Mittwit Leaves the Way He Came In -- Says One Thing, Then Does Another

• Just days after defeating Shannon O’Brien, Romney made a sanctimonious pledge not to make patronage appointments. "I look for people who get jobs based on what they know, not who they know," he said. Romney went so far as to say that "political connections "will be held against an applicant for a job in his administration: "That will have to be something that’s overcome, that will not be an advantage, that will be a disadvantage."

2002 Boston Phoenix editorial.

Governor Mitt Romney, despite his stated opposition to patronage appointments, installed more than 200 Republican activists, current and former state employees, and others to boards and commissions in December, including departing Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey. [] He appointed about 200 people to boards in December and about 100 in November, according to a Globe tally.

Boston Globe, January 3, 2007