Boston '24 Chair John Fish yesterday "defended the hiring of former Gov. Deval Patrick and a slew of politically wired consultants and lobbyists," saying that he "wanted to put the 'best players on the field' in his quest to land the Summer Olympics bid," according to Richard Weir of the BOSTON HERALD. Fish said of Patrick, "He’s a very well-respected individual. ... When you put aside the politics, which is very difficult to do, I don’t know of any other individual that could do as a good job as he could on the international arena." He added, "I feel in my heart we are doing the right thing. The optics I understand where people can make references. But should we castigate people because of their party affiliation when we are trying to bring the Olympics back to America?" (BOSTON HERALD, 3/12). Boston '24 CEO Richard Davey said that Patrick will not be "working Beacon Hill leaders for public funds to host" the Games. He added, "We are only using the governor for those international, occasional missions. But again, there’s no lobbying. As I’ve said 100 times before, I’ll say for the 101st time, we are not looking for state funds, so there is nothing to lobby for" (BOSTON HERALD, 3/12).
