The problem with picking your running mate at the last minute is that you might not have time to do the background check. From the Globe:
State Representative Marie P. St. Fleur, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly's choice to be his lieutenant governor running mate, has had three delinquent tax debts in the last four years, including an April 2005 federal tax lien of $12,711 against her and her husband, according to records examined yesterday by the Globe.While I don't think having outstanding debt should exclude someone from public service, nor do I really think that this will make a difference to voters in either September or November. My hunch is that the only people it matters to are those who wouldn't vote for a Reilly/St. Fleur ticket anyway. Still, I'm positive that this is not the first impression either Tom Reilly or Marie St. Fleur wanted to give the electorate.
St. Fleur, in an interview last night, disclosed that she also owes $40,000 in delinquent federally backed student loans.
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The existence of the tax liabilities in city, state, and federal records immediately raised questions about why Reilly's campaign made no effort to scrutinize St. Fleur's background before Reilly, the leading candidate in polls for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, invited the popular Dorchester legislator to be his running mate.
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