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People who are plugged in to the community’s political energy in the next few days will no doubt feel some tension, anxiety, and excitement as the process rolls toward next Tuesday. On the face of it, this year’s city election campaign doesn’t seem to have “shaken the windows or rattled the walls,” to paraphrase Bob Dylan. If there’s a “subterrranean homesick blues,” we’ll find out next week. The incumbents made their cases for not changing horses, and the challengers presented their credentials as fair alternatives. That the SUN endorsed several new faces for council is noteworthy. The unsettled economic climate may be suppressing calls for bold new agendas, but Lowell is hardly in a holding action.

The big variable is turnout. Will the ballot question on a new method of voting cause a surge in turnout? Can we presume that most of the people who signed the petition were primed for change? There was not a sustained counter-effort to defeat the ballot question, probably because the bar is so high for passage and enactment. In 1993, two “change” ballot questions passed and several newcomers were elected. Perhaps what’s making this election so hard to read is the array of first-time candidates whose organizations and networks are unknown. Add to that the grassroots nature of the ballot question. Sign coverage is a leading indicator, but the fundraising, advertising, mailings, and rallying haven’t revealed enough to suggest a trend either way. Politics is about people stepping into the democratic market square, either as leaders or backers. Tuesday is market day.

The CTI Local Heroes event this past Wednesday was a vivid reminder of the truth of Shakespeare’s line: “What is the city but the people?” What an amazing collection of humanitarians reside in the city and surrounding towns. How sobering to think that we need their efforts more than ever in these challenging days. At the St. Paul’s Soup Kitchen based at the Eliot Presbyterian Church on Summer Street in Lowell, the number of people seeking free meals has risen 25 percent in the past six months. Rose and Walter Bronk of Lowell, who started the Kitchen 14 years ago, were among the honorees. In presenting those awards, CTI makes manifest the soul and conscience of the communities it serves. And their annual dinner gathering always reflects the social diversity of this area. The previous night, the Greater Lowell Community Foundation gathered people to promote its message and distribute essential grants.

On Thursday, two performances of the Lincoln-Douglas debates play, “The Rivalry,” drew nearly 800 people to the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center (ICC) to hear recreated historical arguments about racial equality, the moral basis of laws, and the limits of government authority. Last night, the University, City, and Commonwealth, in the form of their respective leaders for the arena project, came together to formally transfer the Tsongas Arena from the City to UMass Lowell–completing a trio of major property moves involving the University, including the recently re-opened UMass Lowell Bellegarde Boathouse and UMass Lowell ICC. When Lew Karabatsos described CTI Hero Vassilios “Bill” Giavis as the Claude Monet of Lowell for his lifetime of painting local scenes that have become iconic images because of the power of Bill’s art, I was thinking, “What is the city but the people?”

A view of Lowell by Vassilios “Bill” Giavis (Copyright 2009)

I titled this post “Take a Walk This Weekend” because I walked through the South Common this morning before the gale winds whipped through the city all day. The tree colors were spectacular. Reddish-gold, golden-red, caramel and tan, blends of apricot and mango, deep russet, crayon-yellow, orange flame, light green getting lighter as the chlorophyll recedes, radiant crimson of a small Japanese maple—and the ground was lit from below by layers of yellow leaves bouncing light upward. Through the kitchen window this afternoon I saw masses of leaves washing through the air each time the trees swayed. A few large trees are already bare. The quality of the light is changing as foliage thins out and more light filters through. There won’t be much left on the branches by next weekend, so take time out from the political watch and go outside to look around. This only comes to us for a brief time each fall. Getting outside is a great way to gain perspective. Big pieces of the world around us endure even as the days and years bring constant change. Christian minister John Eliot first trekked to the Merrimack Valley from Boston in 1647, with no idea that in 2009 there would be a church on the rim of the South Common bearing his name, a church where volunteers dish out 120 free meals on days when the soup kitchen inside is open.

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Just a quick note that the Fall 2009 edition of Commonweath - Politics, Ideas & Civic Life in Massachusetts that came in today’s mail is chock-full of great articles, interesting analysis, charts, maps and factual snippets. From “Teachers Aren’t Widgets” to “State of the Unions” - you’ll want to read it from cover to cover.

