Everybody ought to see Paris.
Particularly if another person is paying for the journey, just like the Massachusetts taxpayer.
It’s what the taxpayer did for Lawyer Normal Andrea Campbell, the state’s chief “legislation enforcement officer,” to attend a July 2004 attorneys common convention in Paris, together with two unidentified aides.
Why half of the nation’s lawyer generals met in Paris slightly than any metropolis inside the USA remained unexplained, though it has all of the earmarks of a junket.
Campbell gave no announcement of the journey. Nor was there any agenda listed, or discover of conferences held, a summation of accomplishments, or who she met with. Nor had been there any opening or closing statements in regards to the convention.
Officers working the convention even refused to launch the date of the gathering, though it was later discovered to be held from July 29 to August 3, 2024.
The convention was cosponsored by the Nationwide Affiliation of Attorneys Normal, a longtime group, and the Lawyer Normal Alliance, a nonprofit group whose funding comes from company donors, a few of which the attorneys common are charged with regulating and investigating.
A few the most important donors to the Lawyer Normal Alliance, as an illustration, are Amazon and Pfizer, the pharmaceutical big. Each contributed $500,000 every to AGA in 2021, in keeping with the Related Press.
That contribution permits its lobbyists, in addition to lobbyists from different large firms kicking in, to attend the convention and mingle with the attorneys common.
Christopher Toth, a former NAAG government director, informed AP, “Lobbyists primarily fund these journeys. They funnel the cash by way of AGA after which that insulates the AGs from being criticized that they’re taking cash from lobbyists.”
Price to taxpayers for Campbell’s go to, which included facet journeys to Brussels and Normandy, got here to $13,627, in keeping with data obtained by the Herald, $9,000 of which went for transportation by way of France offered by Avis Chauffeur, a “top quality” chauffeur service.
Nevertheless, there was no obvious bill for inns, meals or different bills that may usually present up on a bank card. These are bills which will or might not have been picked up by lobbyist donations to AGA.
The revelation of Campbell’s journey got here in a Herald evaluation of Campbell’s taxpayer-funded lawyer common bank card bills for the final fiscal yr. They got here to some $300,000.
The playing cards are so-called P-cards, or procurement playing cards, issued to some state staff, the abuse of which has gotten some state officers in bother over time.
This isn’t to say that there’s any bank card abuse happening, or that Campbell benefited from lobbyist largesse on the journey to France.
However it’s to say that Campbell, a former Boston metropolis councilor and unsuccessful mayoral candidate, campaigned for lawyer common speaking about transparency and accountability.
Proper now, the taxpayer may use some, particularly as Campbell, who has rapidly turn out to be a part of the Democrat Get together institution on Beacon Hill, will likely be searching for reelection to a second four-year time period.
An instance of her partnering with the State Home Democrat institution has been her potential to stymie state Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s try and audit the Democrat-run Massachusetts Legislature, although the general public accepted of the proposal by 72% of the vote.
Whereas it is probably not associated (Yeah, proper), the Legislature gave her a whopping $7 million funds improve to fund her “anti-Trump unit” that can proceed to file lawsuits towards President Donald Trump.
And why not? Suing Trump obtained her predecessor, Lawyer Normal Maura Healey, elected governor.
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas will be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com.
