Left In Lowell

Plenty in the Lowell Sun on Lowell’s landmark election yesterday…

I have to admit, I really like the emphasis on environment and affordable housing that is mentioned by Patrick Murphy in two articles (one profiling him exclusively, here, another mentioning the winners, here). Bold mine.

Conservation. Using Lowell’s “vast resources,” from its natural ones to its human ones. Volunteerism. Enlisting students to help one another in neighborhoods that need it. Sustainability. Fiscal responsibility.

and

Murphy, a 27-year-old stonemason from the city’s Sacred Heart neighborhood, said the city needs to be ready to follow through on conservation efforts and zoning changes, not only in affordable housing, but protecting natural resources and making sure future floods don’t occur.

So rarely do candidates at the local level mention these two important aspects of local (or any) governing. If Murphy can bring this debate to the Council, that will be great.

There is interesting bafflement from Armand Mercier:

“I really can’t understand why I lost,” he said. “I think voters subliminally lumped me in with (Councilor) Alan Kazanjian because we are friends. It doesn’t make much sense.”

Really, Armand? You really don’t know why you lost, or why people might have lumped you in with Kazanjian? How can anyone be that tone deaf? The city was crying out about its reasons for being angry, starting with the Sheehan vote and ending with the preliminary elimination. You made the votes. You did this to yourself. It’s pretty simple. (And before anyone blames me and Mimi, there’s no way in heckville that this little blog set fire to the minds of the entire voting population regarding Sheehan OR the preliminary. We’ve love to think we can flex that much muscle, but we’re realists here. That was existing anger, tapped into.)

There are also comprehensive pieces on the School Committee and Voke SC races.

Kad Barma also has his take. RichardHowe.com has the data in a handy table.

Update: The New Englander has his take as well!

The biggest disappointment for me of course was the results of the Choice voting initiative, and the turnout which didn’t increase after all (though we did see new voters and bigger turnout in sections of the city which are key).

Choice voting lost 43% to 57%, a pretty large margin (though 7 points shift either way makes it tie). I think several of those percentage points could have gone the other way if the media (radio and newspaper) hadn’t been as brutal and sometimes misleading on this issue as they were. But what was really key is that 43% of people were motivated to shift to a system which is completely different from what we have now.

There are two things which I see as future challenges we need to overcome in order to think about tackling this again (whether as district, or whatever, voting): first, turnout needs to, habitually (not just for one election), get better. There has got to be a way to engage the even-year voter, with the proper application of getting them information they need and drilling home the idea that voting for the leaders in your own backyard is as important, affects you as much, or more, as voting for a Governor or Senator or President. This needs to be a long term campaign, it cannot be done in the last months before the next odd-year election.

Secondarily, we need to engage with voters to find out what they might want to see on the ballot the next time around. A commission of the sort that would normally study these things statutorily, made up from neighborhood and ethnic organizations, residents, elected officials, and perhaps even businesses, would be the best way to ensure that whatever form such a change takes, it already has buy-in with these groups. I think this is what was most missing from this campaign (and I think it was an honest mistake by the folks who pushed for this, who had never done such a huge citywide campaign before). Again, such a process and campaign cannot be done in the last six months of the odd-year election, but must be an ongoing longer drive for change.

But, I believe, it is worth doing. The question is, is there the motivation on the part of a lot of people to actually do it?

On to another subject of analysis…the two School Committee races.

I have to admit to being astounded by the bleed of votes away from Faticanti. She has been a strong vote getter for so long, I thought there would be a larger unshakable core. Never been more happy to be so wrong!

For the challenger, Alison Laraba, my biggest congrats and kudos. She jumped in the race when no one else would, started from total zero, no name recognition (except anyone who watched her speech against the four SC members who left the room in the middle of a principal’s time on the floor) and she wound up finishing 5th with over 7,000 votes. I am certain the schools are in good hands with her addition to the SC. I am also glad that Martin and Doherty were reelected, and to see Doherty finish so strong a third, only 179 votes behind first. Congrats to both of them as well. And to Leary and Leahy as well. I believe that the GOB contingent on the SC is now effectively diminished.

Also very notable: the top five vote getters in the SC race got more votes than the top vote getter in the Council race, Rita Mercier!

As did Fred Bahou. And honestly, the biggest turnaround, I think, was on the Tech SC side. 7185 votes for Bahou. He ran a fabulous campaign and just blew the vote totals out of the water. To see so many votes for a candidate in a race which is often totally neglected, that many voters leave blank, it just renews my faith in humanity. To see O’Hare beat Hayden by a fairly small margin (278 votes) also warms the cockles of my heart. I think we here contributed in a small way to that. I am glad that the students will no longer have to worry about a SC member who will try to pull down all their safety signs in Spanish or will try to illegally ban undocumented children from attending the school. Lowell rejected such politics this election.

And the 1637 vote difference between Bahou and O’Hare sends a really gigantic message to O’Hare and other long time school committee members over there. You are now on the radar, kids. Don’t screw up again.

First order of business is that I would like to see something done about Superintendent Cassin. The committee must find out what is going on with the teachers under this person, and honestly, I think he should be fired. If only because we cannot afford a $181,000 salary with 9.5% raises for this position. If he is found to be doing a bad job obviously he should be gone anyway, but I say that if Mr. Cassin cannot take a pay cut of some $56,000 to bring him down to $125K or thereabouts, he should be gone and a new superintendent at a sane salary brought in. $56,000 is more than one decent young teacher’s salary, dammit.

I’m not sure how the contract for Cassin is worded (probably in his favor) or how long before renewal but seriously. Think of the children.

I am working off of very little sleep after a couple of glasses of celebratory wine. It was a good night for change!

