As I scribe this weeks’ missive to you, we are doing a replay of March. Whilst the calendar is telling us we’re in the middle o’ May, the rain and cold and damp feels like March. Usually this is the week it starts to git warm around here. Don’t seem like it’s ever gonna be warm. And remember, I don’t mind the heat, so I ain’t one to complain when it’s up in the 90s.
Tennyrate, here in the Asylum by the Sea some things are definitely takin’ place that will make the summer a really interesting time. Usually July and August are perty quiet cuz the politicos in the berg are off sunning and funning. Well, with this bein’ an election year, things are percolating and will finally be done when the town committees make their selections in July.
On the Demmy side, we already know that there was a possibility of a primary. Herronner jest made her announcement for reelection last week as expected. Now all that has to be done is for Deborah Collins to formally announce her campaign, and we know what happens: we have a primary.
Collins has all but announced that she’s running, puttin’ together a campaign team and doing all the preliminary stuff that one expects. And that means come September, the party faithful will be asked to come out again – for the umpteenth time since the 1990s, and determine whom the candidate will be on the ballot.
In the last two primaries of this sort, the incumbent lost. John Picard got bumped by Edward O’Brien in 2012, and O’Brien had the situation reversed on him four years later by Mayor Nancy Rossi. The difference is this is Rossi’s foist term, whilst both Picard and O’Brien had already been in office for three and two terms, respectively. Only twice has a one-term mayor been ousted. Mayor Bill Heffernan was turned out by the Harold Allen machine in 1973. Clem Evangeliste lost in 1991 after only one term in the gen’ral election.
It’ll be interestin’ to see what happens this go-round. Rossi’s people were able to wrest control of the party apparatus in the last town committee primary in March of 2018. But, as we know that don’t mean that victory is guaranteed.
Herronner has her supporters and effen Collins decides to do what everyone thinks she will, she will have her own supporters. She’s perty popular.
So, that’ll be decided at the end o’ the summer. The elephant in the room is Ed O’Brien. He has announced his determination to run for the office he once held, and no one expecks he is gonna run on the Demmy line in a three-way primary, though it’s still a possibility.
O’Brien don’t have the support amongst the factions he had before. Frum whot we hoid, the Morrissey faction won’t back him, and is puttin’ its marbles behind Collins. So, that could mean a three-way race come November. Yes, a three-way race. At least one candidate has announced for the GOP nod.
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This week, Steve Mullins made his announcement seekin’ the Republican nomination. Mullins, who is currently on the Planning and Zoning Commish, has a rather large footprint in the berg. This ain’t his foist rodeo. In fack, he ran for mayor before under the GOP banner, but didn’t fare well when the aforementioned Picard was mayor.
In a town where the ratio of Democrats registered to Republicans is 4:1, any attempt by the party to gain traction is an uphill battle. In past years, people don’t even pay attention to the GOP. That’s too bad cuz over the last couple o’ years they’ve had some interestin’ candidates with fine credentials and good ideas.
There is a need for a good opposition party. The three-way split in the Demmies ain’t working well for the city, and, regardless of the internals, one party ruling a community is a road to rack and ruin – look at New Haven.
Unfortunately, the last Republican administration was long on talk and short on experience and know-how, and helped to put us in the situation the city is in. That has been a bad thing for the city and the party. I ain’t sure whether the people in this berg are sick-and-tired enuff to change dance partners. We shall see.
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Nelly Nuthatch, meanwhile, thinks the political screws are turning with the Ethics Commission complaint against herronner and others concerning buy-backs of vacation time. Truth to tell, I never understood how that all works. Only in the public sector can one get paid for unused vacation time – or roll it over into one’s time toward retirement.
Maybe, as Nelly opined, we should git rid o’ the practice all together, and effen yew don’t use it, you lose it…jest like everyone else. But that don’t mean anything right now, the complaint was filed by a critic o’ herronner, which kind o’ puts a taint on it. But, maybe we’ll finally git a clear-cut ruling on whether the practice is legit or not. All in all, it’s perty small potatoes, and more than likely a campaign talkin’ pernt.
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Charter Revision Commish head Ed Granfield raised more than one eyebrow with his statements last week concerning the proposals made by the panel. Sammy Blluejay happened to be flutterin’ about the berg, and reports that reading betwixt the lines, the chairman was saying somethin’ to the effeck: let the people decide. It remains to be seen effen that happens.
Many of us remember the charter revision attempts of the last 20 years or so, and how the commish had good ideas, only to have them quashed by the political powers that be. The City Council still has a means of cherry-picking the proposals and keeping out the ones the politicians don’t particularly care for. Methinks that’s what Granfield had in mind.
Tennyrate, the barristers that came to the confab recently perty much told the commish that they were still working on all the proposals, and had some tweaks, jots and tittles to bring forward. The sense I git is that there are some really different things that the commish put forward. There are rumors about city managers and the like. That is an idea that has been bandied about before.
Effen that’s the case, and the totality o’ the proposals would completely alter city government, the people should be the ones to decide, not the council. The voters can decide yay or nay, and then live with the results. The politicos should let the process proceed unhindered. That would be refreshing.
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So, city taxpayers will hafta wait at least two or more weeks before finding out what the tax increase will be – and make no mistake, that’s what MARB was talkin’ about when it nixed the budget proposal. It can’t go more than two weeks, cuz to go longer would mean banks would have a heckuva time adjusting mortgage payments to the new reality.
This has been the problem in the past – last year being a prime example. So, I don’t expeck this thing to drag much into June. Tax bills hafta go out and lending institutions need to know what the damage is in order to deal with customers. Two weeks should be just about right.
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With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,