In a recent private meeting, the House speaker and Senate president were stunned when Governor Deval Patrick, according to a person briefed on the conversation, raised the prospect of US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz running for governor and spoke favorably of the prosecutor whose investigation of the state Probation Department has rattled the Legislature.
According to the person, Patrick said the federal prosecutor, whose Puerto Rican-born parents raised her in a New York public housing project, has a great story to tell about her successful legal career. He left the impression he was suggesting that the two should meet her.
Comments
Carmen Ortiz would be a terrible choice for Governor. She plays politics with her office and her office (deliberately) leaks like a sieve to the media to get her publicity. Former Governor Weld was right when he said that most of these investigations being conducted by Ortiz (and Coakley) into elected officials are patent over-reaches to draw public attention to themselves. As for Patrick, he should support his Lt. Gov. Tim Murray who is responsible for most of the accomplishments patrick was able to take credit for during his reelection. But, patrick is an artful dodger sometimes and who knows where he ever stands for sure.
PLEASE, didn't we learn from Martha Coakley's run? We don't need another former prosecutor to run for Governor. There are plenty of others who would make better Democratic candidates.
To first appearances, Ortiz seems to me very different from Coakley. The latter has never, to the best of my remembering, initiated a serious investigation of a Democratic politician without being pushed there by overwhelming, inescapable, public information of wrongdoing.
By contrast, the Probation investigation seems to actually unnerve a great number of sitting legislators. If Murray and DeLeo are disquieted by the possibility of having to see Ortiz on a daily basis, that alone seems like a strong starting recommendation.
As regards Weld, I'm reminded of his ceremonial chopping down of a toll booth with Cellucci as a pure, cynical act of politics and public relations. Perhaps it takes one to know one, but I'd suggest there is less information to make a voter initially skeptical about Ortiz than he tells us to be.
Is she even from Massachusetts?
Quien?