Of local interest is an item on the RMV with the jump-out note “Lowell Offered a Sweet Deal.” Of course, the deal was the “sweet one” given by the City of Lowell to the RMV - 18 months rent-free at the site of the new home of the Lowell Registry on the first floor of the Edward Early Garage.  The Lowell delegation led by Rep. David Nangle lobbied Registrar Rachel Kaprielian very hard when the Lowell Registry was placed on the closing “hit list.” It was a classic case of  a needed budget cut versus a local need for service  and access. The city was willing to partner with the RMV. Will the newly signed agreement survive the latest fiscal cuts and those yet to come? Stay tuned.

Read Commonwealth on-line at: http://www.massinc.org/index.php?id=27.

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A statement from Congressman Bill Delehunt just posted on Boston.com caught my eye since it was about the Park Service. Apparently in the waning days of the Bush administration, a decision called the “Rightsizing Implementation Plan for the National Park Service’s Northeast Regional Office” would have drastically reorganized operations for servicing the New England region. The plan would have reduced the Boston office staff from 107 to 45 and closed the State Street office. Members of the Massachusetts delegation including Congresswoman Niki Tsongas - contacted newly appointed NPS Director Jonathan B. Jarvis with concerns about the plan and asking suspension of the plan until a full review was done on the cost savings and how the New England region would be served. They were seeking a more open and transparent review and decision-making process.

In announcing that the Boston office would not close, Delehunt stated:

“The federal government’s presence in New England has been reduced significantly during the past eight years, and the recent plan to dismantle the National Park Service Regional office made no sense at all,” Delahunt said in a statement. “The National Parks of New England are important conservation areas and need to be supported by a well staffed and fully functioning regional office.”

Of course, this bodes well for the Lowell National Historical Park as well as the twenty-one other Parks, Recreation Areas and Historic sites in Massachusetts and others throughout New England.

Check out the letter from six members of the Congressional delegation under the banner of Political Intelligence at: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/.

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As is his custom over the last few election cycles, Senator Steven Panagiotakos will host an election returns party at The Blue Shamrock on Market Street in Historic Downtown Lowell. Folks will start gathering at 7pm in anticipation of catching the “real time” results of the Lowell City Council, School Committee and Greater Lowell Tech School Committee races. The Senator has a precinct-by-precinct field operation that reports voting results as soon as they are posted in the local polling locations. The results are phoned-in and posted for all to see and analyze! Lowell and Merrimack Valley radio station WCAP 980AM will be broadcasting live from The Shamrock with the election results as they come in. Expect hosts Sam Poulten and Teddy Panos to be conducting interviews with the seasoned prognosticators, the officials and the candidates.  

There will be free pizza for all and the Senator has generously invited the candidates, their supporters, those who are active in local and regional politics and of course, those political junkies like me - to join him on Tuesday evening for the “returns party.” See you there?

Parking is available in the Leo Roy Garage on Market Street across from The Blue Shamrock.

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Five days to go until the election.  Just a quick scan of today’s paper and mail while awaiting the big newspaper election insert tomorrow and the rumored heavyweight endorsement ads its rumored to contain.  Today’s newspaper had ads by Joe Mendonca, Fred Bahou, Bud Caulfield, Franky Descoteaux, and Ray Weicker, who “brings his military experience and time as a Federal prosecutor to the table to benefit the city.”  A Federal prosecutor on the city council?  The thought of that is enough to give Ray a vote.

The pace of mail delivery picked up, but only a bit.  Joe Mendonca’s postcard mirrored his newspaper ad and contributed some biographical information (including that Joe is a four-year veteran of the US Air Force).  Other oversized postcards came from Dave Conway and George O’Hare.  The final item is an excellent three-fold brochure from Fair Vote Lowell which features “six residents talk[ing] about Democracy, choice voting and a better Lowell.  The six are Kelliann Bazemore of the Friends of Shedd Park, Michael Gallagher of the law firm of Gallagher and Cavanaugh, Andy Jacobson, owner of Bred Awakenings, Nereida Nieves of the Latin American Festival, Sambath Bo, youth media coordinator of LTC, and Liam Skinner, principal of the Daley School.

