Spotlight to shine brightly on mayoral candidates
By JOSH RESNEK
We are all responsible for our own actions in this life. What we do, how we act, how we think, what becomes of us during a long life follows us and sticks to us like glue.
Assuming Everett is going to have possibly three mayoral candidates, the spot lite will be on more than what the candidates bring to the table as financial experts, leaders of people, creators of municipal policy, and protectors of the public trust.
A major spotlight, a much harsher and glaring light, will be to determine the reputations of those running.
Who is the better person?
Who is most honest?
Who carries less baggage?
Who carries baggage at all and what kind of baggage is it?
Who lives by a higher code that deserves to sit in the corner office at city hall?
The upcoming campaign will include all of this…and much more.
In the end, when all the votes are counted, the mayoral race will be the peoples’ verdict – kind of like a jury verdict in court after the presentation of evidence.
The evidence will ultimately reveal nearly everything about those who run.
It is impossible to keep secrets these days about who we are, or who we were, or who we pretend to be.
If you are the mayor, this is especially true.
He cannot hide his history – and his history, especially with allegations of sexual harassment and backroom dealing follow him the way the odor of skunk killed on the road comes into cars passing over it and causes us to wince.
The mayor cannot avoid his past being looked at and scrutinized, again, especially the sexual harassment allegations which are abundant, the dirty deal-making allegations, and that he allegedly received a commission for the sale of the casino land.
Ancient history, you say?
Not really.
These days, anything goes when it comes to taking down sexual harassers.
Allegations of sexual harassment don’t go away these days.
They linger on and on, as the Governor of New York is finding out. Women are coming out of the woodwork detailing allegations of sexual harassment by Andrew Cuomo as long ago as 20 years – and the voters are listening.
Politicians can’t pay women to keep quiet anymore.
In today’s tell-all society, telling all is more important than receiving money to keep one’s mouth shut.
Sexual harasser’s past and present, are the bottom of the barrel.
Haters are the bottom of the barrel.
Fakers and frauds are the bottom of the barrel.
If Fred Capone and Gerly Adrien run for mayor – which is looking like a distinct possibility – their histories will be thoroughly explored.
To this time, we have nothing on Capone.
Capone isn’t a taker. He certainly isn’t a sexual harasser – and there is no public evidence he has ever been charged with sexual harassment or the physical abuse with a woman.
Capone appears absent of backroom deals.
If there are any, we’d like to learn of them.
Capone isn’t a taker, either.
He has never been accused of accepting a commission for city business he has conducted.
He has not sent city agents to come down on his opponents or adversaries.
He stands alone this way.
He does not threaten people to keep them in line.
Adrien is hardly an enigma.
She is a come up from the bottom story, an assertive, aggressive Black woman making her place in this city without the benefit of legacy.
She is a Black woman struggling to find her place at an Everett city hall where the leadership despises her and wants no part of her, where her colleagues revile her and the mayor.
The mayor’s dislike for Adrien begins with the color of her skin and extends to her being a woman.
Adrien has never been charged with allegations of sexual harassment or untoward public behavior.
Capone is the same in those respects.
The weight of the mayor’s past egregious behavior, which is publicly documented for all to read, will be an essential part of this campaign.
He is clearly not the best of the bunch who will likely run.
Will this impact his effort to get re-elected?
Yes, it will.
To what extent?
We will find out, won’t we!