"Beneath the Sacred Dome"

"We must have a moral housecleaning." intoned Republican Governor John Volpe.

"if Massachusetts is to hold its rightful, honored place among the states of our nation." Appearing before a joint session of the state legislature, Volpe was urging the formation of a Citizens Crime Commission to root out, among other things, illegal gambling. The Governor had good cause for concern--for by last week it appeared that beneath its gilded dome, the Massachusetts Statehouse itself was one of Boston's busiest bookie joints.

The dustup began last November, when Republican Representative Harrison Chadwick appeared on CBS television and charged that some legislators were involved with bookies. Last week the Democratic-controlled house rules committee was in secret session, trying to decide whether the house should expel Chadwick or merely censure him for his indiscretion. But even as the committee met, Senate President John Powers, a Democrat, fired Robert G. Connolly, a former Democratic legislator who is now chief of the capitol's documents room, for "operating a bookie joint right over our heads beneath the sacred dome." Cried Powers: "He had a radio there. He had 'green sheets' there. People gathered there. There is no question in my mind." Powers' suspicions of State House gambling were aroused when he had to break up a fist fight between two Senate pages who were battling over their cut of the take from relaying senatorial bets. "I began gambling a long time ago," admitted Connolly, "and I found I had plenty of company in the legislature. The Republicans gamble and the Democrats gamble." Later, Connolly claimed: "I am not a bookie. I never registered a bet in my life. I am an amateur handicapper." Getting into the act, the capitol police turned up 50 numbers-pool slips in a basement annex room, discovered what seemed to be a betting pad in an elevator embarrassingly close to Governor Volpe 's office. Volpe promptly ordered a wall-to-wall search of the capitol by state police, who later succeeded in getting three state employees to sign gambling confessions.

But then the house rules committee cleared Documents Clerk Connolly of the charges against him. Said Democratic House Speaker John Thompson: "The job of the rules committee was to look into this cloud of suspicion hanging over the statehouse. I am satisfied it has been dispelled." Connolly still could not be restored to his job without the consent of Powers, but it was pretty obvious that Massachusetts lawmakers were still interested in the improvement of the breed.

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