Left In Lowell

I’ve been saying for months that a large portion of the bad poll numbers for Patrick, and the wrong track/right track numbers were largely due to malaise over anyone who’s in office while we’re in a bad downturn. It’s no secret that Gov Patrick’s poll numbers were anemic despite what I think is a pretty darn good stewardship of the state economy, as well as his foresight in pushing the economies of the future back when there was no deficit, and setting up the state for the influxes of stimulus monies from the feds last year, something which in retrospect looks like good planning and sense but which requires a leader who looks at the long term picture, a rarity in politics.

Now that our economy is poised to post a comeback (already started and ahead of the curve), Patrick has seen a rebound of his percent of likely voters by ten points and brings him to 45%. It’s just one poll, and six months is a long time, but at least we’re headed in the right direction.

Which is exactly what I expected. If the economy weathers the insanity in Europe, and turns around by November, incumbents, and national Dems, will do all right. If not, they will be punished. Given how far we sank, it disappoints me that we won’t give Obama and the federal Dems more time to fix it instead of going back to the people who broke it in the first place, but that is political reality.

Clarification update at bottom.

Via Marie at RH.com, I read the Myers article in the Lowell Sun regarding a little tiff between the state Senate Democratic primary candidates. The basic premise as it is outlined, is that “Doherty sent a letter to Donoghue yesterday challenging her to join him in not using any of her own money to finance her campaign.”

His claim is that “It signals that public office is nothing more than a trophy for the well-to-do. It also undermines the people’s confidence in our democratic process, by suggesting that the only people than can run for office competitively are millionaires who can self-finance their campaigns.”

First off, let’s belay a moment and examine the logic here for a second. I’ll be honest, self-funded campaigns aren’t my ideal. I’d rather clean elections were fully funded, but that’s another story. Heavily self-funded campaigns (and we can’t assume Donoghue’s is, yet) can be vanity campaigns, and worse, scare away opponents with less deep pockets. Setting aside the crack at millionaires which I’m not 100% Donoghue is (or if true, how much of one she is), though, I’d far, far rather see a candidate get their money from their own bank account than to get the money from tainted sources, like corporations. Or, maybe, from Good Ol’ Boys.

Because as someone who frequents downtown, it didn’t escape my notice that the windows of that badly misused badly developed historic building at the end of Market St at Central, the one owned by failed City Council candidate and GOB friend Bob Brian McMahon, are plastered with Chris Doherty signs. This isn’t the first indicator I’ve seen of exactly who is backing Doherty’s campaign.

Look, Chris Doherty seems like a nice guy, though I’ve really only met him a few times and in mostly crowded rooms. Though I have to believe he understands the basics of politics in Lowell and fully groks who he’s hanging out with, he’s been nothing but courteous and polite. However, I cannot ignore the history and context of Lowell’s contentious past, and who in this town is dead set against Eileen Donoghue for her role in ousting a past City Manager. Doherty’s motivations aren’t necessarily suspect; but his friends’ certainly are.

So we come to the next part (and a clever response by Donoghue if we’re talking horse races). She responded to Doherty’s letter that:

…by state law, the candidates are not required to file reports with the Office of Campaign Finance until Sept. 7, one week before the Sept. 14 primary, which she calls “troubling and not in the spirit of transparency.”
[…]
In her letter, Donoghue suggests that both candidates post their detailed monthly contribution reports on their campaign websites.

“The voters should know what parties, and what interests they represent, are giving you such large amounts,” Donoghue wrote…

If what I suspect is true, that list of Doherty’s donors will be drowning in a sea of names that would not be accepted by this blogger, at the least. If there’s a faction battle in this race (and there’s evidence, but not definitive proof, that there is), the battle lines are old, the resentment festering, and the parties involved will not be able to escape that context. The only thing stopping the true examination of such a battle would be the fact that the OCPF reports come too late to properly examine where the money is coming from (which is supposed to be the whole purpose of the OCPF reports. Sigh).

So, will sunshine prevail? I hope that Donoghue posts her donor lists monthly on the web, regardless of Doherty’s response. To be completely honest and objective (and yes, I like Donoghue, but I can appreciate the horse race too), this letter from Doherty reads like a political ploy, and a little amateurish at that. Instead of making me think, it makes me wonder who’s giving him this advice.

And generally, going (in effect) negative this early in the campaign is the tactic of the possibly-desperate. Make no mistake, Doherty’s letter is a negative attack, as the undertone basically says, “you were an elitist in your last race, will you be one now too?” It makes him look like he’s trying to grab headlines, and allowed Donoghue to respond to the attack with a smooth parry that appears far more seasoned, and lets her get in a possible campaign issue (more transparency in elections) to boot.

