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DiMasi fires back at ethics charges
Calls GOP complaints baseless; faults others; Defends reputation, conduct in office
House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi issued a broad and emotionally worded defense of his conduct in office yesterday, saying he was outraged by accounts that he backed legislation and a state software contract that benefited his friends.
In an extraordinary letter to House colleagues, DiMasi called the charges baseless and suggested that others were to blame for the episodes that have been the subject of reports in the Globe in recent weeks and a subsequent series of State Ethics Commission complaints filed by the state Republican Party. The coverage has also resulted in stepped-up politicking by his would-be successors in the House.
"Like any of us, I do not control the conduct or actions of others," wrote DiMasi, without mentioning names or specific instances. "As elected officials, we in the Legislature are all subject to the unfortunate inclination of others to use our name without our knowledge or authorization."
He also defended his long history of public service.
"I have made my decisions based solely on the best interests of my constituents and the people of the Commonwealth," he wrote. "I have never, ever conducted myself in a way that would favor the interests of any individual.
"All my personal relationships and financial transactions have been at arm's length from any state business, have been fully disclosed to the public, and have never influenced my decisions on any legislative matter," he said. "I am outraged that my reputation, my integrity, and my good name have been called into question."
In an interview in his office, DiMasi returned to the themes in the letter, which he also released to the media.
"I want to be judged by what I do. I can't control what others do," DiMasi said. He added that widespread accounts of unrest in the House over leadership are "overly exaggerated" and that his colleagues support him. He said he plans to seek the powerful speakership again in 2009.
Despite DiMasi's repeated efforts to quell the controversy, it has remained a distraction for the speaker. He canceled a press conference on key legislation yesterday, and he skipped his weekly leadership meeting with Governor Deval Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray. Instead, he spent much of the day meeting with reporters, individually, trying to make his case.
"The speaker asked to postpone those events to later this week and spent all day directly confronting these baseless charges head on," said his spokesman, David Guarino.
DiMasi issued the letter days after he paid off the balance of an unusual $250,000 third mortgage on his North End condo given to him by his close friend and accountant, Richard Vitale. Last week the speaker refused to say how much of a balance he paid off. Yesterday, Guarino said the amount was $178,000, paid from personal retirement funds associated with his law practice.
Vitale, hired by a group of ticket brokers to help with 2007 legislation that would benefit their industry, did not register as a lobbyist until Friday. He registered for 2008, but did not list the Massachusetts Association of Ticket Brokers as a client. He listed no clients and no payments. Through a spokesman, he said he is not actually a lobbyist but filed the paperwork to prevent problems with Secretary of State William F. Galvin. The state's conflict-of-interest law prohibits lobbyists from giving anything to public officials.
DiMasi said in the interview that he had no idea Vitale was working on behalf of ticket brokers last year. "I was very surprised he would be involved," he said. "If he did anything at all and I learned about it, I would have told him not to do it." .
DiMasi said he has not spoken to Vitale about reports that he had worked on legislation for the ticket sellers. "I refuse to talk to him about it," he said, when asked if he had had any contact with Vitale since learning of Vitale's activities.
Meanwhile yesterday, DiMasi backers said they hope the letter will end speculation about the speaker's future and stop the jockeying among members looking to line up behind a successor, either the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Robert DeLeo, or the majority leader, John Rogers.
"This should put an end to the questions about the speaker's integrity and about his seriousness of purpose, " said Representative Jay Kaufman, Democrat of Lexington and chairman of the Joint Committee on Public Service. "But cynics and skeptics abound in this business, and all of us in it know that. It was a very good, straightforward positive response to a lot of negative press. The kind of barrage that he and we have been enjoying is unusual in its intensity, so I think it was appropriate for there to be a forthright response."
But DiMasi opponents said that the letter will not stem the infighting and that the speaker is trying in vain to regain his grip on a situation that has spiraled out of control.
"He's trying to fix his image outside of the State House and to say to people here that he's not going anywhere," said Martin J. Walsh, Democrat of Boston. "He wants everyone to stop politicking, but it's still going on."
A spokesman for the Republican Party, which has filed four ethics complaints against DiMasi, accused the speaker yesterday of grandstanding by writing the letter and ignoring "the gravity of the situation and most of the facts.
"If speaker DiMasi didn't do anything wrong, why did he pay back the $250,000 loan and why did Richard Vitale register as a lobbyist?" said Barney Keller. "Speaker DiMasi's grandstanding . . . indicates that he doesn't have much time left."
Republicans have also asked the State Ethics Commission to investigate whether DiMasi might have violated the state conflict-of-interest law by steering a multimillion dollar contract to
In the interview, DiMasi said he never interfered in the contract process, nor did he contact administration officials on behalf of Cognos. DiMasi's friend, lobbyist Richard McDonough, reported earning $100,000 from Cognos in the year the company received the state contract. And a former administration official has told investigators that a representative selling Cognos software had told her DiMasi wanted Cognos to get the work.
"I would never put myself into a compromising position like that," DiMasi said.
Republicans have also asked the commission to determine if DiMasi accepted a free golf game from Joseph O'Donnell, an owner of Suffolk Downs who sought to operate a resort casino on the grounds of the East Boston racetrack. DiMasi has said that he and O'Donnell were longtime friends, and that DiMasi had offered to pay O'Donnell for the game and has since reimbursed him for it.
The Republicans also asked the ethics panel to look into DiMasi's relationship with the developer Jay Cashman, a close friend of the speaker who made a $14.2 million profit on the sale of a site for a liquefied natural gas project after DiMasi killed a bill that would have blocked the controversial project. DiMasi took those actions though his wife is involved in a business relationship, through a film-production company, with Cashman and his wife.
Yesterday DiMasi continued to refuse to divulge what financial benefits his wife gets from working for the production company and her participation in the book-review program it produces. He also said his public disclosure of his and his wife's relationship with the Cashmans protects him from any potential conflict issues.
He argued that his support and work on the LNG legislation that benefited Cashman was legal because it was "general legislation" and not directed at any specific individuals.
Frank Phillips of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Andrea Estes can be reached at estes@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
