The Swamp Has a Cape Cod Address
Meet Julian Cyr — State Senator for the Cape and Islands, self-described progressive champion of “working families,” and the perfect example of everything that is wrong with one-party Democratic Massachusetts. While he preaches inclusion, equity, and public service, the documented record tells a very different story: one of campaign cash flowing in from well-connected friends, followed almost immediately by those same friends being handed no-bid state contracts worth millions of your tax dollars.
If that sounds familiar — if it sounds like exactly the kind of “pay to play” corruption that Massachusetts Democrats love to lecture other people about — that’s because it is.
The $6.8 Million No-Bid Cab Ride
On October 13, 2023, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts awarded a $6.8 million no-bid contract to Mercedes Cab Company, Inc., based in Provincetown, MA. The contract? To provide free transportation to migrants housed in the state’s emergency shelter system — a system the Healey administration was funding to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
The CEO of Mercedes Cab is Raphael Richter, a Provincetown resident. And Raphael Richter is, by his own documented donations, a financial supporter of Senator Julian Cyr.
Here is the documented campaign contribution record, straight from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF):
- April 5, 2017: Vida Rose Richter (P.O. Box 333, Provincetown, MA) — $100 to Cyr campaign
- September 13, 2022: Raphael Richter, CEO Mercedes Cab Co Inc., P.O. Box 333, Provincetown — $500 to Cyr campaign
- January 2, 2024: Raphael Richter, CEO Mercedes Cab Company Inc., P.O. Box 333, Provincetown — $1,000 to Cyr campaign
Total: $1,600 from the Richter family to Julian Cyr.
The contract was awarded in October 2023. The final $1,000 payment — the largest of the three — came in January 2024, right after the contract was in place. Nothing to see here, right?
The $10 Million Catering Contract — Same Story, Different Donor
It wasn’t just the taxi cab company. At the same time, Spinelli’s Catering, based in East Boston, was handed a $10 million no-bid contract to provide meals to migrants in the shelter system. The President/Manager of Spinelli’s Catering? Rita Roberto. And Rita Roberto is a documented contributor to Maura Healey’s gubernatorial campaign — to the tune of $2,200 across multiple donations from 2022 through 2023.
Donate to Healey. Get a $10 million no-bid meal contract. Donate to Cyr. Have your cab company get a $6.8 million no-bid contract. The math is not complicated.
According to a press release from Cape Cod Concerned Citizens — a local watchdog group — both of these contracts were awarded without competitive bidding. No open process. No public solicitation. Just friends of the right Democrats, getting the right contracts, at the right time.
What Is Julian Cyr’s Role in All This?
To be precise: Julian Cyr is a state senator, not the governor. He did not sign these contracts himself. But that’s not the point. The point is that Cyr operates inside a political machine where campaign donations from well-connected friends translate directly into no-bid government contracts. That machine is run by the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Cyr is a member in good standing — and apparently, so is Raphael Richter.
Cape Cod Concerned Citizens has called for an investigation into both the Cyr-Richter connection and the Healey-Roberto connection, and for the immediate suspension of the contracts pending a fair, competitive bidding process. As of this writing, no investigation has been announced. No one has been held accountable. The contracts stand.
The “Progressive” Who Represents… Whom, Exactly?
Julian Cyr presents himself as a champion of Cape Cod residents — of the working people, the local families, the year-rounders who are struggling with the cost of living, the housing crisis, and the relentless pressure of a state government that seems more interested in importing problems than solving the ones already here.
But when the money flows and the contracts get awarded, it turns out the beneficiaries aren’t Cape Cod’s struggling families. They’re Cyr’s political donor from Provincetown — running a cab company that Cape Cod Concerned Citizens argues never should have gotten a $6.8 million contract without competition.
This is what “pay to play” looks like in Massachusetts. It doesn’t require an indictment. It doesn’t even require a law to be broken — at least not one that Massachusetts Democrats are inclined to enforce against their own. It just requires a culture where the rules are for regular people, and the contracts are for the connected.
Julian Cyr has been entrusted by the people of Cape Cod and the Islands to represent their interests in Boston. The question is: whose interests is he actually representing?
Sources: Boston Herald, “Key details from Massachusetts emergency shelter system contracts,” April 5, 2024; Cape Cod Concerned Citizens press release via hubrisandpride.com, April 5, 2024; Massachusetts OCPF public campaign finance records. All campaign contribution data is drawn directly from the public OCPF database. The no-bid contract award date and amount are documented in public records released to the Boston Herald via public records request.