Christy Speaks Out on Governor Patrick's Senate Appointment

As I write to you this afternoon, Deval Patrick is preparing to name lobbyist Paul Kirk as the Interim U.S. Senator for the Commonwealth...and Massachusetts is once again seeing back-room politics on Beacon Hill coming before the needs of working families. I'm in this race to change that.

Governor Patrick is engaged in the kind of back-room political payback and dealmaking that sickens people. His rumored appointee, Paul Kirk, is a registered lobbyist, a campaign financier, and a Democratic insider who defines everything that is wrong with government today. Lobbyist Paul Kirk, if appointed, will blend in perfectly with the special interests in Washington who are spending us into a debt that both Massachusetts and the United States may never escape from. Even if he only joins the Senate for five months, my fear is that Kirk will put his political and lobbying interests before those of Massachusetts families.

Newspaper reports made it clear: under pressure from Washington, Patrick was told to ram through a Senator who would vote the party-line in Washington. It wasn't about helping working families here at home, but about giving his friend Barack Obama another party-line, rubber-stamp vote in the Senate. I think it says a lot about my opponent's judgment: after hypocritically insisting in 2006 that Massachusetts should go without a Senator until the Democrats could manipulate the process, today he rams through a millionaire corporate lobbyist as political payback.

After months of visiting with real people in cities and towns across of the Commonwealth, I'm inspired and energized to lead a campaign to stop just this kind of insider behavior. We need to do more than just win this election: we need to fundamentally change the corrupt political culture on Beacon Hill. We'll focus on cutting taxes for average people, trimming an out-of-control bureaucracy and getting Massachusetts moving forward again. The special interests won't like it: but you and your family will have a Governor who puts people before politics.

Your friend,
Christy Mihos