Romney political hirings draw fire

Governor Mitt Romney's pledge to keep politics out of his appointments to top-level state posts came under fire yesterday when he gave $82,500-a-year jobs to a Massachusetts Democratic lawmaker who campaigned for President Bush and to an unsuccessful GOP candidate for the Legislature.

Praising their professional experiences and education, Romney announced that he was appointing Representative Brian P. Golden, Democrat of Allston, and Judith Judson, a Topsfield Republican activist, to be commissioners of the Department of Telecommunications and Energy.

But despite their Harvard University educations and backgrounds in the fields, the appointments of Golden and Judson put the governor on the defensive and highlighted the political difficulty created by his vow to change Beacon Hill politics.

Golden, who will replace DTE commissioner Eugene J. Sullivan Jr., endorsed Bush in the last two presidential elections, alienating himself from the Massachusetts Democratic Party. He campaigned this fall for Bush with Romney in New Hampshire. Earlier in the year, he greeted Bush on the runway at Logan International Airport, when the president came to attend a Boston fund-raiser.

Golden, as the House vice chairman of the Joint Committee on Government Regulations, has regularly accepted campaign donations from officials and lobbyists representing industries he will be expected to regulate. His departure will trigger a special election next year for his legislative seat.

Judson, who served as chief of staff of Romney's Department of Business and Technology resigned earlier this year to run for the Legislature. She was part of the Republican team that Romney and the state GOP fielded in their failed attempt to cut into the Democratic majority in the House and Senate. She lost to Representative Theodore C. Speliotis, Democrat of Danvers, winning 42 percent of the vote.

Golden, a lawyer who makes $53,380 a year as a state representative, will get a nearly $30,000 boost in salary with his new appointment. Judson, who was making $84,000 a year in her previous state job, will take a $1,500 cut. She will replace Deirdre Manning on the commission.

In a brief interview last night, Romney strongly defended the appointments, saying the political backgrounds of his choices were not a factor. He also insisted he would stick to his position that politics should not play a role in the hirings he will make as governor, despite the political fallout. But he also said that political backgrounds should not rule out a candidate for an appointment.

''I will work to hire the most qualified individuals, regardless of their political history," Romney said. ''Their political history did not lead to this job offer, and it should not prevent them from continued public service."

Romney's position has strained his relationship with some major political supporters and fund-raisers. For example, Romney quashed a move last year by Christopher F. Egan, the scion of the EMC Corp. fortune and one of the governor's leading fund-raisers, to be appointed president of the Massachusetts Economic Development Authority. Romney's refusal tested his relationship with the Egan family, which has raised huge donations for the GOP.

As a candidate and as governor, Romney has repeatedly denounced the tradition of governors' doling out state jobs to political allies. State Democratic party leaders responded by urging him to take a pledge that no GOP candidates would end up on the administration's payroll. Romney declined to respond, though he has sought to avoid political appointments.

Yesterday Democrats jumped on the appointments of Golden and Judson, saying Romney's decision to give them such plum jobs goes against his pledge to steer clear of patronage practices.

''These are obviously patronage appointments by a governor pledged not to use patronage," said Philip W. Johnston, chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. ''It's particularly troubling that he is giving state government jobs to defeated Republican candidates for the Legislature."

Eric Fehrnstrom, the governor's director of communications, said Romney's decision had no patronage overtones.

''In Judith Judson's case, she is returning to state government at a salary that is less than what she was making when she left to run for public office," Fehrnstrom said. ''And Brian Golden, as a member of former Speaker [Thomas M.] Finneran's leadership team, gained the trust and admiration of people on both sides of the aisle for his objectivity and fair-mindedness."

Although DTE decisions rarely follow partisan lines, Romney's moves would shift the commission's membership back to a 3-to-2 Republican majority. Chairman Paul G. Afonso is a Democrat, as are Manning and Sullivan. Judson would join James Connelly and W. Robert Keating in a 3-to-2 GOP majority, as existed before Romney named Afonso to the commission 16 months ago.

One of the most important issues the DTE may face in 2005 is how to deal with the next phase of the state's efforts to restructure and deregulate electric utilities. A 1998 restructuring act fixed rates for most residential customers in the state through so-called standard offer rates. But that system expires at the end of March, and hundreds of thousands of consumers could face higher and much more volatile rates, driven by global energy markets.

Legislators have taken no action to date to address the question of what happens to standard-offer electric customers. Representative Daniel E. Bosley, a North Adams Democrat who cochairs the committee that oversees the DTE, floated a plan earlier this year to assign groups of utility customers to energy companies to get consumers better rates and less volatile service plans. But Bosley could not attract support from enough legislators or Senate leaders to move the plan.

The agency will face intense public pressure to protect consumers if the end of the standard offer rate plan leads to sharp increases in electric rates.