alaska Indians felt candidate Ross was "rubbing our face on the ground."
Says Governor Palin about this -- "Obviously, I am not anti-Native and would never appoint anyone who is."
But the question of the day is, what is Sarah Palin really up to? Will she stick with this nominee? Will she dump him before his confirmation vote? A big decision which could have a profound impact on her presidential aspirations for 2112. Risky business...like going to W.A.R.
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Reader's Comment - Posted by: "mickey" on April 15, 2009
The research in this blog post is lacking at best. Leah Burton is an anti-palin person who wrote an entire book attacking the woman. She wrote a letter to the house and senate hearings panel outlining here charge but it all pretty much come out as rumours and nothing more as she had no one to back up her statements.
As for gays, W.A.R did state he would hire a gay person because his feelings (whatever they may be) does not influence his work. He seems to have a libertarian streak in him.
The stance on natives and subsistance has nothing to do with natives but the alaska consitution which states that all alaskans have to the same rights to fish and hunting. Natives lobby that this is unfair and they require a larger share (i'm okay with that because they live in more rural areas). W.A.R's stance is if the natives want that then they should lobby to amend the alaska constitution instead of breaking it.
As for the display of the KKK thing it was actually a display by a student on his representation of an evil monster or something and W.A.R defends the students right to express his opinion (does anyone know the ACLU?).
why would palin pick him? no idea but he does appear to have more of a backbone than the last A.G. who resigned.
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(Essdras M. Suarez/Globe Staff/File)
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The Boston Globe, Op-Ed
JOAN VENNOCHI
"Palin still an easy target"
By Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe Columnist, May 7, 2009
EVERYONE is piling on Sarah Palin, even though she will never be president of the United States.
The Alaska governor is everyone's favorite foil, from the left-wing Huffington Post to the ever-posturing Mitt Romney. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee who cynically chose her as his running mate, now snubs her with relish.
They all act like she has a real chance to win the White House, when they all know the truth. When it comes to be taken seriously by the general electorate as a potential president, it's as over for her as it was for Dan Quayle.
Quayle was doomed even after he served four years as vice president. He was the proverbial heartbeat away from the first President Bush, but could never overcome the perception that he lacked gravitas.
Palin only ran for vice president; she never made it from Wasilla to Washington. And her political problem is bigger than Quayle's, because it extends to her family.
Think about the picture-perfect Obama family, from adorable First Daughters to adorable First Puppy. And speaking of adorable, what is more adorable than the president and his wife strolling hand-in-hand around the White House grounds after a Saturday night date? Their family image is managed expertly by the White House with help from the media.
Palin's family portrait is much more complicated and gritty. In some ways, it is more reflective of the reality of American family life. But it brings baggage that is especially difficult for a female candidate to overcome.
From the moment Palin appeared on the national scene as a surprise pick for vice president, her family attracted critical attention. Palin had to fight off Internet-spawned rumors that her youngest child, Trig, who was born with Down syndrome, was really her daughter's. Then came the real news. Bristol Palin, her 17-year-old daughter, was unwed and pregnant, despite her mother's abstinence-only platform.
Palin weathered those headlines and others about her snowmobiling husband, Todd. As the campaign moved forward, she was undercut more by her own performance in a series of nationally televised interviews. They revealed an inexperienced candidate with a superficial understanding of economic and foreign policy matters. Palin managed to survive a debate with Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, and remained popular on the campaign trail with her core conservative constituency.
But she was a major turnoff to the very voters she was supposed to attract - Hillary Clinton's female supporters.
Palin is still extremely popular with the hard-core conservative base and was recently named to the National Council for a New America, a group aimed at rebranding the GOP. A recent CNN/Opinion Research poll of 429 Republicans gave Palin a slight edge over fellow Republicans like Romney and Mike Huckabee. Palin also made Time magazine's list of influential people, causing Romney to crack: "But was that the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people?"
Romney is smarter and more accomplished than Palin, and just as good-looking. But Palin has something he lacks: a core set of unwavering conservative principles. It gives her an early advantage with Republican primary voters.
Lucky for rivals like Romney, Palin also faces an ongoing family soap opera that continues to undercut her political message. Bristol Palin broke up with Levi Johnston, the father of their child. The two are not getting married, as announced during the presidential campaign. Johnston's mother faces a drug possession trial. His sister accused Bristol Palin of calling her family "white trash." After giving one interview in which she said abstinence is "not realistic at all," Bristol Palin is now speaking out as a teen advocate for abstinence.
None of that should matter. But family issues do matter, especially for female candidates. When it comes to temperament, accomplishments, and work/family balance, women always walk a line. The line Palin walks as a working mother of five and new grandmother continues to trip her up as a presidential candidate.
