I was watching state Senator Galluccio’s legal problems as 2009 drew to a close, and I cynically was thinking to myself about how my post would be different if he made it to 2010 before he resigned.  And he did make it to 2010, making half of my lines obsolete.  Multiple arrests, multiple innocent victims in the hospital, and he finally went to jail and resigned today.  He made the new year, the new decade, but I still think he’s a new year story.

The story by itself is just sad.  It’s the story of one man’s addiction and poor judgement and how he hurt himself, his family, and a collection of random people who had the misfortune of being on the road at the same time as his drunken self.  But when you put his story into a larger narrative, it becomes a statistic, the latest chapter in a book about Massachusetts legislators who couldn’t figure out how to follow the laws that they wrote and swore to uphold:

• 2008: Senators Wilkerson and Marzilli resign under indictment, a full 5% of the senate down in one year.
• 2009: Speaker DiMasi resigns and is indicted, the third consecutive house speaker to fall to a felony.
• 2010, day 5: Senator Gallucio resigns with a letter written from jail.

Am I saying that all of our legislators are criminals?  Of course not.  But I can’t help but notice that they’re going to jail at a higher rate than the general population.

It’s an election year.  Let’s hope the voters remember it in November.  Otherwise, we risk being like my buddy Loopus: “How am I supposed to repeat my mistakes if I can’t remember what they are?”

chippy and loopus