The rich really are different
The owner of a $31 million dollar vacation retreat in an ultra-exclusive Montana ski resort, along with a pair of homes in South Hamilton and an 81-acre property in Gloucester, is running for governor to “educate people and make Massachusetts aware of how hard it is to live here.”
Would it come as a surprise to many that Republican Michael Minogue made his fortune in part by building artificial hearts?
Naturally the candidate — who had pumped a record $13.5 million of his own cash into the campaign as of May — says he really does understand the needs of working men and women:
“I did not grow up with money,” he told the Boston Globe. “My parents struggled. My dad had a mortgage up until the end of his life. He never bought a new car. I wore hand-me-down clothes when I went into the military.”
It seems like a good place to point out that James Donald Bowman, er, JD Vance, was born and raised in Middletown, Ohio, spent summers in eastern Kentucky with Mamaw and Papaw before eventually going to Yale Law School, meeting up with Peter Thiel and becoming a venture capitalist.
And Donald Trump was a self-made man — after he got a $1 million from his father. Oops, make that $413 million.
Tone-deafness is perhaps the nicest thing you can say about Minogue’s explanation to the Globe that he “met the criteria” for disclosure in not listing the six-bedroom, eight bathroom house in a resort said to include Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Tom Brady and Robert Kraft among the members of “The World’s Most Exclusive Club.”
Campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth Hopkins, who initially declined to make Minogue available for comment, only added more fuel to the smoldering fire with a statement:
“The only homes Mike is concerned about are the ones hard-working Massachusetts families have been priced out of as a result of economic stagnation and failed leadership.”
For the record, Brian Shortsleeve, a Republican and former MBTA chief administrator, owns several homes, including a $12 million seaside property in Barnstable, a Wellesley home, and a condo in downtown Boston.
Governor Maura Healey last owned property in 2010, when she sold a Brookline condo for nearly $600,000, according to public records and her campaign. She lives in an Arlington home with her partner, Joanna Lydgate, state records show.
Wealth in and of itself ought not disqualify someone for political office. And there are certainly Democrats, like Hyatt Hotels heir JB Pritzker, who have never had to work their way up from the bottom.
But the ever-widening wealth gap has never been more conspicuous, starting with the technology broligarchs who crowded the stage at Trump’s second inaugural to the massive grift operation of Trump and his family.
“As of January 1, the collective net worth of America’s top 12 billionaires now surpasses $2.7 trillion. Their combined wealth has more than quadrupled, up from $608 billion on March 18, 2020, according to Institute for Policy Studies analysis of Forbes Real Time Billionaire Data.”
And the influence of the wealthy has been on vivid display as a Republican Congress passed the Reverse Robin Hood “One Big Beautiful Bill” that took money from Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to finance tax cuts aimed largely at the wealthy.
Perhaps it’s a good moment to shed a tear for Elon Musk, whose time as the world’s only trillionaire was cut short so he must content himself with a mere $690.1 billion.
No doubt why he’s ponying up at least $100 million to buy influence in the midterm elections.
That’s chump change for him. And voters are the chumps.
So let’s take a look at how Minogue amassed his fortune.
He has pitched himself as a “new kind of governor,” apparently also oblivious to the legacy of Mitt “Car Elevator” Romney, who ditched the state for more than 400 days over his only term as governor — mainly to seek the 2008 presidential nomination.
And much like Romney, whose record as a venture capitalist left him with a “glass chin” in his 1994 challenge to Senator Ted Kennedy, Minogue’s record at Abiomed offers fodder, if not for fellow millionaire Shortsleeve’s primary challenge then for Healey.
The Boston Globe offered a look earlier this year at the Danvers-based firm that successfully developed a miniaturized heart pump after a failed clinical trial involving a full-implantable artificial heart.
“Abiomed has also faced dozens of serious warnings from federal regulators, allegations of kickbacks and improper marketing, and litigation spurred by the deaths of several patients implanted with an Abiomed heart pump — facts Minogue has either downplayed on the campaign trail or waved off as “misleading headlines.”
The US Food and Drug Administration has documented dozens of recalls at the company, including eight during Minogue’s 19-year tenure as its chairman, president, and chief executive.”
It therefore seems obvious, if not a bit ironic, that Minogue is basing his campaign on having a heart:
“I’m focused on the homes for people in Massachusetts. Young couples can’t afford their heating or air conditioning bills because our energy is so high and our policy is so bad; that’s what people are focused on.”
Talk, after all, is a lot cheaper than housing.