That makes her an easy target for Democrats and Republicans, who enjoy running against her.
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Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com.
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"Campaign 2012: Palin retakes stage, hits Obama's policies"
Boston.com - Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor, June 8, 2009
She's back.
Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee last year, returned to her job as Alaska's governor and laid low for weeks, avoiding high-profile appearances.
But she made several appearances in New York over the weekend, she's stayed in the first tier of candidates in the early handicapping for 2012, and she's now making the rounds of the cable talking head shows.
Unsurprisingly, she takes a rather dim view of how President Obama is doing.
“A lot of this is wrapped in good rhetoric but we’re not seeing those actions," she says in an interview airing tonight on Fox News Channel's "Hannity" show. "And this many months into the new administration, quite disappointed, quite frustrated with not seeing those actions to rein in spending, slow down the growth of government. Instead Sean, it is the complete opposite. It’s expanding at such a large degree that if Americans aren’t paying attention, unfortunately our country could evolve into something that we do not even recognize. Certainly that is so far from what the founders of our country had in mind for us.”
According to excerpts released by Fox, she also hits Obama on the government's actions on General Motors, which declared bankruptcy last week in hopes of emerging a streamlined company that can survive.
“America is digging a deeper hole - and how are we paying for this government largesse? We’re borrowing. We’re borrowing from China and when you consider that now we own sixty percent of General Motors – or the U.S. government does," Palin says… "But who is the U.S. government becoming more indebted to? It’s China. So that leads you to have to ask - who is really going to own our car industry in America?”
Asked whether she missed the spotlight, Palin replied: “I love my time in Alaska. At the same time though I crave, if not my voice, other voices out there being bold, being strong letting Americans know that those that are concerned about the growth of government and about national security issues, they’re not alone. There are others who are empathizing and more than empathizing are wanting to take action to make sure that economically and physically that our homeland is safe and secure.”
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Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska made the surprise announcement in Wasilla. (Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman)
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"Palin to quit, stunning her state, party: News fuels rumors of a 2012 run"
By Philip Rucker and Eli Saslow, Washington Post, July 4, 2009
WASHINGTON - Sarah Palin, the Republican Alaska governor who captivated the nation with a combative brand of folksy politics, announced her resignation yesterday in characteristic fashion: She stood on her back lawn in Wasilla, speaking into a single microphone, surrounded by friends and neighbors in baseball hats and polo shirts. Noisy geese interrupted the speech.
The announcement that she would step down by the end of July, with 18 months left in her first term, stunned the political establishment, providing an endpoint to this chapter of her career and fueling speculation about her plans.
Palin said she arrived at her decision in part to protect her family, which has faced withering criticism and occasional mockery, and to escape ethics probes that have drained her family’s finances and hampered her ability to govern. She said leaving office is in the best interest of the state and will allow her to more effectively advocate for issues of importance to her, including energy independence and national security.
“I love my job and I love Alaska, and it hurts to make this choice, but I’m doing what’s best for them,’’ Palin said, the sun glinting off a seaplane on Lake Lucille behind her.
Palin, 45, said that she knew she would not run for reelection as governor and that she did not want to be a “lame duck’’ merely for the sake of serving out the remainder of her term.
“I cannot stand here as your governor and allow the millions of dollars and all that time go to waste just so I can hold the title of governor,’’ she said.
She stood at a makeshift lectern surrounded by the family that accompanied her along one of the most unusual arcs in modern American politics: from obscure small-town mayor to Senator John McCain’s running mate; from mother of five to tabloid sensation; and from making the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention to delivering the roundabout remarks yesterday at her waterfront home.
Eleven minutes into an 18-minute speech that covered the history of Alaska and her dedication to the state, Palin said she will relinquish the governorship to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell.
“All I can ask is that you trust me with this decision and know that it is no more politics as usual,’’ she said.
Palin, who has widely been seen as a leading 2012 presidential contender, said she had tired of “superficial, wasteful political blood sport.’’ She did not specify what she will do next.
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said later in a statement that Palin is “an important and galvanizing voice’’ in the GOP and will help the party’s gubernatorial candidates this fall in Virginia and New Jersey.
Nick Ayers, executive director of the Republican Governors Association, said Palin plans to expand her role in the national party. “Part of her decision is she wants to spend more time campaigning for candidates,’’ Ayers told Fox News.
He added that some lawmakers and activists in Alaska have been doing “everything they can to stymie her progress,’’ and that Palin determined she could no longer “make significant change in the state.’’
