I was performing some research in the course of writing up my excitement that Senator Robert Creedon was going to retire when I came across something odd.
According to the Globe's coverage of March 20th's vote on Deval's casino package, two representatives accidentally voted the wrong way. The two of them, Representatives Poirier and Ross meant to vote to essentially kill Deval's casino resorts, but ended up voting to keep it alive. (In the exact quote "Reps. Poirier and Ross indicated after the vote that they had both intended to vote 'yes' instead of 'no'") Two out of 152 votes were cast incorrectly. This leads to the following possibilities, as far as I can see:
1) On the most publicized and possibly most important vote of the legislative session, two of our educated professionals couldn't correctly cast a vote. Representatives Poirier and Ross pressed the wrong button at a moment when it mattered most. This is atypical for a state rep, and could raise pointed questions about the abilities of Reps. Poirier and Ross to do their jobs. If they can't press the right button, can they do the hard stuff? I mean, it's not as if they accidentally voted to declare February "National Orchid Awareness Month" or something...this was the BIG VOTE.
2) On average, state representative vote the wrong way 1% of the time, and nobody knows or cares. Shouldn't we?
3) The state reps support casinos, but at the same time are terrified of revenge from Speaker DiMasi. So they are trying to appease both sides by saying that they voted for casinos, but didn't mean it. They are dishonest.
4) The state reps do not support casinos, but felt some compunction to vote for them. Maybe they figured it was going down in flames, so they could get what they wanted while still making nice with Deval or the money people behind the idea. They are dishonest and possibly greedy.
Dishonesty or incompetence, those are your choices. What am I missing here?
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