One Week to Go
By Josh Resnek
With just a week to go before Everett goes to the polls for this year’s municipal election, nearly everyone running is into their bit of hustle and bustle as Election Day looms on the horizon.
The key race in the city this time around is the Mike McLaughlin-Al Lattanzi contest for Ward 6 supremacy.
McLaughlin, the incumbent, has taken the high road by his own admission.
There hasn’t been an ounce of negativity out of him for his opponent.
McLaughlin has gone door to door throughout the city several times trying to advance his message of independence from the mayor and his basic honesty as a human being not trying to get rich off the backs of taxpayers.
Many of us believed he should have been attacking Lattanzi for getting rich off the city with his business and his relations who have significant city jobs.
His wife works for the mayor. His son the lawyer works for the city and may become the mayor’s chief of staff and Lattanzi himself will be working for the city if he is elected. His hard ware business takes in large sums of money from city business.
Some lawyers say Lattanzi may have to recuse himself from many city votes to avoid a conflict of interest with his business relationships. McLaughlin would have none of this – and what’s more, Lattanzi, et al – that is the mayor and Anthony DiPierro, concocted a story about McLaughlin ripping down signs as though he is an axe murderer.
None of this worked.
What has worked for Lattanzi is his relationship with the mayor, but to what extent won’t be revealed fully until the votes are counted.
His campaign time last week in Malden attracted a large crowd, which led to the typical talk that McLaughlin is done andLattanzi is going to easily roll into office, that McLaughlin should probably just give up and forget about being re-elected.
The mayor was there and all his paid employees, all being told to be there, and being instructed as well to give Lattanzi a vote on Election Day.
This is big medicine for Lattanzi but will it work? Are all city employees going to enter the voting booth and do what they have been told by the mayor or will some of them vote for McLaughlin?
How far does it go with city employees to do the mayor’s bidding before city employees say to themselves: “What the hell am I doing this for? What do I get out of it?”
Do city employees like being told who to vote for?
I don’t think so. Who likes being told who to vote for?
The mayor can’t fire everyone if Lattanzi loses.
Do city employees do whatever the mayor tells them to do instead of voting for who they want?
I know I would, but then, I am not a city employee and if I were a city employee, I’d never do the mayor’s bidding for him when voting.
If I’m a city employee I don’t work for the mayor. I work for the taxpayers of the city. They pay me, not him. All I need to do is show up for work and to do my job. He can’t order me around and tell me who to vote for, or what golf tournament I have to play in or who I need to contribute my money to.
Who wins or loses is not for us to predict and we will not endorse McLaughlin or Lattanzi.
Our sentiments, however, are for an independent candidate who challenges the mayor’s wisdom and thinking.
Challenging the mayor is not a crime.
Voting the mayor’s agenda every time, cheerleading for the mayor, walking his dog, jumping from the top of Sal Sacro’s building if he tells him to, this is not who we should want for councilor at large.
As for making money off the city…at some point it gets to be almost obscene taking in tons of money from the city, three members of the family employed by the city, hundreds of thousands of dollars enriching one family at the expense of the taxpayers.
Where does it stop?
Does it ever stop?
Mike Mclaughlin or Al Lattanzi?
We get the answer next week.