It also gave me the opening to post this complaint about the GOB connection that I’ve been meaning to do for a week now.

Word to the wise…if you’re going on the attack, you better be sure of the consequences. Nine times out of ten, attacks backfire. Ask Kerry Healey about that one.

Clarification and Update:

Mea culpa, I hadn’t known that McMahon had sold the condos on the first floor. Doherty is weirdly renting that space (from whom I would like to know…is that truncated, wasted storefront condo association property, or does someone else own it?). From the email sent to me by McMahon’s wife:

Hi Lynne-
My husband Brian sold both of those Market St. condos some time ago. Chris Doherty is renting space from the new owner. To be perfectly honest, I’m not a fan of the appearance of the front windows, but that is entirely out of our control. The condos are beautiful inside, I’d be happy to show them to you. Maybe it will give you a clearer perspective of the overall project.

However, in the final analysis, this whole post is NOT invalid. The signs in that window were merely the most recent in a string of indications as to who is giving their backing to Doherty, and not the sole proof. If it had been the sole proof, I would not have posted this post in the first place. This post and its background are still completely perfectly valid, and though I withdraw (for now - still want to know who that “rent” goes to) the sign commentary, I still have the same exact questions.

One final note - though McMahon’s wife was extremely polite and kudos to her for that, I honestly don’t care how beautiful those condos are. They don’t belong in prime retail first floor space. It was bad design, and it should never have passed the Planning Board at the time. There were a lot of special exceptions for that development as I recall. This of course was back when the GOB ran the boards so it passed without effort, but it was wrong, and a perfectly great retail space which could have been the key transition from Market/Merrimack to the less frequented Central St frontage, was ruined.

As to this - “I’m not a fan of the appearance of the front windows, but that is entirely out of our control” - well, it was in their control, and the developer decided to truncate the retail frontage to uselessness so he could make a bigger profit (garnering all sorts of those favorable zoning exceptions), which is now, basically, permanent. So what else is there to do with that space other than pretty it up with a few curtains and paint the wall which is 6 feet back from the window, or rent it out for ungainly political signs? It’s not like anyone has to see in or out of those windows now due to the poor planning and development.

Congratulations to the Lowell Police Department, City leaders, concerned and active citizens and those social services agencies who have made it possible for our City’s crime rate to drop in these difficult economic times.


This morning, on WCAP, I heard the Superintendent of Police, Ken Lavallee mentioned that the crime rate in the City has gone down. On the official LPD fb site, they posted the following:

Analyzing official NIBRS crime data, Group A offenses (which include serious crimes such as homicide, rape and robberies) have decreased 5% and Group B offenses, which only include arrests made for incidents such as disorderly conduct and driving under the influence have increased 11%.

The NIBRS is the National Incident-Based Reporting System, an incident-based reporting system used by law enforcement agencies in the United States for collecting and reporting data on crimes.

We will need to wait a bit longer for the data to be released so that we can review the details but this is good news for all of us who care and are concerned.

Back in 1995 2005 when I started to write on this blog, I would never have guessed in a million years that a Lowell City Councilor would be join the local blogsphere; granted five years have gone by and new media is now middle-age media but Lowell CC Rodney Elliott has joined the “family.”

For those of you who have not checked Rodney-Elliott.com, please do. It is more than just a blog, it is a good web site to use for a political race; city council or something on the state level.

CC Elliott is not the only Councilor who understands and utilizes social networking, he has a fb account, but he is certainly taking the lead.

I like to read his blog but I find too much of his comments are directed at criticism of the current Administration. If that trend continues, it will create an unnecessary negative atmosphere.

For example, in his May 7th blog, he writes about the LPD contract or I should say, non-contract:

To my knowledge there is no place-holder in the budget and no plan to cover the costs [of the police contract once the issue is resolved]. This is what is called a structural deficit.  A cost that you know is outstanding, with no funds to pay for it now or in future budgets.   I  believe the figure could be as high as $1,000,000  and to the best of my knowledge, no money has been put aside. Not a prudent financial move.

In November 2009, CM Bernie Lynch and CFO Tom Moses presented a memo to the City Council on necessary budget adjustments. Subsequently, the Finance Committee (Chair CC R. Elliott) had a meeting to discuss the memo which by the way, mentioned the issue of the funding of the police contract. Why wasn’t the question asked then?

The City Council Finance Committee has had three meetings this year: 1/26/10; 2/23/10 and 4/6/10. Why wasn’t the question asked then?

Back to CC Elliott’s blog, I wish him the best but regularly targeting the Administration may make for interesting reading but I am not sure if it is good politics.

