by Tessa Roy, WPRO News

In the wake of House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello proclaiming the Senate’s version of the Pawsox bill “dead” in the House, representatives from the team and a number of invited guests met for a presentation and q&a session in Mattiello’s district. Pawsox consultant Guy Dufault says Mattiello had requested further information for his constituents.

“The Speaker from the very beginning wanted us to educate his district. We came and he asked us specifically, we did meet with him. He said ‘look, the people don’t know what’s going on,’” said Dufault. “So we did our mailer, we did our flyer drop and we did this follow up meeting at his behest.”

Dufault said 48 people who responded to 3,800 mailers and 5,000 flyers sent out by the team were invited to the meeting. He said the team made their invitations without knowing who was “pro or con,” but Mattiello’s office seemed to disagree.

“They invited friendly folks,” a spokesperson for the Speaker said. “[The Speaker] requested them to meet with the public, not their fans.”

Mattiello’s spokesperson also claimed the team invited people from their ticket lists and is “not sure” if the 48 who showed up turned out to be a representative sample of the Speaker’s district. Prior to the meeting, Mattiello himself said he hadn’t been invited but that it was “great” the team was visiting.

“I think it’s great that they’re in my district and having a conversation if it’s a fair conversation and they open it up to everybody in the district, but they have to do that across the entire state,” he said.

Dufault said the Speaker had indeed received no formal invitation to the meeting, but had been informed it was happening and was welcome to come. He said he had told Mattiello he would give him a recap of the meeting.   ​