Q&A #5: Sheriff Tompkins

"Kenn" asks an interesting question:

Governor Patrick has been receiving a lot of flack for his appointment of Steve Tompkins to the the Suffolk County Sheriff post. He appears to have the experience of being Andrea Cabral's number 2 for most of her tenure there. Some are saying that he lacks the law enforcement credentials and that the selection is political. Would have picking Councilor Murphy or Councilor Jackson been a better choice/ less political?

I don't really think Patrick has gotten that much public blow-back over it -- really just in the Herald, and they don't like anything he does.

I do sense that -- while I personally think Tompkins is a perfectly legitimate pick -- it has been taken by some insiders as evidence that Patrick is not concerned at this point about a little controversy of this type, which may suggest he'll feel free to appoint an obvious friend-of-Deval to be interim US Senator.

Meanwhile, I don't think Howie Carr did Steve Murphy any favors by writing that Murph wanted the sheriff job -- which can't go over too well with his fellow counselors who were voting him another term as council president while he would have been lobbying to leave. More importantly, it reinforces the public perception that Murph is looking for any possible post he can cast his eye on, which won't help when he launches his next run for state treasurer.