DiMasi attempts to defend his reputation in letter

May 12, 2008 12:19 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff

House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi has sent an impassioned letter to legislators, defending himself against recent news articles and complaints from the Republican Party that he allegedly violated the state's conflict-of-interest law by advancing legislation that helped his friends.

House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi

"I am outraged that my reputation, my integrity and my good name have been called into question," said DiMasi, in the two-page letter. "I have followed the rules and laws by which we are governed ... I have never strayed and will never stray from these principles."

DiMasi suggested his problems are the result of the "conduct or actions of others.”

“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 wrote.

Last week, his longtime friend and accountant Richard D. Vitale registered as a lobbyist after the Globe wrote that he was hired by a group of ticket brokers to push legislation that would benefit their industry. However, Vitale, who had also given DiMasi a $250,000 line of credit secured by a third mortgage on his Commercial Street condo, did not list the Massachusetts Association of Ticket Brokers as a client. He listed no clients and no payments.

Richard D. Vitale

A DiMasi spokeswoman last week said DiMasi had recently repaid the loan.

The GOP has also asked the state attorney general to investigate allegations that House members are asking colleagues to vote for them when they are not present. The Boston Herald reported last month that Representative Charles Murphy, a Burlington Democrat, was in the Virgin Islands two weeks ago when he was recorded taking seven roll call votes in the House chamber.

In the last two months, the Republican Party has filed four state Ethics Commission complaints against DiMasi. In addition to the complaint about the speaker’s relationship with Vitale, Republicans asked the commission to investigate whether DiMasi might have violated the state conflict-of-interest law by attempting to steer a controversial, multimillion dollar contract to Cognos, a Canadian software company with its US headquarters in Burlington.

They also asked the commission to determine if DiMasi accepted a free golf game from Joseph O'Donnell, one of the owners of Suffolk Downs, who was looking to operate a resort casino on the grounds of the East Boston racetrack.

DiMasi has denied acting on behalf of Cognos. With regards to playing golf with O'Donnell, DiMasi has said that he and O'Donnell were longtime friends, and that DiMasi offered to pay O'Donnell for the golf at the time of the outing, and he has since reimbursed him for it. In an interview with the Globe last week, DiMasi said he had no idea Vitale was working on ticket broker legislation pending in the House.

The Globe published a story last week about DiMasi’s relationship with Jay Cashman and a bill that was killed that would have blocked a controversial liquefied natural project in Fall River. Cashman sold the terminal developers 73 acres and made a $14.2 million profit, according to a Globe review of real estate and legislative records.