Lawrence’s Mayor Lantigua Pushes Candidate on Ballot Against Her Will – Will File Complaints with AG Coakley

William Lantigua
William Lantigua

PRELIMINARY ELECTION DAY…. LAWRENCE…

By Tom Duggan, September 17, 2013 (7:14pm)

(MORE STORIES ON LANTIGUA)

Lawrence’s municipal elections were held today in preliminary races for mayor, city council and school committee.

Lawrence at-large candidate for city council, Cara Martiloni tells the Valley Patriot in an exclusive this afternoon that she is fuming and she is ready to take on Mayor Lantigua for printing up ballot stickers with her name on it and telling his supporters to put her up as a final election candidate  against District “F” Councilor Marc LaPlante. .

“They are passing out stickers with my name and my address on it. They are giving them to all their cronies at each poll in my district. They are telling people to put my name up as a challenger to District “F” Councilor Marc Laplante. I never met Willie Lantigua, I never authorized to have my name be part of any campaign for district council. I have my own at-large campaign to run, which he just destroyed. This has ruined my name.”

Martiloni is a new to the City of Lawrence, she moved to Lawrence from Haverhill two years ago. She said she took the entire summer off to knock on people’s doors across the city to find out what was important to voters. Martiloni is a lawyer and said that she is saddened and a bit furious that “Mayor Lantigua and his cronies have called yet another election into question and he is using my name to do it.”

“Well I will tell you this,” she said angrily. “I know he thought that because I don’t know anyone in politics that I wouldn’t find out. Or that if I did find out I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it becaue I have no political connections in Lawrence. But, he picked the wrong girl. I am filing a complaint right now. I am walking it down to the Lawrence election department. I already talked to City Clerk Billy Maloney and he said there is nothing I can do. Well you watch, I am doing do something.”

First, Martiloni says she is filing a complaint and demanding her name be stricken from all ballots in the district “F” race. She also said that she is calling for a recount on all ballots in District “F”.

“I called election division and tomorrow I am filing a complaint with Attorney General Martha Coakley and we can add this to the other investigations into Lantigua’s campaign illegalities.”

“We are supposed to be teaching our young people what is acceptable. This is America. We are supposed to be preserving the integrity of our election process and all this guy wants to do is destroy it. It is a sad day for democracy.” 

For his part, Lawrence City Councilor Marc LaPlante has no primary opponent. If any voter gets 50 write-in or sticker votes in the District “F” race in today’s preliminary, Laplante will have to campaign for his seat against that person in the November final election. Martiloni says that her name will no part of any challenge to Laplante in November and she is willing to take the city to court if comes to that.

“If I wanted to run against Marc Laplante, I would have run against him. But I like Marc, and I think Marc is doing a great job in this district, that’s why I am running at large.”

MORE STORIES ON LANTIGUA

CORRUPTION

LAWRENCE