Coping with a scandal? Save those holidays!

The Lowell Sun, Political Column

Suffolk County Holidays

JUST WHEN the state Legislature needed to do everything it could to rehabilitate its image following the bruising indictment of former House Speaker Sal DiMasi — the third consecutive speaker to experience ethical lapses — it whiffed.

The Legislature voted last week to preserve a pair of controversial state holidays that are only observed in Suffolk County: Bunker Hill Day (June 17) and Evacuation Day, which happens to be celebrated on St. Patrick’s Day.

The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation and its president, Michael Widmer, estimate that keeping the holidays costs taxpayers about $5 million.

The Greater Lowell delegation was essentially split on the issue, with Reps. James Arciero, Cory Atkins, Jennifer Benson, Barry Finegold, James Miceli and Republican Robert Hargraves all voting to eliminate the costly perk.

Reps. Colleen Garry, Thomas Golden, Bill Greene, Kevin Murphy and David Nangle voted in favor of hackarama.

A similar bill also failed in the Senate, despite mounting support. Lowell Sen. Steve Panagiotakos joined Sens. Susan Fargo and Kenneth Donnelly in voting to keep the “holidays.”

Local senators Susan Tucker, Bruce Tarr and Jennifer Flanagan voted to ditch them.

Garry Support for Miceli.. Or?

OF COURSE, the Massachusetts Republican Party was quick to assail the Democratic majority and Democrats who voted in January for another speaker’s term for DiMasi while knowing he was the subject of a federal probe.

In one press release, the GOP said that of the 135 House Democrats who voted to re-elect DiMasi, 32 also voted for his two predecessors, Thomas Finneran and Charles Flaherty, both of whom were also indicted and convicted on corruption charges.

Three of them are local: Dracut’s Garry, Lowell’s Golden and Wilmington’s Miceli.

Now there’s a dubious distinction.

Garry, however, was singled out in a survey by the Boston Phoenix showing how she ranked No. 2 in the House for casting votes in opposition to DiMasi-endorsed legislation and initiatives.