THE QUESTION with Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray was always this: Having ridden into office on Deval Patrick’s coattails, could the boyish Worcester pol grow into someone voters could see as governor?
These last few months have provided a preliminary answer: No. Instead, Murray’s activities have created enduring questions about his judgment.
I don’t mean his early morning car accident, which occurred during a supposed coffee-run-and-storm-damage-inspection-drive. Unless something further surfaces, Murray, who asked for and passed a breathalyzer test, deserves the benefit of the doubt on that.
But he doesn’t deserve any such benefit on his troubling relationship with Michael McLaughlin, a scheming, manipulative, greedy, public-trust-abusing practitioner of old-style politics. For anyone familiar with McLaughlin, the Globe exposé reporting that he was collecting an astounding $360,383 as executive director of the Chelsea Housing Authority - and lying to the state about it - was absolutely no surprise. McLaughlin has since resigned, but not before ordering an underling to issue him more than $200,000 he claimed to be owed for supposedly unused sick, vacation, and personal time. Stop orders were put on those checks, but again, not before McLaughlin cashed one for more than $80,000. Federal investigators probing the housing authority have found that records necessary to determine whether McLaughlin really worked that extra time have been destroyed. (Imagine that!)
