Left In Lowell

On again, Sun’s local corporate pooh-bah and chairman of the board, Kendall Wallace (kwallace@lowellsun.com), is at odds with his own paper — this time over the issue of Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick.

The Sun’s editorial pages campaigned against him, and its news pages and editorials overplayed Patrick’s early, silly mistakes. But Wallace’s “Chat” column for Saturday, April 20 was full of praise for Patrick and ripe with condemnation of his Republican predecessor, Mitt (Flip-flop) Romney.

The issue that turned Wallace pro-Patrick and anti-Romney was the new Interstate 93 interchange that would serve Andover, Tewksbury and Wilmington. The interchange would “could pave the way for up to 9,000 new jobs for the region and the potential development of an upscale shopping/business mall,” Wallace wrote. Hot damn (and maybe more advertising for The Sun and its parent NewsMedia’s other papers in the region).

Wallace praised the entire cast and crew of town and state officials who helped make the case to the Federal Highway Administration, which last week gave its preliminary okay for the project. But Wallace reserved special praise for Patrick and Lt. Gov. Tim Murray:

“Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, who understands regional economic issues, jumped in quickly and helped coordinate the state and federal approvals.”

Then he slammed Romney:

“Unlike the Romney administration, when the Patrick/Murray administration term ends in four years, they will be able to point to the fact they added thousands of jobs for folks in the Merrimack Valley, the only area of the state, by the way, in which Patrick didn’t do well in the election.”

Don’t Wallace and Sun Editor James Campanini work off the same page anymore?