Gov. Patrick's hiring of Walsh backfires
by Hillary Chabot
DNN Reports!
Wednesday, Apr. 1, 2009
Bending to a 10-day “tsunami” of outrage over her plum job, an emotional Sen. Marian Walsh said yesterday she was turning down a $120,000-a-year position that many viewed as a brazen patronage appointment.
“I feel I have become the issue,” Walsh (D-West Roxbury) said in a hastily called press conference outside Gov. Gov. Deval Patrick’s office. “This is my decision. I think it’s best and I still think I can be helpful.”
Patrick, while calling Walsh highly capable, admitted he was relieved by her decision after he faced a relentless public relations pounding for filling a position that had been left vacant for 12 years.
As a politician, I guess, I’m relieved because I have been hammered,” Patrick said. “It’s been painful for me; it’s been painful for the senator.” Patrick and his administration have been under fire since he engineered Walsh’s appointment to the Health and Educational Facilities Authority earlier this month. In an effort to tamp down the fury last week, Walsh announced she would reduce her salary from $175,000 to $120,000 while Patrick announced he would study salaries at all 52 quasi authorities across the Bay State.
The stunning turnaround sent heads spinning and tongues wagging on Beacon Hill.
“It just leaves you scratching your head about the decision from the get-go,” said Minority Leader Rep. Brad Jones (R-North Reading). “How far have we come from candidate Patrick to the Gov. Patrick, and is this a sign that he’s actually getting it?”
Walsh, 54, said she had been considering the move for a while. She called Patrick’s chief of staff, Doug Rubin, Monday night and told him she wouldn’t take the job.
She said she plans to remain in the Senate, but considering her mixed signals, she may well face a challenger in the next election, Jones said.
“I don’t want to be a distraction,” Walsh said. “This was a job that held great interest for me . . . but the tsunami around it made it not possible to concentrate on going to HEFA and doing a good job.”
Patrick said he would not appoint anyone else to the vacant position immediately, adding he would wait and see if the agency can reform itself.
“There is a reform agenda that we need and the public deserves in terms of HEFA,” Patrick said. “The question is an open one whether they can and will accomplish that agenda without a change agent inserted.”
Gov. Patrick's hiring of Marian Walsh (above) backfires,
as she announces that she will step down from her post
as Health & Human Services Administrator.
(DNN Staff photo)
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