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Note: Patrick administration officials would not comment today on Aloisi's blog posting, which appeared Tuesday night, other than to say it was unauthorized. (Boston Globe, 3/18/09)

Aloisi defends sister in blog
The Boston Globe, 3/18/09
By Andrea Estes
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/03/aloisi_defends.html

In a highly unusual and strongly worded blog posting from a top Patrick administration official, State Transportation Secretary James Aloisi Jr. lashed out at the Globe while defending his sister, who held a $60,000-a-year legislative job for six months in 2008 and 2009 with no apparent responsibilities.

Aloisi described the Globe story that revealed Carol Aloisi's no-work job as "misleading," "inaccurate," and "disgraceful." He provided no details on the blog of what he considered erroneous, and did not respond to repeated requests for comment from a Globe reporter today.

Aloisi and his sister turned down repeated requests on Monday to comment for the original story, which was published in Tuesday's Globe.

"I didn't think that it was ever appropriate for the press or others to take shots at me through members of my family, but it seems that the rules of the game have changed," Aloisi wrote on Blue Mass Group blog, a left-leaning forum frequented by Democratic activists and politicians.

Patrick administration officials would not comment today on Aloisi's blog posting, which appeared Tuesday night, other than to say it was unauthorized.

Aloisi, a former Big Dig lawyer, has not shied from controversy since Patrick appointed him in December to lead the state through a major overhaul of its transportation system. In a closed door meeting, he disparaged Senate President Therese Murray's approach to transportation legislation calling her "reform before revenue" mantra a "meaningless slogan." He also called Turnpike Authority board member Mary Connaughton, a Republican appointee who has been sharply critical of the Turnpike's finances, "a distraction. She's a gadfly and I have more important things to do," he told a Globe reporter.

Aloisi said in the posting Tuesday night that his sister had an "unblemished record'' since she began working in the House in 2003 and that she had repeatedly sought reassignment beginning last August when she was posted in the vacant State House office a former legislator, a job that left her with nothing to do.

"She has been a leader in the state Democratic party for many years. She has never needed to call on me for help in getting a job or keeping a job,'' he said.

Carol Aloisi was hired by former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi to be chief of staff to Springfield Representative Cheryl Coakley-Rivera. Last year, she asked to be transferred after a dispute over attendance. In September, the speaker's office sent her to the office of Representative Rachel Kaprielian, even though the Watertown lawmaker had left months before to become Registrar of Motor Vehicles.
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