By: Tom Duggan – March 2006 While suburban cities and towns like North Andover are cutting their teaching staff and eliminating art and music programs due to lack of funding, Wilfredo Laboy and the Lawrence School Committee have chosen to use state education dollars for out of state travel conferences (to the tune of $4,000) […]
Kathleen Corey Rahme – January, 2006 For the past six years, the city of Methuen has enjoyed the leadership of Mayor Sharon M. Pollard. Known for her no-nonsense managerial style, she has proven herself to be an effective mayor. But for term limits, she might still be in power. While she has been […]
EDITORIAL When the average voter goes to the polls during local elections, he is usually not thinking of party politics. During local races, average voters look at individual candidates and cast a vote based upon which man or woman can serve their community better. A candidate’s party affiliation rarely comes to play during local races. […]
November, 2005 The running joke before last week’s election was: “who is going to LOSE by a wider margin, Marcos Devers in Lawrence or Ellen Bahan in Methuen?” Well, Ellen won that one, but not much else. She lost the mayoral race to Bill Manzi by a margin of 28% to 68%, a resounding victory […]
November 14, 2005 North Andover is having its Special Town Meeting on December 5, 2005, yet everyone I speak to want to know why. The meeting was initially scheduled so that voters could decide on whether or not to rezone the Lucent Technologies site now owned by Ozzy Properties. Ozzy Properties want to rezone […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL October, 2005 Last month, the City of Lawrence held a preliminary municipal election for mayor, school committee and city council. Less than 20% of the 32,000 registered voters bothered to participate. With more than 70,000 people living in the city of Lawrence that means less than 9% of the population bothered […]
By; Michael R. Sweeney – October, 2005 A moment of clarity. After all is said and done that is what election results, whether a primary or final, provides to those seeking public office and to the people who support them. Some candidates grow under that light and some crumble. This past primary night in […]
By: Tom Duggan – September 2005 LAWRENCE – Lawrence School Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy is increasingly coming under fire by candidates for both mayor and school committee, as the city elections in November draw near. Embroiled in public scandal over the alleged assault on School Committeeman Amy McGovern, Laboy has become the subject of controversy […]
Paul Murano – June, 2005 Let’s face it, next to Red Sox baseball, politics is the preferred sport of many in this area. But if you think about it, a baseball season and a campaign season have many parallels. They both start their spring training in February, one in Florida and the other in […]
June, 2005 Lawrence State Representative Willie Lantigua has betrayed the Latino people of Lawrence. He has been playing a dangerous game of race baiting and making racial slurs for far too long, and it is about time someone called him to task for his shenanigans. Lantigua has deliberately misinformed his Dominican constituency about Licensing […]
By: Tom Duggan – April 04, 2005 Just as I reported after the November Presidential election (which was a bittersweet moment), I was again blessed with the same feelings and emotions following this week’s North Andover town elections. Why, you ask? Well, in November I was thrilled with George Bush’s victory, the defeat of […]
Ted Tripp, North Andover Taxpayers Association – April, 2005 That’s a fair question to ask. Just as recently as three years ago, North Andover voters showed up in huge numbers to overwhelmingly reject a $4 million tax increase by means of a Proposition 2 ½ Override. The School Committee, the Finance Committee and […]
PAYING ATTENTION WITH TOM DUGGAN Tom Duggan It’s always cute when a local politician adopts a catchy slogan to help shore up the image of his campaign. And while most voters rightly dismiss these slogans as meaningless rhetoric, one campaign slogan from this year’s North Andover town election begs to be discussed. Political […]
By: Jim Rurak, Former Mayor of Haverhill January, 2005 Haverhill’s history seesaws between big plans to promote its urban economy and extaordinary commitments to preserve its rural assets. Unlike Lowell and Lawrence whose land area is completely built up, Haverhill’s urban core makes up only a fraction of its total area. The rest is made up of […]
PAYING ATTENTION WITH TOM DUGGAN Tom Duggan – November, 2004 Massachusetts State Representative Barbara L’Italien should be ashamed of herself. She has not only taken a public stand against two of the Catholic Church’s teachings, abortion and gay marriage, (she favors both) the liberal legislator was seen on election day verbally attacking and […]