Not So Fast, My Friend
For those who read the Herald today and got the impression that a cavalcade of casino stars—from Venetian mastermind Sheldon Adelson to Harrah’s boss Gary Loveman to (breathless wheezing for air) Donald Trump himself—will be making a beeline to Beacon Hill to testify in a couple weeks, hold on juuuuust a second.
Casey Ross reported this morning that Rep. David Flynn’s Dec. 18 revenue hearing, which we told you about last week, would have a “glitzy guest list,” and even went so far as to get Sen. Mark Montigny’s thoughts on having celebrity businessmen in the House. From the story:
“We need this hearing to be based on objective facts and figures,” said Montigny, a gaming skeptic. “It’s of no help to us if we get a sales pitch from casino interests with a little extra theater from Donald Trump.”
But Flynn said those testifying also include economic experts, academics, three of Patrick’s cabinet secretaries and the state’s revenue commissioner.
Now nowhere in the story does it explicitly say that Trump and friends would be attending (just twice that they were on the “guest list”), but that passage sure makes it seem like the moguls’ presence is a done deal. That’s a problem, because it’s not.
I spoke a couple hours ago with Dan Sullivan, Flynn’s staff director, who told me that the invites were in the process of being sent out, and as of yet, nobody had responded to one way or the other.
“As I talk to you now,” he said, ” there are invitations being put in envelopes.”
Sullivan could save a bit of postage by chucking the letter marked for Trump because Trump Entertainment Resorts Spokesman Tom Hickey just emailed to say that, no, his boss will not be in attendance. There’s no word back from Adelson or Loveman’s camp yet, but it’s certainly no done deal that they’ll be there either.
Too bad for the Herald, which was clearly ready to pounce on the spectacle of Trump in the State House.
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