— Eye on Everett —

Mike McLaughlin on the rise

Councilor Mike McLaughlin appears to be serious about running for Joe McGonagle’s rep seat.

On or around February 10, he will be taking out papers.

He has apparently ordered bumper stickers.

He is preparing a campaign strategy, similar to that which powered him to victory over the mayor’s best friend last November. What is important there to note at this moment is that every thing about politics is always fluid, ever changing, and never static for very long.

McLaughlin is riding the tide of his victory last November.

That victory is a gift that keeps giving for McLaughlin, who has come a long way in his life with his storied success in local politics.

Many of us who watched his dogged campaign that ended in a stunning victory last November have come to believe in him.

In random talk between those who care about Everett politics, there is the commonly held belief that if Mike campaigns day and night across the city against McGonagle the way he campaigned against Al Lattanzi, that McGonagle ought to start packing his things for the move out of his State House office.

There is more at stake in this contest if it comes to pass than one or the other of these two winning the seat.

If McLaughlin beats McGonagle, he beats the machine, the DeMaria Crime Family machine, the DCF as Councilor Mike Marchese has called it.

There is a lot more at stake in this upcoming contest than McGonagle and McLaughlin.

What is at stake is the mayor’s position.

If McGonagle loses in this citywide race, the mayor’s re-election is not looking so certain or guaranteed as the Paper Boy might tell us.

In fact, the mayor’s belief in his own impregnability has been shot by McLaughlin’s victory over Lattanzi and by the election of the multi- cultural slate now serving on the city council.

The mayor is not resting so easy anymore.

He is growing a bit more uptight and unsure of his place in the city as the city changes before his eyes.

He knows better than anyone, that he can’t last forever, that no one lasts as mayor forever in this city.

So here he is, sitting with a cool $100,000 in his campaign account with less than two years to go before he’s got to campaign all over again for the privilege of being the mayor of Everett.

He doesn’t believe it is a privilege.

He believes he owns the office, that everyone needs to pay him, that he hires and fires with impunity, that he controls everything and everyone…and that this will never change.

He thinks the working class men and women of this city who have elected him will make him the mayor forever.

This isn’t going to happen.

The same people who elected him, who work for him, who contribute to him, who are made privately angry by his lack of a work ethic or an interest in them, who are bullied and berated by him can be tossed from office by them.

If McGonagle loses to McLaughlin, it is a double nightmare for Kickback Carlo and the DCF.

If McLaughlin wins this citywide race, it is a bad sign of worse things to come for the mayor.

If McGonagle can’t win, how is the mayor going to win?

More importantly, if McLaughlin wins, what does it say about the potential of a citywide vote deserting the mayor as McGonagle was deserted?

A lot of the political types here don’t believe McLaughlin can win.

“He’s gone as high as he can go,” one powerful voice in this city was heard to say.

“There is an unwritten rule that doesn’t allow politicians like Mike to go any higher than he’s risen,” the voice added.

Obviously, that voice does not belong to a McLaughlin supporter.