Jim Lyons, embattled crackpot chairman of the Massachusetts state Republican committee, was a no-show Wednesday night time on the solely candidate discussion board earlier than the 70 or so members who will resolve whether or not handy him one other time period Tuesday night time.
It was a Zoom debate, and he nonetheless couldn’t make it. He was sick, he stated. Kinda just like the celebration he’s run into the bottom.
I name him Jim “Jones” Lyons, as a result of for 4 years he’s been operating the MassGOP as a political demise cult, a la Jonestown 1979.
Since taking up 4 years in the past, Lyons has decimated the whole state celebration equipment. Bill Parcells used to say, you might be what your report says you might be.
This is Lyons’ report:
He’s zero-for-everything in statewide constitutional workplace races, 0-18 in Congressional races, 0-1 in US Senate races, 0-2 in referendum questions (and unable to get sufficient signatures to place 4 different questions onto the poll).
Under Lyons, the variety of Republicans within the 200-member Legislature has plummeted from 38 to twenty-eight. There have been 5 Republican sheriffs within the state when Lyons took workplace. There at the moment are two. The GOP has misplaced one in all its two district attorneys.
Now Lyons desires one other time period… to complete the job. For the Democrats, that’s.
Can you blame Lyons for bailing out of the talk? Who might defend that form of dismal report? And the celebration is simply as unhealthy off financially.
His Question 4 committee, which failed miserably in its effort to stop unlawful immigrants from getting drivers’ licenses, is $44,968 within the gap. Geoff Diehl, the celebration’s hapless perennial loser, now has $18,015 in “liabilities” from his newest landslide loss in November.
And that’s simply the tip of the iceberg. If Lyons would ever file the required monetary statements (that have been due final Friday) we’d have some indication of simply how deep within the pink the MassGOP actually is.
Yesterday millionaire investor Chris Egan of Westboro emailed the whole state committee, providing to steer a bail-out effort if… the celebration ejects Lyons subsequent week.
In his letter, Egan talked about one other looming disaster – the incontrovertible proof that Lyons might have illegally colluded with a brilliant PAC over the $53,000 investigation into the intercourse lifetime of Gov. Maura Healey.
“Being familiar with the relevant regulations,” Egan wrote, “I assume an OCPF investigation is soon to begin, or may have already been initiated.”
Then there’s the legal professional common’s probe into the six-figure transfers of funds forwards and backwards between the state celebration beneath Lyons and the Fattmans, state senator Ryan and his spouse, Stephanie, the Worcester County register of probate.
It’s an advanced story, however for now all you must know is that Sen. Fattman is anxious sufficient to have arrange a authorized protection fund for which he continues relentlessly elevating cash — $7,000 final month, $9,000 in November, $24,000 in October.
As of yesterday, Fattman’s authorized protection fund had collected $219,490.
Who is aware of what’s coming subsequent within the Fattman probe? What if it seems anyone employed a personal eye to dig up dust on Stephanie’s Democrat opponent in 2020… simply asking for a buddy right here, you perceive.
Trump’s coming to Salem NH tomorrow. Suppose Lyons recovers sufficient from his current sickness to make his means north to beg POTUS for an endorsement? Obviously, Lyons is a complete failure as a political boss, however ought to he in some way be re-elected as chairman, he’d have greater than 40 delegates he’d management a technique or one other on the nationwide GOP conference in Milwaukee.
Perhaps somebody ought to remind Trump that Lyons fought him to the bitter finish as a Ted Cruz delegate to Cleveland in 2016, and that Lyons’ opponent for chairman, Amy Carnevale, was a Trump delegate that yr.
Memo to Trump’s Secret Service element: Tomorrow, in the event you see a slipper-clad outdated man dressed like a hobo dragging a bedraggled Christmas tree behind him as he shuffles unsteadily in the direction of the president along with his hand out, beware!
At the very least, Lyons will attempt to put the chunk on Trump up for a small mortgage. It’d most likely be the primary cash the state GOP has raised because the celebration’s most up-to-date calamitous displaying on Nov. 8.
In retrospect, it’s astonishing that Lyons was ever given the facility to destroy a once-prosperous, venerable political celebration. But all of us ought to have seen it coming.
Back in 2003, Lyons was being sued over a failed enterprise deal up in New Hampshire. On May 22 of that yr, a lawyer for the plaintiff named Mark Sullivan informed a state choose how a lot hassle he’d had attempting to find something about Jim Lyons, who apparently had put all the pieces into his spouse Bernadette’s identify.
This is straight from the transcript of the courtroom listening to:
“I had sent out financial interrogatories to Mr. Lyons. And Mr. Lyons, despite being a physical being on this planet, has no other – it seems no other connections to the planet other than the fact that he’s on it. He has no – no pay, no gross income, no banks, no….”
At the time, Lyons was 48 years outdated. The lawyer continued:
“He’s not a beneficiary of any trust, he says. He has no interest whatsoever in any real estate, any conversions, any leasehold. He has no interest in any business and has not had any interest in any business in the last five years. He has no stocks… He has no vehicles. He has no interest in any pension, profit-sharing plan. In essence, he has no income of any kind and no expenses of any kind and has had none of that for the last five years….”
Now Lyons is 68 years outdated, and what little stays of the celebration he has wrecked is circling the bowl.
Jim Lyons desperately desires one other time period… to complete the job. The worry is that he’ll in some way attempt to run out the clock on the assembly Tuesday night time earlier than he could be ousted.
So what if the celebration is just about “insolvent,” as Chris Egan put it yesterday? If there’s no vote, for a number of extra weeks Jim would possibly maintain getting paid $1,900 every week – at the least till the checks begin bouncing, which received’t take lengthy.
Reelect Jim “Jones” Lyons! What might presumably go unsuitable?
Source: www.bostonherald.com”