In a press release Mr. Beaty said he has pulled nomination papers and is now out and about collecting signatures. The self-described “fiscal conservative/social progressive” is running as a non-party candidate, meaning he skips over the primary race phase and, assuming he collects enough signatures, will be on the November general election ballot.

The two seats currently held by Mary L. (Pat) Flynn of Falmouth and Sheila R. Lyons of Wellfleet are up for grabs this year. There have been no official announcements from either commissioner whether they will run for re-election.

Mr. Beaty in his announcement made much ado about the fact he had signed a Citizens for Limited Taxation “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” but those things are worthless as far as I’m concerned. Pledges, like campaign promises, have a habit of falling by the wayside when certain cold realities hit a lawmaker square in the face.

The real key here will be if Mr. Beaty, who has turned himself into something of a scholar of county government, can parlay that knowledge into a viable campaign platform that overcomes his lack of political experience. According to the man himself, his only forays into the world of elected office are two unsuccessful runs for the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates.

The other issue for Mr. Beaty – and I’ve broached this topic before – is his criminal background. In 1991, Mr. Beaty spent time in prison after he was convicted of sending threatening letters to President George H.W. Bush, US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and then-State Senator Lois Pines.

Mr. Beaty, who is seeking a presidential pardon for those offenses, called that episode in his life “mainly a terrible lapse in judgment” brought about by an alcohol problem he has since overcome.

Whether this truly matters will be, and should be, up to the voters, but I’ll give credit where it’s due: the man has been very open and forthright about this skeleton in his closet, which is a whole hell of a lot more than what we’ve seen from some of our politicians.

Anyone who would like to read up on Mr. Beaty and his background, head on over to my blog and look up the Week in Politics columns for December 16 and 23, 2011.

Political news and announcements may be e-mailed to Michael Bailey, senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net.

9 ) Obama signs the National Defense Authorization Act despite having “serious reservations” about the provisions allowing indefinite detention of terrorism suspects. What a coincidence: I’m having serious reservations about voting for Obama again.

8 ) Michele Bachmann finishes dead last in Iowa and ends her presidential campaign, thus restoring Sarah Palin to her rightful place as the GOP’s First Lady of Insanity.

7 ) The MBTA once again examines fare hikes and service cutbacks as a way to plug a growing deficit. Hey, who wants to go to Boston on a weekend anyway? It’s not like there’s anything to do there.

6 ) After initially clearing Lt. Gov. Tim Murray of any fault and refusing to release the details of his November accident, the state police backpedal at 10 MPH — the estimated speed at which the state’s second-in-command was traveling when he wiped out. Who claims the bigger oopsie: Murray or the staties?

5 ) Tempers flare out of control at a meeting of the county committee reviewing the Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative, culminating in Brewster Selectman Ed Lewis calling Connecticut-based activist Eric Bibler an a–hole. And you thought national politics was ugly and rude.

4 ) Roger Ebert theorizes Hollywood can reverse its 16-year-low 2011 performance by doing crazy stuff like lowering ticket and concession prices and focusing more on making good movies. Aw, what does he know about the film industry?

3 ) Katy Perry and Russell Brand file for divorce. Sad. I thought those two well-grounded, down-to-earth, boring-as-a-beige-room kids would go the distance.

2 ) Cee-Lo Green catches flack for changing the lyrics to John Lennon’s “Imagine” from “…and no religion too” to “…and all religion’s true.” THE MONSTER! I bet if John Lennon were still alive he’d curb-stomp* Cee-Lo for his audacity.

1 ) Demi Moore is tapped to play Gloria Steinem in the upcoming biopic about porn star Linda L0velace. The bad news: Demi is playing 2012 Gloria, not 1970s Gloria.

* Watch “American History X” to understand that reference. Just don’t blame me if you’re forever stuck with that horrific image in your head, you went and rented the damn movie.

9 ) Cape Wind scores another court victory and declares that it will begin construction within a year…although, considering the project’s track record so far, maybe we should read that as a “dog year.”

