Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey (D), has nominated her former romantic partner Gabrielle R. Wolohojian to serve on the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.
Wolohojian is a judge and may be qualified for the position, but that doesn’t change the appearance of nepotism.
The Associated Press reports, via Boston.com:
Maura Healey nominates a judge — and former romantic partner — to the state’s highest courtGov. Maura Healey on Wednesday nominated an appeals court judge and former romantic partner, with whom she shared a home for several years, to an open seat on the state’s highest court.Massachusetts Appeals Court Associate Justice Gabrielle R. Wolohojian would serve as an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court if her nomination is approved. Wolohojian is Healey’s second nomination to the state’s highest court.“There is no one more qualified or better prepared to serve on the Supreme Judicial Court than Justice Wolohojian. She will bring over three decades of broad trial and appellate experience, including sixteen years on the Appeals Court,” Healey said in a press release.“Justice Wolohojian has served on the Appeals Court with distinction and her work is widely respected by members of the bench and bar. She has an exceptional understanding of the law and a strong commitment to the administration of justice,” Healey added.Wolohojian, 63, would fill the seat vacated by Justice David Lowy. Last year Healey nominated then-state solicitor Elizabeth Dewar to the high court.
Jazz Shaw of Hot Air commented on this:
I had to do a bit of research on this because I wasn’t previously familiar with Wolohojian. There doesn’t seem to be any question that she has the basic qualifications to sit on the high court. She has a law degree from Cornell, worked as a partner at a prestigious law firm, clerked for a judge on a US District Court, and has served as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court since 2008. There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly controversial about her.But the fact is that she was openly in a romantic relationship with Healey for a dozen years. Executive officials are typically averse to appointing their former lovers to high office because of the horrid political optics. If a male politician appoints a young woman he’s been sleeping with to a powerful and well-paying position it’s generally looked upon as a scandal.
Perhaps no one is more familiar with the workings of the Massachusetts swamp than longtime Boston talk host Howie Carr, who published a lengthy post about this on Twitter/X:
Gov. Maura Healey nominating her dumped ex-gal pal for the SJC may be the most brazen hack appointment ever!A nationwide search’s nationwide search!”Hold It” Healy turns 53 tomorrow. Her ex live-in heart throb, Gabrielle Wolohojian, is 63.Hold It Healey dumped Gabe for a 20-year-younger woman, Joanna Lydgate, age 43, who worked under Healey when she was the AG.Like corrupt Fulton County DA Fani Willis with her boy toy, Healey claims she didn’t start seeing a lot of Joanna until the formerly married (to a guy) mom of 2 was no longer on her payroll.Wolo owned the love nest in Charlestown that the 2 long shared, later sold it for $2.3 million after she was dumped by Maura for the younger woman.It was a very acrimonious parting of the ways. Things happened…. trips to City Hall, private detectives (you’ve read about that here), etc.After breaking up, Maura moved in rapid succession from the South End to Cambridge to Arlington, home of the new younger girlfriend and her 2 kids by the cuckolded husband who’s never been publicly named.Wolo’s current salary on the appeals court is $213,924 a year. Her new salary will be $226,187.She replaces David Lowy, another hack’s hack who’s married to Ginny Buckingham, who was running Logan Airport when the terrorists used it as their launching pad on 9/11. The SJC was the Lowys’ reward for a job well done!
The front page of the Boston Herald was pretty good:
Again, Wolohojian may be qualified, but the optics aren’t great.
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