Suzanne Bump in the cabinet

Statehouse News reports today that Deval Patrick will name former state representative Suzanne Bump secretary of labor and workforce development. Yesterday, of course, he announced Ian Bowles as secretary of energy and environment, and Dan O'Connell as secretary of housing and economic development.

Statehouse News says that more personnel announcements are expected this afternoon.

Talking Politics will grade the appointments later, and will also have a thing or two to say about Patrick's rearrangement of the cabinet.

But for now I'll just point out the timing of these long-awaited personnel announcements. Not only is Patrick already engaging in the time-tested trick of burying announcements on Friday afternoons, but it seems awfully coincidental that this flood of cabinet announcements started immediately after his transition team working groups finished their public meetings. It was almost as if he didn't want, for instance, people at the workforce-development meetings to have a chance to talk openly about Suzanne Bump being named secretary, and so on....