8 ) Ron Paul , who heads into the Iowa Caucus leading the polls, takes heat from Personhood USA because his pro-life stance is not hardcore enough. He refused to use Monty Python’s “Every Sperm in Sacred” song as his official campaign theme song.

7 ) Newt Gingrich fails to get on the Virginia ballot. But Virginia could care less after it realized Newt was courting Iowa behind its back.

6 ) Boston is declared America’s Drunkest City. WOO-HOO! We’re number three! We’re number thr– no, wait, I mean…uh, two? No, one! We’re number one! Shoot. Officer, can I start again?

5 ) Foxborough selectmen reject a plan to bring a casino to town. Very considerate of them not to hog all the cash cows, don’t you think?

4 ) Barnstable County commissioners finally fill the long-vacant and important — kinda, sorta, not really, a little, but not THAT important — county clerk position. Seriously, people, it’s not a super-critical job.

3 ) An MBTA employee gets a light reprimand for hacking an electronic sign to flash a clip of the lyrics to “Deck the Halls.” His punishment for duping commuters into believing the MBTA is run by thinking, caring human beings will be much more severe.

2 ) A fake People magazine cover proclaiming that Taylor Lautner (of “Twilight” fame and not much else) is gay fools the Internet for a half-hour or so. Twihards, got news for you: gay or straight, you’re never going to hook up with Lautner. Ever. Deal with it.

1 ) Sinead O’Connor ends her 16-day marriage to her fourth husband, claiming he was letting him go so he wouldn’t lose his disapproving family. Pictures of the Pope, her own marriage — is there nothing sacred this woman won’t tear to pieces?

I speak of Randy Bovitch, one of that strange breed of individual known as “the tipster,” a man or woman of principle and courage — well, kinda-sorta — who contacts media outlets with hot tips for sensational stories. These unsung heroes wish to remain behind the scenes, cloaked in shadow and secrecy, for they crave not accolades or credit for their deeds…which is another way of saying they’re scared that their pot-stirring is going to blow up in their face.

If you work in the news game long enough, you eventually encounter these people, readers who (claim to have) heard something that they think is newsworthy, but who don’t want to stick their necks out themselves for fear of repercussions or reprisal.

In some cases, that concern is perfectly reasonable; whistle-blowers often experience first-hand the old axiom “no good deed goes unpunished.” In other cases — such as in the tale I am about to tell you, o reader — the tipster is, to put it very bluntly, a coward. They have an axe to grind but they want a hatchet man to do the dirty work for them.

Such is the case with “Randy Bovitch,” who entered my journalistic life on Tuesday, following my return from a very lovely Christmas out-of-state.

But first we need to backtrack a little (and here is where I start omitting certain names in the interest of sensitivity to certain parties, including those who, frankly, don’t necessarily deserve it…but hey, I’m a thoughtful guy). Last week a self-professed admirer of Barnstable County government raised questions about allegedly missing video footage from a recent Assembly of Delegates meeting — specifically footage of the Assembly Speaker making remarks about the Admirer (henceforth capitalized for your convenience).

The Admirer accused the Videographer for those meetings of deliberately editing out the Assembly Speaker’s remarks, but the Videographer maintains that the video’s timecode on the master recording is uninterrupted — hence, no editing.

Let the series of not-so-coincidental coincidences begin.

On Christmas Eve, while I was away, one Randy Bovitch sends an e-mail to me (and several other recipients) requesting that I look into an alleged “tax cheat/tax dodger” in the form of the Videographer. Randy Bovitch claims that the Videographer is in arrears with his taxes to the tune of $27,000 and change — and that as a contractor to a government entity, the Videographer is A) drawing a paycheck from tax revenue and B) legally required to divulge all tax issues as part of his contract with the county.

The Videographer was also recently named to a minor board attached to a large municipal entity, where he has a say in how — note the theme here — taxpayer money is spent on an arts project.

Twelve hours later, I receive a second e-mail from Randy Bovitch, containing extremely detailed personal and financial information about the Videographer. A quick traipse through the Registry of Deeds database confirms that the tax information is factually accurate, and a quick call to a Top County Official verifies that yes, contractors are required to sign a legal document confirming they are in compliance with all local, state, and federal tax laws.

