Why the 1st Middlesex needs to look at John MacDonald for State Senate

Duggan-PayingAttention

October 26, 2017
Duggan-macdonaldWCAPOver a month ago, John MacDonald announced his candidacy for State Senate of the 1st Middlesex.
The 1stMiddlesex district is comprised of Lowell, Westford, Tyngsboro, Dunstable, Groton and Pepperell.
 
The current occupant of that office is State Senator Eileen Donoghue, who has been in that seat for 10 years. On the surface, John MacDonald’s candidacy might look like an uphill battle against Donoghue, an entrenched Beacon Hill politician with enormous fundraising capabilities and the Democrat political machine behind her.
No question, she has that, but to underestimate MacDonald’s candidacy would be a mistake.

The election for the 1st Middlesex is November 6, 2018. A year away.

That’s one year for the 1st Middlesex to become familiar with MacDonald, a person I have known for well over a decade.

I first met John MacDonald when he was the Vice President of Corporate Strategies for Riverwalk Properties and Sal’s Pizza. On the surface MacDonald was in charge of marketing and public relations, but behind the scenes he was Sal Lupoli’s right hand man. John was a key player that helped transform over eighty years of economic blight along the Merrimack River in Lawrence, into what you see today. Over 3 million square feet of economic success, hundreds of new companies and a brand name that is now known as Lupoli Companies.

During those years John told the story of Sal Lupoli and Riverwalk. He eventually ran the real estate division of Lupoli Companies and helped transform Merrimack Street in Lawrence. John was also recognized as someone who got immersed into the community. His passion ran deep for his fellow veterans, where I saw him transform a new local non-profit veteran’s organization (Veterans Assisting Veterans) into a group that became recognized statewide and nationally.

To be clear, John MacDonald is passionate about helping his fellow veterans in need and has fought against some of the most powerful politicians in our state that he feels has shortchanged veterans, including Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Since I’ve known John he has been unafraid to take on the establishment in both the Democrat and Republican parties. I worked with John as his co-host on one of the most controversial and widely listened to shows in the history of Lowell radio. It was called The Pulse. MacDonald spoke out against government fraud, entrenched politicians and anyone he felt was doing a disservice to people in his community.  Together we took on controversial issues that mattered. Eventually John made the bold move of turning off his microphone, live and on-air, and walk out of the show because the station owner was censoring his show and infringing on his free-speech … not to mention the station owner’s commitment not to censor on-air discussions.

The bottom line is that John has courage and is willing to pound his message home. He can’t be bullied and he doesn’t sit on the sidelines when people break their word. He holds them accountable, sometimes even at a personal cost to himself. 

John was also featured in my book “Heroes in our Midst” which showcase the stories of hero veterans who have been featured on the front page of The Valley Patriot for years. Since my book was published, John and Veterans Assisting Veterans were featured two consecutive months. 

John is fierce and given the time frame he has to get his message out, he is a viable candidate. The numbers in that district show that he has at least a 50/50 shot at defeating Eileen Donoghue, a senator who voted herself an 87% pay raise and supports spending $2B per year on illegal alien benefits. Both of which MacDonald opposes. John will refuse the enormous pay raise and will never support illegal immigration, sanctuary cities or a sanctuary state.

He will have some serious challenges in raising money. His political base is comprised of working people who are struggling to make ends meet. However, it’s been proven in recent elections that money and big budget political campaigns don’t always mean a certain victory. 

I want to personally encourage those who live in the 1st Middlesex District to check out John MacDonald and read what he is about.

He’s running as a Republican but even though he’s from a city that most often votes for Democrats, this election should be different. Lowell and the rest of the 1st Middlesex have a real choice. It’s a choice between a partisan hack politician who represents self-service and the establishment of her party vs. a veteran who will represent his party when they are right, and stand with the other party when they are wrong.