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(MA) Do we really need a lieutenant governor?
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| Contributor | Scott³ |
| Last Edited | Scott³ Jun 19, 2010 03:36pm |
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| Category | Opinion |
| Author | Kris Frieswick |
| Media | Newspaper - Boston Globe |
| News Date | Sunday, June 13, 2010 09:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | "Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray is a busy man. One of his days last month starts with a tour and speech at Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School in Charlton. Five minutes after he’s done, he’s back in his state trooper-chauffeured car to Tewksbury, where he addresses a chapter of the Retired Educators Association of Massachusetts to field some not-always-polite questions about pension reform. Then it’s to the State House to preside over a five-minute-long Governor’s Council meeting, conduct the swearing in of a new undersecretary of criminal justice, attend a briefing by the Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness, eat a bag of peanuts for lunch, talk with a reporter, sit in on a leadership meeting with Governor Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Robert DeLeo, attend a staff meeting, confer with people from a local business, then return to his hometown of Worcester for the funeral of a policeman’s father.
Welcome to a day in the life of the lieutenant governor, the Commonwealth’s official Person-in-Waiting. Neither our state constitution nor the Massachusetts General Laws bestows upon the lieutenant governor any role except waiting for the governor to “vacate his seat” and attending (or presiding over in the governor’s absence) the Governor’s Council meetings. As such, there’s nothing for a lieutenant governor to do all day unless he makes work for himself, or the governor makes it for him. Murray has assumed, or Patrick has assigned to him, many committee posts and initiatives, and Patrick has included him in policy-making discussions. But if he chose to, and the governor didn’t care, Murray could legally just sit around. All day." |
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