Friends, family at Main Street headquarters opening
The mayor officially kicked off his re-election campaign opening his headquarters on Main Street on Saturday.
The mayor arrived back from a vacation to Aruba just in time to attend.
The cold and inclement weather changed just in time for the event.
About 125 people attended and packed into the headquarters.
Twenty-five people waited outside the headquarters.
The theme of the campaign is encapsulated by the painting on one of the windows at the front of the headquarters.
“Everett for Everyone,” is painted in bright red, white and blue colors on the front window, with an American flag for added emphasis.
A varied collection of people attended the event.
City hall employees and officials, several councilors, real estate owners, vendors who do business with the city, businessmen, and the mayor’s family mixed with the crowd.
The mayor is expecting to be faced by Councilor Fred Capone, who has not yet announced but is believed to be set to make his candidacy official shortly.
Also, Councilor at Large Gerly Adrien is believed to be contemplating a run.
As a result, the mayor is ramping up his fundraising effort – although he has never needed an opponent to do that.
The mayor sent out a citywide request by mail for political campaign contributions last week.
With $100,000 in the bank, the mayor is trying to double that amount in the weeks and months ahead.
His re-election effort this year is more complicated than campaigns in the past.
A variety of issues will be weighing heavily on voters this time around.
Racism has been a topic not usually discussed in Everett.
The nearly white only city government is considered problematic.
The city is now more non-white than white.
However the city’s government is not a reflection of that major demographic change.
The mayor’s rejection of the city’s first Black woman councilor Adrien is likely to play out as an issue.
The mayor’s checkered past history with women is also an issue that will likely be more fully explored before election day.
The national movement against misogyny makes the mayor’s past up for grabs in this #Me Too era.
In addition, the city’s liberal, and by some resident’s accounts, excessive spending practices and exactly how the Encore $30 million a year is spent and whether Encore is paying it are issues for voters to discuss and to decide.
The future of development in Everett is also to be decided.
Will Everett remain a community where everyone knows everyone else or is that era dead and gone with Everett becoming a place inhabited by thousands of new residents in thousands of new apartment units who take no interest in the city whatsoever?
Public school education remains a question mark with the mayor allegedly trying to pack the School Committee with his own slate to give him power over the School Committee, and especially over hiring.
In any event, the mayor’s campaign is up and running.