Romney's Own Payolagate

From our last two entries, we had thought that you'd have to donate to Mitt Romney's campaign fund if you wanted him to give you a state job. As it turns out, all you have to do is say nice things about him! The Globe is reporting today that Willard Mitt Romney has a Herald columnist on the payroll.

Governor Mitt Romney's administration has awarded a $10,000 contract to a Boston Herald op-ed columnist to promote the governor's environmental policies.
[...]
Chieppo was awarded the contract over another bidder when his Herald columns were highly supportive of Romney's policies. His March 21 column [sub req], which appeared three days after Chieppo submitted his bid for the state contract, praised the Romney mass-transit plan that was largely authored by Douglas Foy, the secretary of Commonwealth development and the person who oversees the Environmental Affairs office that now employs Chieppo.

To be fair, Chieppo had just quit an earlier gig in the Romney administration to become a consultant and Herald op-ed writer. Still, in light of the Bush administration's recent problems with payola, one would have thought that Romney would have been more cautious than to pay a current journalist to push his agenda. Or maybe he just wants to fit in with his national counterparts.

There's nothing technically illegal about Romney's actions, though I doubt anyone will take Chieppo's writing seriously again now that he's simultaneously a columnist and a political operative paid to push an agenda. The Herald promises that he won't be writing for them on the same subjects he's being paid to write for by the administration. What I hope they do is put a disclaimer on his columns describing him as a Romney political consultant. Use of the word 'shill' is, of course, at their discretion.

By way of my own disclaimer -- in case anyone has doubts -- I am not being paid for writing this blog. Still, it is quite tempting to change it to .08 Acres (and an Elephant) if it means the governor is going to start sending contracts my way. Don't laugh! If the Herald goes under, Mitt's going to need all the mouthpieces he can get.

The Daily Kos has more reaction to this story. And Left Center Left has some interesting observation on the Globe/Metro media coverage of this.