Remember when new Governor Charlie Baker swept in and rescinded all 60-or-so appointments made by ex-Governor Patrick in the last few days he was in office? Well, that hasn’t gone well at all. Baker ended up having to rescind his rescission of all but two of those appointments. And BMG has discovered that those two appointees both maxed out to the Baker campaign in 2014 (neither of them donated to Baker’s opponent, Martha Coakley), and they probably aren’t too psyched that their appointments were yanked.
Here’s what happened. On his second day in office, Baker sent a one-sentence letter to Secretary Bill Galvin instructing that all of Patrick’s last-minute appointments were rescinded. The first problem was that Galvin interpreted that letter as applying to the newly-named DA of Bristol County, who was finishing preparations for the very high-profile Aaron Hernandez trial. So that was awkward. There was an embarrassing back and forth between Baker and Galvin, which ended when Baker sensibly re-installed the same guy Patrick had named.
Then, it turned out that all but four of the 60-odd appointments are actually exempt from being rescinded. Worse, two of the remaining four appointments were designed to allow the new Chief Justice of the SJC (Ralph Gants) and the incoming Attorney General (Maura Healey) to swear in their own staff, so Baker promptly reinstated those two as well.
That left only two unfortunate last-minute Patrick appointees to be subjected to Baker’s axe:
Paul Phaneuf to the Board of Registration of Funeral Directors and Embalmers, and Raymond Murano to the Board of Registration in Podiatry.
Hilariously, though, Phaneuf and Murano both donated the maximum $500 to the Baker campaign in 2014. And Murano’s support of Baker goes back to 2013, when he donated $200, and even back 2010 when he also maxed out (though, to be fair, Murano covered his bases in 2010 by also donating to the Patrick campaign). Murano also donated to the state Republican party in 2010 to the tune of $1,300. Awkward.
MassLive.com reports that Governor Baker told Galvin that “[i]n due course, we will consider what action will be taken relative to the appointments made to the Board of Registration of Funeral Directors and Embalmers and the Board of Registration in Podiatry.” Won’t it be interesting to see what, if anything, remains of Governor Baker’s first big move since taking office once that review is complete. :D