At this point, it’s looking like there might indeed be a story of some sort here, and yet something about this is making my Spider-Sense tingle (which I mean metaphorically; despite my most fervent hopes and best efforts, I have yet to receive super-powers through the bite of a radioactive spider…but one day…)

So I turn to the mighty Google and run  a search for “Randy Bovitch” and find…absolutely nothing.

Nothing. On Google.

I try a few variant spellings, and still nothing.

I try a few online phone directories. Yet still nothing.*

I turn to the phone book. After my amazement that someone still prints actual phone books dies down, I look inside and find yet still more nothing again.

Enterprise archives? Nothing on a pogo stick. Voter rolls? Nothing with a cherry on top. Facebook? Industrial strength nothing.

(Meanwhile, the Enterprise receives a letter to the editor from a Writer effusively praising the Admirer for bringing a particular issue to the attention of the county government. A fellow Enterprise reporter informs me that the Writer, as it turns out, shares the same residential address as the Admirer…which is because she’s his mother.)

I write back to Randy Bovitch — only now becoming aware that he shares the same initials as the Admirer — to ask what his stake in this issue is and what he hopes to achieve by outing the Videographer’s tax issues. I also ask for some clue as to who he really is, citing my distaste for anonymous sources.

Randy Bovitch avoids providing me with any further details about his identity, allegedly because he fears “potential repercussions,” though he does not specify from who or what sort of repercussions he might face. Mind you, I informed him quite clearly that I planned to cite him by name as a source. His response to this was, and this is verbatim, “Okay, what you said is fine, thank you.” If there were concerns of reprisal, why did he not ask me to keep his name confidential?

He goes on to state he was simply doing research for a “third party” — a third party he insists is not the Admirer (more on that later). As for his stake in the matter, he expresses apathy, stating it is “no big deal on my end” if a story does not materialize out of what he’s provided me.

At this point, I give the Videographer a shout. He readily acknowledges the tax issues and says he is addressing them, to the satisfaction of any legal requirements on his part as a government contractor. So that wraps up that thread of this wacky tapestry.

Then, a source who I won’t identify by even a pseudonym — who I do know for a fact is a real person, and who gave me this tidbit with no veil of anonymity in place — drops a not entirely surprising bombshell: “I guarantee you that Randy Bovtich is [the Admirer].”

I smell blood in the water. Smells tangy.

The next e-mail goes out to the Admirer and Randy Bovitch, asking them point-blank if they are one in the same. The Admirer does not respond, but Randy Bovitch does. “Who?” he says. “Now you are starting to mix unrelated issues,” he says with an air of (inferred) accusation.

Then he goes for the guilt trip. “The next time that I come across something that seems a bit out of sorts durng my research, I think that I will just leave it be,” he says. “It is not worth the effort of trying to do the right thing. ”

That’s right, leave your poor informant here to die his death of cold…

In what proves to be my last e-mail to Randy Bovitch, I lay it all out: my doubts about his true identity and his actual motives, my evidence to support my theory, everything that doesn’t make sense about this whole mess.

Randy Bovitch’s response: “This is too complicated for me, just forget it. I have work to do.”

And then his GMail address vanishes. Gone. Deleted.

This morning, the story takes an unexpected twist when a Completely Random Stranger sends me an e-mail containing a link to a rambling blog post by a known Rabble-Rouser about…

(Three guesses, and the first two don’t count.)

The Videographer’s tax issues.

Surprisingly, the diatribe is all about the Videographer’s seat on the aforementioned arts board and how a “tax cheat” gets to decide how to spend taxpayer money.

Perhaps not surprisingly is that the name attached to the e-mail does not show up anywhere on Google or in the phone book and the e-mail account was deleted after the message was sent!

The word “conspiracy” gets thrown around lightly these days, but I can think of no more fitting description for this absurd adventure. I cannot dismiss it as a string of coincidences. Something was definitely afoot here, and someone tried to suck me into the middle of it under the guise of a diligent citizen trying to bring alleged wrongdoing to light.

At this point you’re probably wondering, Mike, what the hell was the point of all this? What’s the take-away here? What’s the moral of the story?

