From the April 27 Sunday Globe, page 1, above the fold:

Andrea Estes and Stephen Kurkjian - Just the ticket for brokers; They hire an associate of DiMasi, watch scalping bill pass the House




The 2007 Red Sox season was just underway when a group of professional ticket brokers held an unusual meeting in a private room at the Baseball Tavern, the storied bar in the shadows of Fenway Park. The main item on their agenda: How to persuade Massachusetts officials to keep ticket-resale profits rolling.

One man was there with an offer of help. He was not a broker, had no known experience as a political strategist, and has never registered as a State House lobbyist.

But Richard Vitale had something that the two dozen brokers came to believe was even more important to their cause - a close personal and professional relationship with Salvatore F. DiMasi, the speaker of the Massachusetts House. Vitale told the group that he could "do things a registered lobbyist couldn't do - behind the scenes," according to one ticket seller in attendance who asked that his name not be used.

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DiMasi said neither he nor anyone on his staff ever spoke with Vitale about the ticket broker legislation; he said he ultimately backed and voted for a bill that favored the brokers because he thought it was good for consumers, too. The speaker said he took out the $250,000 line of credit with his old friend in 2006 because he needed some money, but that their personal and financial connections played no role in the fate of the ticket brokers' Beacon Hill agenda.

"I had no idea that he was working for them or what his relationship was," said DiMasi. "He's never talked to me about any legislation at all."

DiMasi said he borrowed $250,000 from Vitale because Vitale, his financial adviser, counseled him to. He said he did not go to a bank because he thought he would need the money for only a short period of time.

Well, that sounds like typical politics in this thoroughly corrupted system we live under.

Dick Vitale? (Richard).

Andrea Estes, Globe - GOP fires third salvo at DiMasi; State Republicans ask Ethics Commission to investigate a friend on possible lobbying

The state Republican Party yesterday filed its third state Ethics Commission complaint in two months against House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, asking the commission to investigate the actions of DiMasi's friend, Richard Vitale, on behalf of ticket brokers who were seeking favorable legislation on Beacon Hill.

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After the group retained Vitale, a bill favorable to the industry that would lift all price restrictions for any resellers licensed with the state sailed through the House last fall. It is now bottled up in the Senate, where it is unlikely to pass in its current form, according to the Senate chairman of the committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, Michael Morrissey.

I might be missing something. but I don't know why it's illegal for a guy to sell his tickets on the street, but it's ok for a ticket agent to charge a lot more, around 400 percent.

Colman Herman, Globe - Ticket resellers win at fans' expense

Last October, the Globe lamented, "With the lowest-priced ticket at $20 and almost all sold out in advance, youngsters and people of modest means find it difficult to attend a game at Fenway Park." And the reason these fans, and even those with deeper pockets, find it so difficult is because the ticket resellers - both the greedy ones who are licensed and the lowlifes who skulk around on game day - hoard much of the available tickets, and, as a result, are able to resell them at exorbitant prices.

Using multiple credit cards and e-mail addresses, many ticket brokers get their tickets by using sophisticated software that lets them circumvent security programs, thus allowing them to buy tickets in rapid-fire succession and in significantly greater quantities than the general public. The result? Tickets are on sale at 10 a.m. They're all gone by 10:01 a.m. Minutes later, they show up on eBay and StubHub for many times their face value.

Andrea Estes, Globe - Vitale case is referred to Coakley; AG urged to press compliance issue

For nearly two months, Galvin has been trying to compel Vitale, DiMasi's close friend and accountant, to explain inconsistencies between a lobbying report he filed and one filed by the Massachusetts Association of Ticket Brokers.

The ticket brokers reported paying Vitale and lawyer John T. McLaughlin $60,000 in 2007 through his firm WN Advisors LLC. Their 2008 report is not due until July.

But Vitale, who registered as a lobbyist for 2008, reported no income from the group. He admits being hired by the ticket brokers to help with legislation that would remove caps on ticket prices, but has said through a spokesman that he was a strategist, not a lobbyist.

If he had been a registered lobbyist when he worked for the ticket brokers, he and DiMasi might have violated the state's conflict of interest law, which prohibits lobbyists from giving anything to a public official.

Galvin ordered Vitale, McLaughlin, and the ticket brokers to hearings to clear up the contradictions, but they refused to show up. Vitale's lawyer, Richard Egbert, argued that Galvin's office has authority only to compile records and to refer violations to the attorney general.

He said that Vitale could not file disclosure reports even if he wanted to, because he didn't keep any records.