Here is the story...
http://www.boston.com/news/loc...d_business_with_state/
So this is too much, not only did we have a known sex offender representing the state in a conference just recently but now we also have this fiasco, and what's better is all the support she recieved over her opposition by the Patrick admin in the most recent election...
Here is to hoping they put the screws to her, she certainly deserves it. MA politics at its finest for sure.
http://www.boston.com/news/loc...d_business_with_state/
Cosmetics executive John Walsh and public works contractor Jay M. Cashman were among the members of Boston's business elite who gave former state senator Dianne Wilkerson contributions to help her pay off personal debts, according to people who have been briefed on the transactions or questioned by federal authorities.
Wilkerson had previously said that any financial help she had received to pay off federal tax debts came from personal friends. But in the case of Walsh, Cashman, and some others previously identified, the donors also had major financial interests in the workings of state government, raising questions about their motives for giving checks as large as $10,000 to the powerful senator.
Walsh, in particular, received key help from Wilkerson when he found himself in a high-profile battle to gain entry into an exclusive Beacon Hill co-op. When residents of the building blocked him from buying an apartment, Wilkerson added her name to Walsh's cause - adding some credence to his allegation that he was the victim of discrimination.
With large Big Dig, MBTA, and other state con tracts, Cashman's business has long depended heavily on state money, including bond issues approved by the Legislature.
Also writing a check to Wilkerson was Shelley I. Hoon, a construction executive who won a state contract to renovate a housing development in Wilkerson's district and whose husband, John W. Keith, also is a large contractor who has built state-subsidized housing, said the people, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.
Walsh, Cashman, and Hoon declined to comment. Representatives of Cashman and Hoon said they did nothing improper.
The Globe has previously reported that another major developer, Arthur Winn, contributed $10,000 to Wilkerson's personal fund-raising drive. Winn spearheaded the planned Columbus Center project that would be built, with state subsidies, over the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston. Winn has said he contributed to Wilkerson because she was a close friend and that he did not expect anything in return.
Wilkerson, in a Globe interview in January, previously said she and her contributors were acting within the guidelines of Ethics Commission rules that permit personal gifts to politicians. As long as she did not let a contribution influence her vote, she said, she did nothing wrong.
Wilkerson has already been indicted by the grand jury on bribery and conspiracy charges in a corruption case involving a Roxbury liquor license, an indictment that prompted Wilkerson to resign late last year. She has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial as the investigation continues.
The Globe reported last month that Wilkerson, in the interview, described how she had engaged in personal fund-raising to pay more than $70,000 in tax and mortgage debt. She said she accepted individual monetary gifts from a number of unnamed business executives.
In 1997 and 2003, the Ethics Commission issued Wilkerson written rulings saying she could engage in such fund-raising, but warned her against exchanging official actions in return. It also said she would have to disclose the payments if the contributors had financial interests in the workings of the Legislature. Wilkerson has never made any such disclosures.
Winn told the Globe in an interview last week that his decision to donate to Wilkerson in 2004 was based on their friendship and had nothing to do with his quest to develop Columbus Center or other projects. Wilkerson voted in November 2005 to award the controversial Back Bay project $4.3 million in state grant funding; the measure ultimately died before passage.
Wilkerson has denied ever taking any official actions in exchange for the gifts. But she has repeatedly declined to be interviewed about specific contributions, or her relationships with specific supporters.
In the case of Walsh, the chief executive of the Elizabeth Grady chain of skin care salons, the federal grand jury investigating Wilkerson has obtained several checks that he made out to Wilkerson during the same time she sought to help Walsh get into the Beacon Hill co-op, according to a person who was shown the documents.
Walsh, when asked about the contributions, said, "I don't know what you're talking about." He referred further questions to his attorney, William A. Zucker, who did not respond to calls seeking comment.
The Walsh contribution marks yet another tantalizing turn in the case, which smacked of old-school Boston classism pitting old-money bluebloods against a new-moneyed entreprenuer of Irish descent. When Wilkerson jumped into the public uproar over the Beacon Street cooperative to support Walsh, she caught even Walsh's Beacon Hill's supporters by surprise.
She lobbied heavily at the State House, appeared at an April 2007 press conference, and wrote an article supporting Walsh in the Beacon Hill Times. She testified on behalf of a bill that would have allowed co-op boards to disqualify prospective owners only on the basis of personal finances, even urging her colleagues to take immediate action. It passed the Legislature in the summer during so-called "informal sessions," when no roll-calls are taken.
But it was ultimately vetoed by Governor Deval Patrick, who argued that it would prohibit the creation of cooperative housing for such groups as the elderly and artists.
A legislative source said that in mid-December, the US Attorney's office subpoenaed e-mails, personal calendars, and meeting notes kept by the chief sponsors of the legislation requiring the Beacon Hill co-op to accept Walsh - state Representative Barry Finegold and state Senator Susan Tucker, Democrats from Andover. The subpoenas particularly cited Walsh and the 68 Beacon St. cooperative. Neither Finegold nor Tucker would comment on the prosecutors' requests.
The US attorney's office also would not comment.
"This remains an ongoing investigation," office spokeswoman Christina Diorio-Sterling said. "We're not going to comment any further."
Cashman has reaped millions from state construction contracts, including from the massive $532 million Greenbush state commuter rail expansion. A spokesman for Cashman declined to discuss the contribution, saying only that he has "always complied with every legal requirement relating to campaign contributions."
Cashman previously has worked on projects for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Turnpike Authority, Convention Center Authority, Highway Department, Division of Capital and Asset Management, and Department of Environmental Management.
More recently, in 2007, Cashman lobbied the Legislature to amend state law so he could build a wind farm in Buzzard's Bay. The Legislature did not change the law but in early 2008, it passed a measure appointing a task force to review it. Wilkerson voted in favor of that bill on Jan. 9, 2008, records show.
Hoon, with two partners, received a $58.3 million contract from the state to renovate a housing development in Wilkerson's district in 2001. She gave Wilkerson a check for $10,000 in 2004, the same year as Winn, said a source who was briefed on the details of the transaction.
Hoon's husband, Keith, owns a construction company that built several state-subsidized projects, including an apartment complex in Malden that received approval for $16.4 million in financing from Mass Housing in July 2005. Another project, a housing development in New Bedford, secured roughly $2.9 million in low-income housing tax credits and housing stabilization funds from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development in June 2004.
Hoon's lawyer said the contribution was deemed legal by Hoon's lawyers and given without expectation of anything in return for her or her husband's businesses.
"She never thought about it benefiting anybody's business," the lawyer, Tracy Miner, said.
So this is too much, not only did we have a known sex offender representing the state in a conference just recently but now we also have this fiasco, and what's better is all the support she recieved over her opposition by the Patrick admin in the most recent election...
Here is to hoping they put the screws to her, she certainly deserves it. MA politics at its finest for sure.
Facebook
Twitter