I guess the first take-away is that some people are not quite as clever as they think they are.

But I’ll pitch this as a cautionary tale for new reporters or for anyone interested in entering the field of journalism. There are people out there who have no qualms about trying to manipulate reporters and turn them into their personal character assassins, people who lack the courage to make their accusations personally and capitalize on the anonymity the Internet so easily provides them. Don’t let yourself be used like that.

There is a place in journalism for anonymous sources and there always will be, but that does not mean accepting what the man in the shadows says at face value, and it does not mean assuming that the motives are purely benevolent. They often aren’t.

Randy Bovitch, where ever and whoever you are, take some measure of pride in knowing that you will live on as an object lesson in how not to get taken for a ride. At least, in that regard, you served some useful purpose.

* EDIT: I did find out that there are only 16 known Bovitches in the United States, according to one online phone directory, and none of them live in the New England area. Not a one.

Well, here are the answers from the man himself, courtesy of an e-mail Mr. Beaty sent me on Tuesday (because I never want it said that we here at Snark-Infested Waters are unwilling to allow a response to my smart-assery):

When it comes to the county commissioner race, the question here is who among the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, if anyone, will attempt to jump over to the executive branch of county government? Two of the county commissioners’ three members — Lyons and Bill Doherty — are themselves former Assembly members, and it’s not unusual for someone from the Assembly to throw their hat into the county commissioner ring.

Of course, on the opposite end of the interest spectrum, Lyons could run utterly unopposed this year. Remember that Doherty had no opponent when he ran for re-election last year.

9 ) Whoops, too late: Glenn Beck this week alluded to a conceptual connection between the Norwegian political camp for teens and the Hitler youth movement. Please, let there be a Hell so Glenn Beck can burn there for eternity.

8 ) Meanwhile, FoxNews pundits whine that the “mainstream liberal media” (read: anyone not FoxNews) is unfairly portraying the Norway gunman as an extremist Christian terrorist. Now you know how Muslims feel when you pull that routine on them, jerks.

7 ) President Obama and John Boehner hold dueling press conferences to tell America why it’s the other guy’s fault Washington can’t get its act together and fix a problem they all created.

6 ) Western Massachusetts gets slapped around by the weather again. Isn’t Western Mass. supposed to be the boring, uneventful part of the state?

5 ) Amy Winehouse dies amidst speculation that she overdosed — which, if true, would make hers the most ironic rock and roll death since Kurt Cobain sang “I don’t have a gun.”

4 ) Kat Von D’s to-do list: start dating guy with a history of infidelity? Check. Shoot new season of reality show featuring him prominently? Get engaged? Check. Get tattoo of fiance’s face? Check. End engagement just as you’re getting ready to hit the talk show circuit to promote your show? Check. Storm off one show when they mention the break-up? Check. Throw pity party on Facebook? Check. Yup, she covered all the bases.

3 ) When Captain America throws his might shield, Harry Potter goes down at the box office.

2 ) Comic-Con wraps for the year, leaving thousands of geeks drifting aimlessly…at least until “The Avengers” hits screens next summer! WOOOOOO!

1 ) American Idol finalist Crystal Bowersox misses out on closing the Barnstable County Fair, to the delight of Siobhan Magnus fans who accuse Bowersox of stealing the spotlight from the homegrown AI contestant. Let me put this into full context: if you are either one of the two runners-up from a glorified talent show, and you’re getting into a catfight over who has the most right to close a county fair, your non-career is officially so dead your previous flirtation with fame should rightfully be retconned out of existence.

9 ) The FBI launches a national ad campaign in the hopes of at last capturing fugitive mobster Whitey Bulger. Yeah, like THAT’LL wor– what? They caught him? What the hell?!

8 ) Mitt Romney gives hardcore Republicans another reason to trash him in refusing to sign a pledge to oppose federal funding for abortions. Wait…a man standing firm on his principles and acting for the common good? We are talking about the same Mitt Romney, right?

7 ) The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, dies of complications following a recent stroke. Music fans mourn and Heaven’s all-star rock band gets a lot cooler.

