General election – Everett Leader Herald

McLaughlin issues debate challenge to incumbent Rep

Massachusetts State House. (Photo by Jim Mahoney)

As we enter the final month of the 2020 State Representative campaign and seeing that nothing is of the normal that we could have imagined in February when nomination papers became available.

Seeing that the voters of Everett should hear directly from Representative McGonagle and I on the important issues facing our city and state.

I today put out a challenge to State Representative McGonagle that we both work together to see a one hour debate can occur and be shown as often as possible on ECTV and covered by the local news media over the next 30 days.

Continue reading →

Everett needs independent Rep’s voice on Beacon Hill

Campaign signs for the State Rep battle are popping up all over Everett. (Photo by Jim Mahoney)

Too much outside sourced money in play currently

BY JOSH RESNEK

Our Beacon Hill rep since 2015 is a nice enough fellow. But then, why shouldn’t he be?

He is owned lock, stock and barrel by the mayor.

If he was ordered by the mayor to go to the top of Sal Sacro’s building in the square and told to jump, he’d ask the mayor: “Head first or feet first?”

You have to wonder who the Rep is actually representing on Beacon Hill?

Is it the people of Everett? Private interests? What Councilor Mike Marchese has called the Demaria Crime Family?

When you come right down to it, is he representing only and mainly himself?

Arguably, the best way to measure his value to the community is to look at his campaign finance reports as filed with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

When you follow the money, you can usually find the answer to that question.

Continue reading →

Mayor endorses state rep, snubs Mike McLaughlin

City Councilor Michael McLaughlin. (file photo)

By JOSH RESNEK

The mayor has not so much endorsed the state rep as he has rejected Everett City Councilor Mike McLaughlin’s candidacy.

In a traditional battle of the older order over the younger order coming up, the
mayor has chosen to cast his vote for the old order, for the rep who remains an enigma in the changing city.

McLaughlin has been on the front lines of supporting the needy, the elderly and Everett residents from all walks of life, age, color, gender, and race during the coronavirus.

He has become the city’s signature younger working man for all seasons and people and has done so without the support of the mayor’s cabal of businessmen, city employees and businessmen.

The rep is largely nowhere to be seen, showing up occasionally for ceremonial duties and then disappearing.

In an announcement sent around to voters by mail over the weekend, the mayor made his preference perfectly clear.

He described the rep as his friend and partner in government.

Continue reading →

Voting by mail could be way of the future

Screen Shot 2020-06-06 at 4.59.53 PM — “I voted” stickers. (File photo by Jim Mahoney)

Local races in play along with national election

By JOSH RESNEK

The Coronavirus has indeed turned our lives upside down, and nowhere will this be more evident than in upcoming presidential election, which will include the rep race here between Councilor Mike McLaughlin and Joe McGonagle.

House and Senate Democrats late last week released a proposal that would dramatically expand voting-by-mail this year in Massachusetts, in response to fears that many voters may shy away from voting in-person amid the Coronavirus crisis.

The mail-in plan would be coupled with in-person early voting and traditional voting in September and November.

Many thousands of Everett voters are believed to be expecting to vote by mail in the upcoming election, a vast number more than have voted by mail than ever before because of the social distancing requirements likely to be imposed during the primary and the election.

Because of the voting demographic which has many more elderly than younger people voting here and everywhere, fears of the virus will arouse the widespread voting by mail option.

President Trump claimed to his 80 million Twitter followers recently that mail-in voting is particularly susceptible to fraud, saying that ballots are stolen from mailboxes, voter signatures are routinely forged, and ballots are illegally printed. He also alleged, without any supporting evidence, that the state of California has sent ballots to undocumented immigrants in a move to allow “anyone” to vote.

Continue reading “Voting by mail could be way of the future” →