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I just got back from the UML Inn & Conference Center and tonight’s performance of “The Rivalry”, the play about the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.  The actors, the production, and the venue were all excellent.  These debates occurred in the context of the campaign for US Senator from Illinois, but because they involved two superb debaters arguing about slavery, the forums received nationwide coverage and catapulted Lincoln into the White House just two years later.  This play wisely relied upon the stenographic transcripts of the real debates in lieu of a script.  Because I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking about voter turnout – or the lack thereof – in next Tuesday’s city council election, being reminded of how a political debate in one state once held the entire country spellbound made me wonder “what has changed?” 

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Today’s Lowell Sun has an excellent bit of reporting by Jennifer Myers who examined city voting records for every election since 1995 to determine the candidates’ track record on making it to the polls themselves.  The top scorers were Bill Martin and Armand Mercier who voted in all 30 elections held during that period.  The lowest scores went to James Wojas, who voted in just 7 of the 21 elections for which he was eligible and Curtis Freeman who voted in just 1 of 15.  (I can’t find the story online, so sorry there’s no link).

A couple of points: I call this “excellent reporting” because it took a tremendous amount of work and it’s all fact-based.  I suppose anyone could have done this but the fact is no one else did.  And it’s important information.  If a candidate is asking for your vote, it’s nice to know just how much that candidate has valued the act of voting in the past.

(Full disclosure: I think – although I can’t be sure without checking – that I have voted in every election since 1995 but I confess that during the early 1980s while serving in the U.S. Army in West Germany, I missed a couple of elections).

Finally, this gives me another opportunity to share my favorite “why you should vote” story.  In the 1988 Democratic primary for Governor’s Councillor, former Lowell mayor Bob Kennedy challenged incumbent Herb Connolly.  After the election, the recount, and court proceedings that reached the state’s Supreme Judicial Court, Kennedy was declared the winner, 14716 to 14715.  The election was decided by just one vote!  Well, it turns out that neither Mr. Connolly nor his wife had bothered to vote that day – they were just too busy with last minute campaigning.

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The local newspaper endorses ten candidates for nine city council seats.  They are incumbents:

• Kevin Broderick

• Bud Caulfield

• Rodney Elliott

• Bill Martin

• Rita Mercier

• Jim Milinazzo

And challengers

• Ryan Berard
• Franky Descoteaux
• Joe Mendonca
• Ben Opara

Regarding the two incumbents who were not endorsed, the editorial states “In September, The Sun urged Councilor [Alan] Kazanjian, who is running for re-election, to resign to help remove the cloud of suspicion hovering over City Hall – We reiterate that recommendation today.”  The editorial doesn’t offer any explanation for why the only other incumbent running for re-election – Armand Mercier – was not endorsed.

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More than 400 people crowded into the Lowell High School auditorium last night for a timely, informative and emotional forum on the dangers of prescription drug abuse.  The audience of students, parents and educators sat riveted as Brian Sullivan, a local attorney, told the story of his son Colm, a 2008 graduate of Lowell High who passed away last month when he lost his battle with chemical dependency.  Brian explained that his son tried to fight the addiction, attending rehab and vowing to “never take another pill again”, but the addiction drew him back in and “he ran out of time – he went to sleep on the couch next to me and he never woke up.”

Brian, who said that he had decided to speak at the event to try to spare other families of the pain that his has endured, grabbed the attention of the audience in a way that no one else could.  With everyone’s eyes and ears opened to the reality of this threat, audience members next heard from Joanne Peterson, the founder of Learn to Cope (www.learn2cope.org), a support and advocacy group for family members of those addicted to opiates and other drugs.  Ms. Peterson’s own son, a star high school athlete, got hooked on opiates when someone gave him an Oxycontin during his senior year.  He’s been an addict ever since and, although he’s in recovery now, he’ll spend the rest of his life with this sickness inside him ready to explode again at the slightest provocation (a relapse six months ago was triggered when he decided he could handle “just one beer”).