6 ) Boston Mayor Tom Menino pushes Niketown to dismantle a display of T-shirts bearing slogans like “Get High” and “Dope.” Nike dismisses his concerns and says it “does not condone the use of banned or illegal substances.” Evoking drug imagery with its T-shirts to make a buck, however? Condoned! PS: Hey, Menino, don’t you have to go ban fun and laughter from municipal property or something?

5 ) O.J. Simpson confesses to one of Oprah’s producers that he did indeed kill his wife and Ron Goldman, plans to repeat the confession for Oprah on TV. And the whole world goes “duh.”

4 ) A freshman state rep tries to push a bill to legalize firework sales in Massachusetts. Dangerous? Hell no! I could count the times I hurt myself on fireworks on one hand! Which is convenient, because the docs managed to save only one finger.

3 ) Troubled singer Amy Winehouse scuttles her European comeback tour after early shows falls flat. Like Amy herself when she’s on-stage, as of late. Go back to rehab, yes yes yes.

2 ) The Bruins take swigs from a $100,000 bottle of celebratory champagne at Foxwoods. No, professional athletes aren’t spoiled at all. Why do you ask?

1 ) Ryan Dunn, one of the hosts of MTV’s “Jackass” dies in a car wreck. Ironically, he had his seatbelt on and was driving 10 miles below the posted speed limit.

I then braced myself to get slammed from all sides for what I wrote. It’s normal whenever I tackle an especially controversial topic; neither side ends up happy with what I wrote, usually because I didn’t slant the story to favor their side of the argument.

What a shock when that didn’t happen — in fact, I received phone calls from people on either side of the CVEC debate lauding the article, calling it thorough and even-handed.

So far the only finger-wagging I’ve received was in response to an item in last week’s Importometer:

CVEC critics continue to hound the Barnstable County Commissioners. They’re just warming up to keep hounding the commissioners after they get their answers and find them not to their liking (known currently as the “Cape Wind Strategy,” previously known as the “Pave PAWS Strategy”).

Eric Bibbler, CVEC critic and Man of 10,000 Words, cared not for my jab. He took exception to the implication that this was “a cynical tactic on our part” — “our” being CVEC’s current crop of critics.

Cynical? No. Disingenuous? Very possibly.

Before I continue, I will say what I have said before on this matter: the public absolutely has a right to know where their money is going. The county should be as responsive to requests for information as reasonably possible, and both the CLC and CVEC have no reason for putting readily available public documentation on-line for all the world to see on-demand. Stonewalling such requests casts county government in a dim light.

Now…

First, I say that CVEC’s opponents are hounding the county commissioners because, in light of this obstinance, making weekly vigils to the commissioners’ meeting room to re-air the exact same complaints, with little to no variation in the content of the argument being made, amounts to plain and simple badgering. It’s accomplished nothing of value, except perhaps it makes the critics feel they are moving forward instead of spinning their wheels. It’s the public governance equivalent of a little kid sitting in the back of the mini-van during a long trip and chanting “Are we there yet?!” until he’s blue in the face.

But beyond this rote exercise I sense a larger problem, that sense based on precedent I have witnessed first-hand, starting with the Pave PAWS controversy (circa 1996 – 2006).

For the unfamiliar, a group of concerned residents believed Pave PAWS’ microwave radiation emissions were contributing to certain health problems on Cape Cod, namely elevated rates of certain cancers. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health conducted a study that found no significant findings, but that study was challenged by residents on various grounds: the study’s inadequate scope, people on the panel with possible conflicts of interest, too-brief public comment periods, etc.

Most of this opposition came from a group calling itself the Cape Cod Coalition to Decommission Pave PAWS. The group’s explicit mission was to get Pave PAWS shut down because of health risks — health risks that had, as of the Coalition’s formation in 1999, had been loosely theorized but not proven. That DPH study? It had barely begun when this group formed.