Most of us may have been busy this weekend, but the leading story in Saturday’s Sun reminded all of us that the state’s Inspector General’s Office is still in town and still asking questions. As Jen Myers’ reported, both City Councilors Rita Mercier and Bud Caulfield were interviewed by the investigators.  

According to the Sun, CC Mercier “was questioned about ‘the gamut of everything that has been going on in the city’.” And CC Caulfield stated “They just wanted my take on everything.”

CC Mercier also told Myers that all City Councilors will be interviewed.  I am not sure if it is the sitting City Councilors or those who served in previous terms or both but at the time of the printing of the article, none of the sitting CCs were interviewed.  As t this rate, there isn’t going to be anyone left in Lowell who has not been questioned by these people.

Myers does a nice job to recap the whole “inspectional services investigation” story. However, those whose name are mentioned in  these stories do not agree.  Those of you who were listening to the Warren Shaw show on Saturday, heard an exchange between Jim Campanini, editor of the paper, who called in and co-host Tom Byrne, who was mentioned in the Sun story; and by the way he stated that he was also interviewed last week.

The problem is that the reporters have to “recap” the back story every time they write about something new that has been made public and those whose name appears, and reappears are saying “enough already.”  But is it the newspaper’s fault that the investigation is not completed and now seems to be growing? No, some of us complain when the paper doesn’t report on issues and others complain when they do.

On this one, I am with the Sun, it is a no-win situation. So, Jen keep on reporting.

It’s he-said she-said (well, he-said he-said) with today’s Column, in which Move Lowell Forward member Michael Ready was mentioned regarding the “after meeting party” at the GHTHS Board session wherein they crowned Santoro Superintendent. As a refresher, thus wrote the Column:

After Tuesday night’s vote to hire Mary Jo Santoro as the next superintendent of Greater Lowell Tech., School Committee member George O’Hare of Lowell and local activist Michael Ready got into a loud war of words. Ready proclaimed that Santoro’s hiring was a bag job from the beginning. O’Hare disagreed. School spokesman Michael McGovern jumped into the fray, literally blocking Ready’s access to school officials with his chest and escorting Ready out of the administrative offices.

In that paragraph, it’s obvious their source was on the GOB side of things, possibly “spokesflack” Michael McGovern himself (and again as in comments, I am wondering, what high school has a spokesflack?? I’d like to know). But Paul, who was also there at the meeting and present at this moment, gainsays this in comments to my previous post:

Mr Ready was NOT escorted out of the meeting! He (and I beside him) left of our own free will! The “war of words” was initiated by Mr O’Hare who left the Council table and confronted Mr Ready who only stood his ground. Several people at the meeting did suggest we leave but only because there needed to be an executive session which common mortals are not allowed to attend

So, two very different takes on what happened. Obviously the “initiated by O’Hare” part was not part of the GOB party line. Oops. Too bad there’s eyewitnesses to correct the record, and a blog where they post their point of view.

As an aside, I know of no two individuals as upstanding as Michael and Paul. They are both honest men, willing to take a stand, and I think deserve a whole lot of credit for bringing all of this malarkey to our attention. Taking the time out of their lives as they have on this issue is not easy, nor is being attacked personally for doing so. You have had a chance to read Michael’s statements to the Board, and in no way was he disrespectful. He and Paul take their responsibility as citizens seriously, and I have just a ton of respect for both of them for their work. I just want to say that publicly that I have and will continue to enjoy working with these two gentlemen. I’m sorry this paints them as targets, but I applaud them!

If you get the Lowell Sun, you probably read the Column. I don’t (I won’t pay for that thing til the editor is, at a minimum, failed upwards and is no longer in charge of day to day operations), but a friend sent me the relevant quote regarding the night of the GLT Board meeting and a creepy, disgusting display of immaturity from one of Santoro’s supporters (again, eliciting an “I’m for Cox” moment to my mind). No link as the Column is not online any more (funny how that means I stopped quoting it at all until now…hmmm…):

“After Tuesday night’s vote to hire Mary Jo Santoro as the next superintendent of Greater Lowell Tech., School Committee member George O’Hare of Lowell and local activist Michael Ready got into a loud war of words. Ready proclaimed that Santoro’s hiring was a bag job from the beginning. O’Hare disagreed. School spokesman Michael McGovern jumped into the fray, literally blocking Ready’s access to school officials with his chest and escorting Ready out of the administrative offices.

Shortly after Ready arrived at his Nesmith Street home, a pizza delivery guy showed up on his doorstep. On cheese pizza from Santoro’s Sub Shop - as in Mary Jo’s namesake and a reference to her victory that night. The number given to the delivery man was O’Hare’s cell-phone, which Ready immediately called. O’Hare returned Ready’s call the next morning. “I said I did not deliver any pizza to him”, O’Hare told the SUN. Ready said he believes O’Hare didn’t do it.”

