A Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate asked the question every taxpayer in the Commonwealth should be asking — and the police union's response was to demand an apology for asking it.
Mike Minogue posted on Facebook Saturday whether Governor Maura Healey "cut a deal with the State Troopers for an endorsement as Governor," tying it to reporting on State Police reforms for new recruits. "The real reform we need [is] a new kind of Governor," Minogue wrote, according to Boston.com.
The State Police Association of Massachusetts — SPAM, representing troopers and sergeants — fired back Sunday, calling the suggestion "categorically false" and demanding Minogue apologize for "accusing our members of corruption without evidence."
But here's what SPAM didn't deny: the union endorsed Healey, and Healey's administration approved a contract giving troopers an 11 percent raise over three years. Minogue had cited an 18 percent figure, which SPAM corrected — but the existence of a raise wasn't in dispute. The union said the contract was negotiated through "mediation, fact-finding, and arbitration." That's the process. The question is whether the endorsement and the favorable contract are connected — and that's a question of public interest, not an accusation of criminal corruption.
SPAM insisted it "stands by" its Healey endorsement. Healey's office did not respond to a request for comment Sunday night, Boston.com reported.
This is the machine protecting itself. Public-sector unions spend member dues to elect the politicians who sit across the bargaining table from them, then those same politicians approve contracts funded by taxpayers who had no seat at the table. When someone points at the obvious conflict — the endorsement-for-raise feedback loop — the union wraps itself in the troopers' integrity and cries smear.
Nobody is questioning whether individual troopers earned their pay or do dangerous work. The question is structural: when the endorsement goes one way and the contract goes the other, who's really at the table representing the people paying the bill?
Minogue should correct the 18 percent figure. But an apology for raising the issue? That's exactly what the machine always demands — silence.