The state of Alaska has spent almost $300,000 investigating ethics complaints against Palin and her staff, including her firing of a public safety commissioner who said he was terminated over his refusal to dismiss a state trooper involved in a messy divorce with the governor’s sister.
Palin said she and her husband, Todd, have spent $500,000 “just to set the record straight.’’ She has been the subject of 15 ethics probes, 13 of which have been resolved by the state Personnel Board with no findings of wrongdoing. The other two are pending. One of the resolved complaints led to Palin’s agreement to reimburse the state by $8,100 for costs associated with trips she took with her children.
Recent Alaska polls put Palin’s approval rating in the low- to mid-50s, a far cry from her high of about 90 percent.
The governor has remained in the news lately, and rarely for political reasons. Her last months have included a spat with David Letterman over jokes she considered inappropriate, a critical profile in Vanity Fair that fueled a public squabble among McCain’s former campaign aides about Palin, questions about her appearance at a Republican fund-raiser, and near-constant coverage of her daughter’s breakup with her fiance, Levi Johnston.
Using a sports analogy, the former high school basketball star once nicknamed “Sarah Barracuda’’ said: “A good point guard, here’s what she does. She drives through a full-court press, protecting the ball, keeping her head up because she needs to keep her eye on the basket, and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so the team can win. That’s what I’m doing. I’m passing the ball.’’
Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton rejected the notion that the governor was better positioning herself for a national bid. “She is not focused on 2012. She is focused on making a difference on the topics she finds so dear: energy independence [and] national security,’’ Stapleton said.
Republican officials in Alaska said they had been talking with Palin and her advisers about whether she would run for reelection in 2010, but had no idea she was considering stepping down before her term was finished. “I was very surprised that she elected to step down, that she didn’t want to be a lame-duck governor for 18 months,’’ said Alaska Republican Party chairman Randy Ruedrich.
Palin said her children encouraged her to leave office, in part because they were upset at seeing their little brother, 14-month-old Trig, who has Down syndrome, “mocked and ridiculed by some pretty mean-spirited adults.’’ She said her decision had been in the works “for a while’’ and was based on prayer and talking with her family.
“I polled the most important people in my life, my kids, where the count was unanimous,’’ she said. “Well, in response to asking, ‘Hey, you want me to make a positive difference and fight for all our children’s future from outside the governor’s office?’ It was four yeses and one ‘Hell, yeah!’ And the ‘Hell, yeah’ sealed it.’’
The decision by one of the Republican Party’s most popular grass-roots politicians to leave office sent shockwaves through the GOP, a party still reeling from its 2008 electoral losses and from the sudden falls of Senator John Ensign of Nevada and Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina, two stars once considered presidential hopefuls.
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January 17, 2023
I enjoyed reading Jane Swift's story:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2023/01/17/jane-swift-20-years-later/
There are few things I wish to point out from my memories about Jane Swift's time in Massachusetts politics.
When Jane Swift ran against Congressman John W. Olver in 1996 - and she lost that year - she would have voted for then-Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich.
When Jane Swift was the first woman Berkshire-based State Senator, she was against the death penalty. After she agreed to run on Paul Cellucci's ticket as his Lt. Governor, she changed her position to being for the death penalty in Massachusetts. There is no death penalty in Massachusetts.
When Jane Swift was Governor, she was investigated for the boondoggle called Boston's "Big Dig", which is the single most expensive public works project in U.S. history - even prior to Jane Swift's time in the governor's office. The investigators looked at her journals, and she had art doodles on each and every page of her journals during her meetings about the "Big Dig", which claimed multiple people's innocent lives, leaks millions of gallons of dirty water every day, and cost state taxpayers' tens of billions of dollars.
I compliment Jane Swift for her leadership as an historic woman in Berkshire County and Massachusetts politics alike, but I do not believe that she was a politician I could ever support. I feel that we are all fortunate that her days in elected office are over.
Jonathan A. Melle
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It's funny how people will post things on social media and criticize someone as if they know them personally but when it comes to talking to their face they would never say such a thing. Jane Swift was and still is an amazing mother who gives her children a loving and safe home. She was an amazing politician and stood firm on what she believed in. When men in politics break laws it gets swept under the rug, but when women in politics make a small decision (the same ones that men have done for years and years), it's a big scandal??? Jane Swift helped many people in so many different ways, and she continues to share her knowledge and insight with America's youth, who will be our next generation of leaders. It's not okay to say something unkind to someone to their face.... but somehow it's okay to post your hate anonymously??? Use your real name and we'll see how confident you are then when you're calling someone a bad mother and a bad person when you have never even met them.
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