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Shortly before Mitt Romney departed the governor’s office, 11 of his top aides purchased 17 state-issued hard drives, and purged the Romney administration’s email records in advance of his presidential campaign. The move has no precedent among modern Massachusetts governors, including Romney’s recent Republican predecessors.
Two weeks ago, the story got a little worse when Romney admitted the move was intended to hide official correspondence from the public and keep potentially-embarrassing information from “opposition research” teams.
Today, the controversy managed to take an even more serious turn. Reuters reported overnight:
Mitt Romney spent nearly $100,000 in state funds to replace computers in his office at the end of his term as governor of Massachusetts in 2007 as part of an unprecedented effort to keep his records secret, Reuters has learned. […]
The cleanup of records by Romney’s staff before his term ended included spending $205,000 for a three-year lease on new computers for the governor’s office, according to official documents and state officials.
In signing the lease, Romney aides broke an earlier three-year lease that provided the same number of computers for about half the cost — $108,000. Lease documents obtained by Reuters under the state’s freedom of information law indicate that the broken lease still had 18 months to run.
As a result of the change in leases, the cost to the state for computers in the governor’s office was an additional $97,000.
So, Romney and his team not only went to great lengths to hide official correspondence from the public, they also handed taxpayers a bill for nearly six figures.
I can only imagine how absolutely devastating those emails must have been.
This is, by the way, the same Republican campaign that issued a memo last month attacking the Obama White House for failing to maintain the right standards of “openness and transparency.”
It’s worth noting that the consensus seems to be that the former governor and his team did not violate any laws with this stunt, though Reuters noted that “state law on maintaining and disclosing official records is vague and has not been updated to deal with issues related to digital records and other modern technology.”
But in a case like this, the legality is secondary to the appearance of impropriety and the degree to which Romney wiped public records in order to advance his ambitions.
If campaign reporters don’t pounce on this, they’re missing a real story.
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T2 on December 06, 2011 9:35 AM:
"campaign rerporters" ? I didn't know we still had those.
Gummo on December 06, 2011 9:36 AM:
Campaign reporters missing a real story?
Gee, that NEVER happens.
c u n d gulag on December 06, 2011 9:41 AM:
"As a result of the change in leases, the cost to the state for computers in the governor’s office was an additional $97,000."
Well, you can see right there with why they needed new computers - the old ones had glitches and told them that it would SAVE them $97,000. Bad EXCEL... bad EXCEL!
And what's a person to do but take out that hard drive and take it home with them to even up the legs on that wobbly table? I mean, why would anyone save it?
'I D (numeral)Ten T's!'
Eeyore on December 06, 2011 9:42 AM:
But Obama is taking a VACATION in HAWAII this month instead of working to solve America's problems! Now THAT is a big news story!
SteveT on December 06, 2011 9:44 AM:
But in a case like this, the legality is secondary to the appearance of impropriety and the degree to which Romney wiped public records in order to advance his ambitions.
And once Romney is the Republicans' candidate Obama surrogates need to all over this story with the same vehemence of the Birthers.
Democrats need to keep asking, where is the PROOF that Romney wasn't hiding something illegal?
delNorte on December 06, 2011 9:48 AM:
I wonder if any of those aides squirreled away one or two of those hard drives "just in case."
If so, they'd be worth their weight in gold - either held for ransom, or sold to the highest bidder. After all, politics, especially Republican politics, is war.
And what's to keep someone from fabricating data on a hard drive then leaking it bit by bit, wiki-leaks style, claiming it to be the truth?
Hedda Peraz on December 06, 2011 9:49 AM:
"no precedent among modern Massachusetts governors,"
-Perhaps; but a certain Democrat gouveneur, in the 18th C, emptied all the inkwells upon his departure. (They are STILL searching for a number of missing quill pens. . .)
Danp on December 06, 2011 9:56 AM:
If I recall Politifact listed one of their top ten lies of the year that some Dem claimed that erasing e-mails is unprecedented among outgoing Mass govs. Talk about missing the lede. It shows once again that Politifact will bend over backwards to play the Fair and Balanced game.
Equal Opportunity Cynic on December 06, 2011 9:58 AM:
Cut him some slack. He was running for office, for Pete's sake!
Josef K on December 06, 2011 9:59 AM:
It’s worth noting that the consensus seems to be that the former governor and his team did not violate any laws with this stunt, though Reuters noted that “state law on maintaining and disclosing official records is vague and has not been updated to deal with issues related to digital records and other modern technology.”
Until that 'consensus' is tested in court, its nothing but the same hot air Romney's campaign has been blowing since the start.
Why the hell hasn't someone at the State or Federal level actually filed a case on this?
Kevin Ray on December 06, 2011 9:59 AM:
It's not $97K, it's $151,000. That's the cost of the new lease, plus the 18 months left on the old lease.
DisgustedWithItAll on December 06, 2011 10:00 AM:
Ruh-roh.
Jay C on December 06, 2011 10:01 AM:
I can only imagine how absolutely devastating those emails must have been.
Really: they probably prove that Mitt Romney tried to govern Massachusetts in a sane and intelligent manner: obviously "devastating" to Republican primary voters....
Anonymous on December 06, 2011 10:09 AM:
"If campaign reporters don’t pounce on this, they’re missing a real story."
This is going to be one of those IOKIYAR things. This would be a story only if involved a Democrat, and the press would be pounding away at it. Sort of like the White House Party Crasher non-story which ended with the resignation of Desiree Rogers.
biggerbox on December 06, 2011 10:13 AM:
I don't think there's necessarily anything damning on those disks - the fact that they spent a ton of other people's money just for their own convenience without even batting an eye sounds like Romney to me.
It seems like a lot of money to us, but to someone who used to work at Bain, it's probably barely a trivial blip labelled 'administrative overhead'.
The rich aren't like you and me.
fignaz on December 06, 2011 10:19 AM:
Two things the missing drives & mails might detail--
How quickly Romney & his staff shifted to presidential campaign prep after being elected. More importantly, though, how they handled/mishandled the burgeoning revelations of the malfeasance & mismanagement involved in the Republican stewardship of "The Big Dig". Three previous Republican administrations- those of Weld, Cellucci, and Swift --pasted over problems with funding & administration plus kept James Kerasiotis in charge long after it was obvious he was lying & covering for contractors with well-known ties to the Republican Party on both a local & national level (think KBR, Halliburton, & that ilk). Also, since all things in MA lead back to Whitey Bulger ;-)-- there might be some embarrassing evidence of collusion on one of Romney's first official acts as governor: forcing Whitey's brother, Billy, out as President of the University of Massachusetts. Soon after Romney moved on Bulger, the former, long-serving President of the State Senate was called to testify before a congressional committee in the Republican-led House on his relations with his fugitive brother. Very odd timing, given the fact that Whitey had already been on the lam for 8 years...
Herostratus on December 06, 2011 10:57 AM:
There's probably nothing that bad on the drives. Romney was just doing preventive hygiene, as he pretty much stated, to prevent oppo researchers combing through the material.
It's understandable, but he still shouldn't have done it. I doubt very much that the story will have legs, though.
AndThenThere'sThat on December 06, 2011 12:54 PM:
I doubt very much that the story will have legs, though.
Unless Mittster becomes the GOP nominee. Then it damn well better have legs. I'm so f*cking tired of IOKIYAR.