The Boston Globe’s website (www.boston.com) is reporting that Middlesex Register of Probate John Buonomo was arrested by state troopers from the office of District Attorney Gerry Leone.  It is alleged that Buonomo stole money from copier machines located in the Middlesex South District Registry of Deeds which is located in the same building as the Registry of Probate.  I just watched the surveillance camera footage released by the DA on the 10 p.m. news and it looks like a pretty strong case although there always could be an innocent explanation.

Whatever the outcome of this matter, the history of that office during the past two decades has been particularly interesting, even by Massachusetts political standards.  Back in the 1980s, Paul Cavanaugh held the position but was made a District Court judge by Governor Dukakis.  In October 1989, Dukakis appointed Tom Larkin of Bedford (who was also a Middlesex County Commissioner) to fill the unexpired term as Register of Probate.  In January 1990, Larkin tried to resign as commissioner but wanted to cast a vote for his successor.  A second commissioner, Ed Kennedy of Lowell, objected, saying that until Larkin resigned there was no vacancy to fill and once he resigned, he would no longer be a commissioner and would therefore be unable to vote on his successor.  The third commissioner, Bill Schmidt of Cambridge, was apparently in agreement with Larkin about the successor commissioner while Kennedy wanted someone else.  In the end, Larkin kept the commissioner’s job although he did not receive pay for it, although he did draw the full salary as Register of Probate.

By all accounts, Larkin was running the Probate Registry efficiently, but he was swept out of office in the 1990 anti-Dukakis, anti-incumbent tidal wave led by William Weld who was elected governor, receiving 1,175,817 votes to John Silber’s 1,099,878.  The Middlesex Register of Probate office was won by Donna Lambert, a file clerk at a private company who had been laid off that summer and who needed a job.  She spent $600 to Larkin’s $30,000.  She received 274,347 votes while Larkin got 226,188.

While Donna Lambert was a very nice person, she did nothing to distinguish herself during her first term in office.  In 1996 when she was up for re-election, a swarm of Democrats sought the chance to face her in the November election.  The candidates included Wanda Milik of Carlisle, Robert Antonelli of Woburn, John Buckley of Medford, Diane Poulos Harpell of Acton, Ronald McDonald of Winchester, Francis Flaherty of Arlington, Marie Howe of Somerville and Joyce Hurley of Framingham.  Antonelli, whose one campaign visit to Lowell resulted in his car being stolen from in front of the Democratic campaign headquarters on Merrimack Street, won the primary and then defeated Lambert handily in the general election.

Antonelli’s tenure as Register of Probate was short-lived.  Within ten months of taking office, the Supreme Judicial Court removed him from office for official misconduct (attempting to influence the outcome of a case before the Probate Court and treating his staff in an unprofessional manner).  Then-governor William Weld named Lee Johnson, an attorney who had run for District Attorney as a Republican, to fill the post.

Although Antonelli had been elected to a six year term in 1996, when a vacancy occurred during the term, the governor appointed a successor to serve until the next state election when the balance of the unexpired term would be on the ballot.  For that reason, the next Register of Probate election in Middlesex County occurred in 2000.  Candidates in the Democratic primary for that office included Buonomo, Dean Bruno of Medford, Newton’s mayor Thomas Concannon, Tara Decristofaro of Medford, former County Commissioner Frank Flaherty of Arlington, Melissa Hurley of Cambridge, Robert Keough of Billerica, Paul Lucero of Woburn and former Lowell police officer Ed McMahon.  Buonomo beat Concannon by 16 votes (McMahon finished fifth).  In the general election, Buonomo received 273,159 to Republican Lee Johnson’s 138,349 and unenrolled Diane Poulos Harpell’s 112,835.  The office appeared on the ballot two years later (in 2002) for a new six year term.  Buonomo was challenged in the Democratic primary by Harpell and McMahon but he handily defeated both of them and did the same in November against Republican John Lambert of Shrewsbury. 

So if John Buonomo was elected to a six year term in 2002, that means the office of Register of Probate is on the ballot again this fall.  Apparently there is no one else is running for the position and the time for gaining access to the ballot by the normal route has already passed.  I suspect a number of people are pulling out the “how to run a sticker campaign” manual right now.