Left In Lowell

Blue Mass Group and the Sun reported that state Senator Pam Resor is stepping down at the end of her term. The Senator has been a courageous and bold leader in the Senate and she will be missed. No one could have asked for better service.

And I know that nothing is official, no candidates are yet announced, but if and when Rep. Jamie Eldridge declares a run for the seat, this endorsement will be here waiting for him. I don’t know if that’s unprecidented (or quite possibly rude), but that’s how much I like Jamie and his platform. There wasn’t one position he held in the 5th District Congressional race that I didn’t agree with. If there were a clone of me in office, and that clone were really really tall and a boy, it would look like Jamie Eldridge.

So, call this a pre-endorsement endorsement. Of course, I will need to hear Jamie’s stand on the Governor’s casino proposal, but I trust he will be very thorough in his research. (According to this, he appears skeptical.)

And if he doesn’t run for this seat, I will pout a lot in his general direction!

What is with this vote by Conway, Faticanti, and Mayor Caulfield against expanding the cable access broadcast of School Committee meetings to its subcommitte meetings?

I mean, Conway and Faticanti are lost causes as far as I’m concerned, but I thought Mayor Bud “Unity” Caulfield would have seen a $2000 investment in transparency and access a small price to pay for our local democracy.

This was a total no brainer. Apparently, when I said yesterday that “Unity” Caulfield lacks vision, I didn’t go quite far enough…

Oh yes, I see a tone of derision is going to be a common theme in the blog for the next two years…I was so hoping it wouldn’t be this way. I really do hate it. But I sure as hell ain’t going to shy away from it. Let’s hope things get better, shall we? I’d love to go back to complimenting people for a job well done.

I can’t take credit for pointing this out, as it was my dear beloved and incredibly insightful husband who first said it (edit: apparently I also have to give credit to this guy!), but isn’t there something a little wrong with a city councilor insisting it would be better if all city employees lived in Lowell, when said city councilor is a local condo developer who, like all real estate folks, is having trouble selling his condos?

I’m just sayin’.

Also, is Councilor Kazanjian for breaking up families? I mean, one could easily envision a scenario where one spouse works for one city that has a residency requirement, and the other works elsewhere with the same requirement…what is a family to do, live in seperate houses? Break up their loving marriage?

Why is Councilor Kazanjian against strong American families?

(And yes, this last point is satirical, if only to point out just how stupid this “only residents need apply” motion really is.)

I really want to thank the League of Women Voters of Andover/North Andover for inviting me to join a panel of very excellent speakers last night at the Andover Memorial Hall Library. Every time I encounter a League event or campaign I am utterly impressed. The event was well organized, well attended, and the range of speakers really great. The speakers, besides myself, included state Senator Sue Tucker, Jim Rubens (Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling), Tom Larkin, who is an addictions councilor, and Les Bernal of Casino Free Mass. This panel was really bipartisan, as well, with conservatives as well as progressives. If you can believe it, I left that forum even more set against casinos in Massachusetts after hearing from all of them. I was also impressed by the audience, who asked excellent questions afterwards.

I can’t stress enough how much I want people to see this forum, which was taped for local cable access, and not because I was on the panel (trust me, I hate watching or listening to myself ;-P). I was promised a DVD copy which I will bring to LTC and hopefully the web.

The people who really need to see this forum are the Governor and his staff. The facts really do speak for themselves, and the casino lobby’s rosy scenarios about state revenues and the downplaying of the consequences of Class III resort casinos in Massachusetts is astounding in the context of the information about what actually happens. Most voters, say pollsters, appear to be blasé about whether or not we should get casinos in Mass. If they knew what these panelists know, they would quickly change their minds and fight against any such move.

I am rapidly coming to the end of my giving the Governor the benefit of the doubt as to his proposal. He needs to listen to the experts (those not funded by the casino lobby), and rethink his policy on casinos, or I will not be able to believe that he is the good administrator I thought he would be. Patrick is not working with the best information available in pursuing Class III resort slot casinos. This is serious stuff, folks.