Ms. Peterson shared these facts with us:  Kids are less alert to the risks of prescription drugs since “the drugs were prescribed by a doctor, so they must be safe.”  Addiction is a “full-time job” so life becomes consumed by getting drugs and getting the money to buy the drugs.  Because heroin is so much cheaper, a prescription drug addiction almost inevitably leads to that.  It takes more than a year for the brain’s receptors to heal from opiate drug abuse, so the few days of rehab offered by most insurance plans aren’t particularly helpful.  In fact, short stints of rehab put the addict at greater risk because after a few days away from the drug, the body is much more vulnerable to the opiate’s effects and that first post-rehab high in many cases is fatal.  

The next speaker was Dr. Peter Connolly, the Medical Director of the Lowell Health Department.  Dr. Connolly said that the most dangerous weapon in the room was his pen, because he had the authority to write prescriptions for very dangerous drugs that could easily be abused by the patient or, more likely, young people in the patient’s family.  He explained that Oxycontin was developed as a pain reliever for cancer patients.  As produced, the drug is encapsulated in a time release coating that spreads the dosage out through the day.  When young people take this drug, they crush it, destroying the time-release property and creating an incredibly powerful and dangerous one-time dosage of the drug.  Dr. Connolly said that 70% of prescription drugs illicitly taken by kids are just handed to them by friends or are surreptitiously taken from the medicine cabinets of family members.  In closing Dr. Connolly advised adults to (1) not have prescription drugs in your house; (2) if you have to have them, know how many you have and keep track of them; and (3) get rid of them when you no longer need them – don’t keep them around “just in case.”

Other speakers included Middlesex County District Attorney Gerry Leone, Lowell Police Superintendent Ken Lavallee, and Lowell High Headmaster Bill Samaras who spoke of the reality of this threat to the young people of our community and of the steps law enforcement and educators are taking not only to enforce the law, but also to provide meaningful assistance to those in need of it.  Finally, State Representative Tom Golden, who served as Master of Ceremonies of the event, again demonstrated his compassion to those in need and his incredible leadership on this very important issue.

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The US mail finally joined the campaign with three pieces.  Kevin Broderick mailed the same flyer that was delivered to our door by a campaign volunteer this past Sunday.  Kevin’s piece is partly biographical and partly issue-related.  This sentence introduces a theme that’s fully developed throughout the piece: “I am most proud of my role in establishing and supporting professional city management.”

Bill Martin has a piece that focuses on economic development by highlighting the many new businesses that have opened in Lowell during the last two years.  The lines that jump out at the reader are “Bill Martin understands that economic development projects are crucial to Lowell’s continued revitalization and success” and “Bill understands the need to press ahead and lay the groundwork for future economic development even in the midst of the current economic downturn; as the economy recovers Lowell can emerge stronger than ever as long as we continue to plan for the future.”

Fair Vote Lowell targets women voters with a piece that states “It’s time for a greater voice for women on Lowell City Council” noting that even though women make up over half of the Lowell electorate, only one of the nine current city councilors is female.  “Vote YES on Question 1” is effectively repeated on both sides of the piece.

As for newspaper ads, Fred Doyle has the most noteworthy with his endorsement by State Senator Steve Panagiotakos ad which is shown above.  George O’Hare, running for re-election to Greater Lowell Technical School Committee, has an ad (shown below) highlighting academic excellence, community outreach and fiscal responsibility.  Financial responsibility is the theme of a Rodney Elliott ad which states “You can always count on Rodney Elliott to vote independently and with the Taxpayers.”  Armand Mercier has an ad featuring a statesman-like photo of him in front of the Mayor’s chair in the council chamber, the headline “A Steady Course” and text such as “At a time like this, isn’t it good to have a City Councilor with the common sense and experience to keep our city on a steady, positive course.”  Fred Bahou repeats his “Why Bahou?” ad that we featured in yesterday’s post and Bud Caulfield again runs his small visibility ad.

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