Over the next several years, I sat in on many long, arduous, and sometimes pointless meetings of the Pave PAWS Public Health Steering Group, a panel formed in the wake of the DPH study to commission a new, more extensive study. The opposition made a point of nitpicking over every development — and I do mean nitpicking. The military is providing the funding? That invalidates the study. So-and-so is one of the experts who will review the data? He worked for a company that once held a contract with the US Air Force, so his objectivity is suspect. That letter from the study team? It’s written in the same font the military uses in its communiques, so obviously everyone is in cahoots.

What it came down to was this: a small but vocal group of people arrived at a conclusion based on, at best, spotty and largely anecdotal information. They fervently embraced all information that supported their position and, whenever anything came along that challenged their firmly held beliefs, systematically discredited the information and its sources — indeed, they often took contrary data as proof that “they” were hiding “the truth,” and it only reinforced their belief that they were in the right.

(This phenomenon is quite prevalent in the political world, as detailed in Joe Keohane’s Boston Globe story “How Facts Backfire.” That article refers to the same study Sean Gonsalves of the Cape Cod Times referred to in a June 16 column, “When Corrections Fail: The persistence of political misperceptions” by Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler of the University of Michigan. I note that my contemporary Sean expressed many of the same thoughts I express here and now, so I’d say my skepticism is in fine company indeed.)

The Pave PAWS opposition petered out after that second study reached the same conclusion as the DPH study, that the facility posed no clear health risk. They did not follow the course of the current batch of Cape Wind foes, who stacked up a laundry list of legal challenges once the feds gave the project the green light.

I’ve seen the same attitudes and behaviors emerging in the current municipal wind turbine debate on Cape Cod, and now I’m seeing hints of them in the CVEC debate. I see people who are approaching the discussion predisposed to a specific “truth,” and seem convinced that when all stands revealed in the pure glare of sunlight, their predetermined and dearly held conclusions will be wholly validated.

The outward claim by CVEC skeptics is that they want facts, information, and proof, but whether this holds true once everything is at last made public will depend on what happens next. If all the paperwork proves beyond any reasonable doubt that CVEC’s various political and business relationships are legal, ethical, and above-board in all contexts, will its critics concede the point and move on? Or will they start hunting for (and, perhaps, creating) flaws in the evidence to keep their crusade alive?

In other words: when they have all the answers, will they go and change the questions?

9 ) Former House Speaker Sal DiMasi is convicted of several federal charges stemming from a kickback scheme. Humidity levels across the state spike as several other Speakers who left office amidst controversy and suspicious simultaneously break into a nervous sweat.

8 ) CVEC critics continue to hound the Barnstable County Commissioners. They’re just warming up to keep hounding the commissioners after they get their answers and find them not to their liking (known currently as the “Cape Wind Strategy,” previously known as the “Pave PAWS Strategy”).

7 ) The state’s unemployment rate drops…in part because businesses cut 4,000 jobs last month. That’s one way to address unemployment, I guess.

6 ) NY Rep. Anthony Weiner does the right thing — FINALLY — and resigns. I’d say don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out, but you might like that. Ya perv.

5 ) AG Martha Coakley heads to court to get failed gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos to cough up $70k in fines for campaign finance law violations. Critics claim Coakley is just jockeying for position for another US Senate run. Yes, because forcing a guy to pay his fines for a confirmed violation of the law will easily overcome lazy campaigning.

4 ) Embattled Falmouth constable George Morse is in hot water again, this time for allegedly impersonating a cop to get his stepson out of a traffic ticket. Maybe Morse should attempt impersonating someone with a sense of integrity and a realistic self-image.

3 ) “Green Lantern” fails to live up to the hype, earns a meager 21 percent approval rating (as of this writing) on Rotten Tomatoes.com. In brightest day, in blackest night, no quality shall meet moviegoers’ sight…

2 ) The aforementioned Christy Mihos proclaims that Secretary of State Bill Galvin is the man who can beat US Senator Scott Brown. Don’t believe a word of it, folks. If Christy were really such a political brain, he wouldn’t have lost two gubernatorial elections and be facing massive fines for campaign finance violations.

1 ) Bruins win Stanley Cup, prompting thousands of people who spent the game screaming at a TV to claim personal credit for the victory and extol their knowledge of winning tactics for a sport they have probably never actually played.