There is a lot you can say about the races and the initiative that we voted on yesterday, and a lot will be said. Might as well jump into the fray!

First, on the challengers who achieved Council status - those campaigns drove hard, and very smart. Franky’s astounding third place finish, a nearly-unheard-of feat for a first time candidate, reflects not only the polished communications effort by the campaign, but by the candidate’s ability to answer questions fully and smartly (but not boringly!). To me, that means that voters want a thoughtful, policy-driven City Council. Mendonca’s and Murphy’s finishes, though finishing at 7 and 8, were extremely respectable. Both candidates have campaign experience and name recognition behind them, so you can’t call them first time candidates, but both had a strong message on professional city government as well, and voters reacted accordingly.

Two of the challengers elected (Descoteaux and Murphy) had some of the best internet presences of all the campaigns. This is a good lesson for future candidates, that getting online early, engaging people with new media, and keeping your web presence updated, can only help you.

Another lesson this year is that you can run a campaign on less fundraising money, or in Murphy’s case, none. Also that people with very full time jobs or beyond can, with very hard work and good campaigns, go very far. Of course, you do have to basically eat, sleep, and breath campaigning…

On the PCGI (Professional City Government Incumbents) block, this is the biggest proof of what people really want in their City Council. Voters rewarded Milinazzo, Broderick, and Martin within 100 votes of each other (two of them, Milinazzo and Broderick, within one vote!) at numbers 4, 5, and 6. If there is anything that I think this blog and the Move Lowell Forward PAC may have contributed at all to this race, it was in maybe helping keep that storyline of their voting record as part of the debate in this election. It could have easily been a throw-all-the-bums-out anti-incumbent year, especially with the economy so sour. Milinazzo was pretty vocal and out there on many of these issues but people associated him, Broderick, and Martin as a block. It’s impossible to know every factor that went into a vote total, but regardless, the outcome is great.

The biggest losers (besides the incumbents who lost) are the state delegation who backed Kazanjian. I suspect he hurt them a lot more than they helped him. Look for disgruntlement against them after their backing and fighting for eliminating the preliminary, backing Kazanjian, and general GOBish behavior. I know I am not the only one who will not forget this. No one likes elected officials who assume they are untouchable and automatically elected, and the arrogance these guys displayed did not play well with voters.

Rodney Elliot should not be breathing a sigh of relief. And he certainly does not deserve to be Mayor. Again, if there is anything that shows what voters really wanted, it’s his poor 9th place finish. More so than Armand Mercier’s 10th place finish, as Mercier wasn’t up for a vigorous campaign. And it appears that “I didn’t know what he really did” is not a good excuse for firing someone!

As for my (unbinding) vote for Mayor, I’d love to see Broderick there but I suspect he is not interested. Remember, the mayor also runs the School Committee meetings, and there is a bunch of extra work besides. Broderick with his young family and full time job may not want to commit to that. If he does, great, if not, I can tell you who I do want. After two years of “pontificate from the podium” Caulfield, I can tell you that I really, really miss Bill Martin as mayor. He was a great leader in meetings, adhering to Robert’s Rules, and of course, helping oust John Cox before Lowell became a ward of the state. I ate a lot of crow after witnessing Martin’s tenure (initially I had been really skeptical).

I wouldn’t say no to a Mayor Milinazzo either, I think he has stood up against Kazanjian’s sort of politics, for professional city management, not knowing if he was killing or helping his own reelection chances. The other thing you can say about Milinazzo is that he takes the time (in a non election year) to get out into the neighborhood and ethnic groups, and is one of the few Councilors to go to art events. That counts for a lot.

(On a big aside, does anyone else liken the jockeying for Mayorship among the winners every post election season to Survivor? Who will get voted on the island? LOL)

Finally, on Rita Mercier and Bud Caulfield and their strong finish. On first glance, you’d think the voters were giving a mixed message and also endorsing their brand of politics. (Which is what, exactly? Angry defensiveness?). But once you really think about it, this is not the case. First, Rita - she has been hemorrhaging support for several elections. She just had a long way to fall. Her self branding is as the go-to gal for potholes - she has a lot of personal favors she’s done for people, who remember her at election time. (Never mind that with a decent city government, going through your Councilor for damn potholes is pretty damn inefficient other than being a sop to the Councilor’s ego.) Rita went from 7107 votes in 2007 (losing 12% from 2005) to 6951, not as dramatic a loss this time but certainly no new voters really fell in love with her.

On Bud Caulfield, there’s even an easier explanation. Bill Martin went from 8th in 2005 to 3rd in 2007 after being the public face (mayor) of the City Council. Bud especially spent a LOT of time being mayor - more than was really necessary, but he enjoyed the sound of his own voice. (At one event candidates incidentally were invited to, I saw all the candidates stand up and take 30 seconds to introduce themselves and then sit down, as the meeting was not about the candidates…Bud took about 3 or 4 full minutes for his speech, in which of course he said “move Lowell forward” like twice. That sort of assumption that he deserves more time than anyone else really bothered the hell out of me.) It fully explains his second place finish (and Franky is right on his heels by 67 votes).

Finally, I’d like to say something about a couple of the higher-ranked challengers who didn’t make it. Paul Belley and Ben Opara finished a respectable 12th and 13th. For a first time candidate, it means a second run would probably yield a Council seat. If either of these two candidates (or Ryan Berard, at 14th, right behind in votes) were to run again in 2011, and work as hard with as effective campaigns, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them win a seat. I hope we do see these three again. (You do have to be a glutton for punishment though…)

I was planning on writing more on the other races and Choice Voting, but I think I will save that for a second post, since this one is like book length!