Copyright © 1998 by the Boston Phoenix, Inc. All rights reserved.

This Just In: Media

Malone camp stews over Cellucci birthday bash

By Dan Kennedy

Staffers for state treasurer Joe Malone, already seething over media-aided efforts to force their man out of his campaign against Acting Governor Paul Cellucci, now have something new to stew about: a 50th-birthday party last Friday at which Cellucci and several of his top cabinet officers whooped it up with the State House press corps.

Although the Malone camp won't comment on the cake-and-beer blowout, the Phoenix has learned that at least some campaign advisers see it as an example of an ongoing love-fest between Cellucci and the media. Paranoia? Perhaps. But also understandable, coming as it did at the end of a week in which the Boston Herald's editorial page, as well as Herald pundit Wayne Woodlief, called on Malone to go away, and the Boston Globe ran stories suggesting that Malone's supporters were having second thoughts.

The party, called late on Friday afternoon by Cellucci's staff, was held in the grungy confines of the State House press gallery, although the press corps itself had no involvement in organizing the affair. The Patriot Ledger's Lauren Markoe presented a semi-good-humored Cellucci with a copy of The Idiot's Guide to Personal Finance, wrapped in a page from the Globe, although Globe State House bureau chief Frank Phillips swears the paper had nothing to do with the alleged gift.

"They think we're snobs, so we made an effort to go down," Phillips says of his and his Globe colleagues' attendance. "Tell the Malone people to chill out -- please."

Adds Herald State House bureau chief Carolyn Ryan: "We have certainly met with Joe in informal settings, including his Christmas party every year. I don't see anything wrong with that."

Fair enough. But you can't blame the Malone camp for getting antsy about continuing efforts to drive its candidate out of the race -- efforts that have accelerated since Malone's miserable 29 percent showing at the Republicans' state convention.

After all, if Cellucci and his mentor, Bill Weld, had bowed to the will of the convention eight years ago, the Republican candidates for governor and lieutenant governor would have been anti-choice conservatives Steven Pierce and Peter Torkildsen. And the likely outcome would have been four more years of Democrats.