I’ll let others jump in on the McGovern interference, as I was not there to see it. However, on the second, the pizza delivery, I want to make some commentary.

First, there are two ways to interpret the act, which was much discussed this week among friends…does one ignore it and give it no power to affect anything? Or go public and show the complete stupidity that accompanies this GOB atmosphere? Confront a bully instead of enable them?

The first and most likely motivation for this is that some idiot bonehead got a little too excited and decided to pull a “na-na na-na BOO BOO” move on Ready, who has put himself out there and is the most available target for bragging about their “win.” Since GOBs are full of people like this, I tend to believe that is likely what happened.

However, the sending of this pizza to an activist’s house (even as easy as it is to find addresses these days), could also be interpreted as intimidation, i.e., “I know where you live. Watch your step.” And while it sounds paranoid to think this might be a motivation for such an act, in this town, such acts have been a time honored tradition. I have heard more than one first hand account of such intimidation. I myself have been the recipient of it. This cowards’ mafioso attitude in this town (it’s like the baby mafia; they use intimidation and thuggery, but yet, as soon as you shine a light on it, or stand up to them even mildly, they back down right quick…very manly of them, on both counts) is all too common, though I suspect it’s on its lame way to becoming out of fashion.

Thank goodness myself, and the many active citizens of Lowell who want to see things change for the better for everyone (as opposed to the privileged few), can see right through such pitiful acts of cowardice. No one’s going anywhere. If anything, such childish attempts to intimidate only make us more driven to see the system change. 2011 is right around the corner.

One final thought. If I were Mr. O’Hare, and I didn’t send the pizza (and let’s face it, he probably didn’t - at least, most public officials have that much good sense), I’d be taking a real hard look at my friends. It’s not just anyone who would have his unpublished cell phone number, so it’s a good bet that someone he knows well may have done it. I’d be trying to find out who, so that I could give them a good talking to about embarrassing me like that.

As indicated in comments to a previous post, Dracut GLTHS Board member Victor Olson posted his reasoning in voting for Santoro for superintendent on Shawn’s blog, Dracut Forum.

Mr. Olson said a whole lot of nothing except, in essence, “she’s been there on the team so she’s the right person to take the job.” Then he gainsays what Santoro herself was quoted as stating, so it makes me wonder, did he listen to the same interview Eric Smith and our Move Lowell Forward members did? Olson’s comment, “she understands the importance of continuous improvement initiatives and that complacency is not acceptable” is in direct contrast to Santoro’s comment taken from her interview, quoted in the Sun article (requoted in my interviews post):

The school is already in excellent shape, according to Mary Jo Santoro, assistant superintendent/principal at Greater Lowell Tech since 2003.

“I think the ship is sailing pretty well right now without any new initiatives,” said Santoro during last night’s public interviews, highlighting her leadership at the school.

Yeah, good luck with those new “initiatives” to combat “complacency” there, Mr. Olson. Hope it works out for you.

Or as it was bandied about when I read this point aloud to some friends, “who is this person with initiatives and why didn’t they hire her?”

Mr. Olson wants us to believe he made the best choice he could have for superintendent. Maybe in his mind he really thinks so (certainly I can take him for his word there). But here is my more important, gravely serious point: the only way he could believe that this was the best choice for GLT, is to be completely out of touch with the morale problems at the GLTHS among the teachers, and the severe divide between the “in” folks hired and promoted by Cassin and his upper level staff, and the “out” crowd which are the rest.

The “in” crowd obviously showed up in force to see the crowning of Santoro on Tuesday night (reminiscent of the “I’m for Cox” campaign). I’m sure they’ll be amply rewarded under the Santoro regime.

From 8am until 8:30, Paul and Michael, our Move Lowell Forward members who have been attending GLTHS Board meetings, will be on WCAP with Warren Shaw to discuss the GLT situation.

It’ll be anything but boring (like most of Lowell politics!). So tune in!

The Brush (disclosure: their director is my good friend!) is hosting their big annual fundraiser, Cinco de Mayo en la Plaza, tomorrow (Saturday) May 8th from 6 to 10 PM. There will be cocktails from 6-7 followed by a catered dinner, live music, dancing, a silent auction and other activities in the big tent outside in the Market Mill courtyard. (Address for the Brush: 256 Market St.)

Tickets are $50/$40 for members in advance, or $55/$45 for members at the door. You can purchase online at the Brush’s website.

You can also see all the latest art by the Brush’s artists as well as the Tea, Swords and Stitches exhibit in the main gallery, and dine alongside the artwork in the Lowell Art and Design studios (our area)!