Lobbyists eye Travaglini

The sudden departure of two highly paid trade association leaders is churning speculation on Beacon Hill that the groups are eyeing leading political figures, including Senate President Robert E. Travaglini, to fill the openings.

The political intrigue began brewing last week following the Massachusetts Hospital Association's decision to fire its $500,000-a-year president and the forced resignation of the legally wounded former House speaker, Thomas M. Finneran, as the highly compensated president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.

Much of the focus is on Travaglini, who was sworn in Jan. 3 to his third two-year term as the Senate leader. Both jobs involve highly complex industries and require the political skills to work the hallways of Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill to promote and protect the interests of their members.

Both political and healthcare sources said yesterday that Travaglini would be a heavy favorite to replace Ronald M. Hollander at the hospital association.

"It's a perfect match for Trav," said one healthcare source. "He is clearly an odds-on favorite to get that if he wants it."

Travaglini's office declined to comment yesterday. In recent days, Travaglini has publicly maintained that he is engaged as much as ever as Senate president, particularly with an incoming Democratic governor offering a new political dynamic at the State House. But last spring he confided to colleagues that he planned to step aside, probably within a year.

Many of those colleagues and others closely following the power politics on Beacon Hill are convinced that Travaglini will give serious consideration to both positions.

"Of course there is a lot of talk, and it has piqued his interest," said another source close to the Senate president. "Why wouldn't he look at his options. He has to look at his future. . . . He's not going to let anything go by without taking a hard look."

Those close to the East Boston Democrat say Travaglini, a cancer survivor who also underwent serious heart surgery in 2001 at age 48, is keenly aware that he needs to make more than his $90,000 salary as Senate president to provide for his family and pay the hefty college tuition bills he will soon face for his three children.

Finneran was paid a base salary of $416,000, with the potential of making $540,800 with bonuses. He was forced to resign last week after pleading guilty to federal obstruction of justice charges stemming from his testimony in a civil case involving legislative redistricting. His salary made him one of the best compensated leaders of a lobbying group in the state. The hospital association paid Hollander $504,800 for the year ending Sept. 30, 2004.

What Travaglini has to decide is whether either post is a good fit. In the last four years, Travaglini has recast his image. His reputation during most of his career was as a senator who was most interested in district issues and in getting jobs for his constituents at Logan Airport and turnpike toll booths.

But he has emerged as a popular and highly effective manager of the Senate, able to unite 40 strong political egos as a potent voice on Beacon Hill.

The positions at the hospital association and biotech council can be a management nightmare, far more difficult than the challenges Travaglini has previously faced.

The hospital association, with dozens of members, often becomes enmeshed in internal conflicts between community hospitals and the wealthier and larger teaching hospitals. The association also contends with a host of complex issues, including hospital financing, Medicaid and private insurance, staffing shortages for its members, and quality of care.

Daniel Moen, the chief executive officer of Heywood Hospital in Gardner and chairman of the association's board of trustees, said that the board is only beginning to put together a selection process to replace Hollander and that no candidates have emerged.

He said the board would probably look for someone with both management and political skills, someone "who has the ability to build relationships and forge working ties with the Legislature, as well as constituency groups such as the business community." Moen said no one had mentioned Travaglini as a potential candidate, adding, "It's too early to speculate about that."

Speculation is also swirling about former state treasurer Shannon O'Brien, the defeated 2002 Democratic gubernatorial nominee, who fits the political profile that the job requires. She now leads the Girl Scouts' Patriots' Trail Council, which covers greater Boston. Other candidate s include two lawmakers involved in healthcare issues: state Representative Peter J. Koutoujian, Democrat of Waltham, and Senator Richard T. Moore, a Democrat from Uxbridge.

Names that have surfaced as potential candidates to take over Finneran's job at the Biotechnology Council include James Brett, president of the New England Council and a former Democratic state representative from Savin Hill; US Representative Martin T. Meehan, a Lowell Democrat; state Senator Warren Tolman, a Watertown Democrat who works with life science companies; and state Representative Daniel E. Bosley, a North Adams Democrat who is cochairman of the legislative Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies.