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October 15, 2007

Tsongas has money, solid lead, but still ...

A Sun staff report

TWO DAYS from now, 5th District voters will have chosen their next congressperson.

According to a WBZ poll, Democrat Niki Tsongas headed into this weekend with a nine-point lead, roughly the same advantage she held a month ago over Republican Jim Ogonowski.

This comes after Tsongas outspent Ogonowski by more than 3 to 1 -- shelling out $1 million-plus to less than $300,000 for Ogonowski. She has brought in former President Bill Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Edward Kennedy to energize her Democratic base.

Add to that support from outside groups like Emily's List, the Service Employees International Union and the state Democratic Party, which have pumped in hundreds of thousands of dollars to advertise on TV, radio and in the mail for Tsongas.

Yet, Ogonowski's still within striking distance.

The Dracut farmer and retired military officer has to be feeling good today about hanging close to Tsongas, despite negligible support from the state or national Republican Party in areas where he needs it most -- money and advertising.
In the case of an upset Tuesday, Tsongas will undoubtedly be shaking her head wondering how it all went wrong.

OGONOWSKI HAS refused to answer a basic question: If elected, will you vote to sustain the president's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program?

If he was looking to change the subject, Ogonowski was handed that opportunity on a silver platter by former U.S. Rep. Chester Atkins.

Atkins stuck his foot in his mouth Thursday when he told an Associated Press reporter that Ogonowski's anti-illegal immigrant rhetoric borders on "racism."

Atkins backs Tsongas. He evoked the memory of Ogonowski's late brother, John Ogonowski, who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying Jim Ogonowski was tarnishing his brother's legacy. John Ogonowski opened his Dracut farm to Cambodian immigrant farmers, a legacy Jim has continued.

Ogonowski called a press conference on Friday where, flanked by his family, he called Atkins comments "dirty" and "sleazy," representing politics in "its worst form."

Tsongas immediately distanced herself from Atkins. She telephoned Ogonowski and John Ogonowski's widow, Peg Ogonowski, to say that Atkins does not speak for her campaign, and that she strongly disagrees with his sentiments.

Ogonowski smartly used the episode to his advantage. He said the attacks on him and his family speak volumes about how desperate the Democrats are to keep the 5th District seat.

WHAT EXACTLY are we seeing in Ogonowski's latest ad, which shows the fleeting glimpse of a plane poised to strike a World Trade Center tower?

Peg Ogonowski opens the ad by saying, "John was a pilot just doing his job that day."

Then we see a commercial airline seconds away from striking the building. Solemn music is playing.

The Wall Street Journal, on its political blog, described the Ogonowski image as "a picture of his brother John's Boeing 767 being flown into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001."

The plane is actually United Flight 175, the second aircraft to strike the second tower.

"Both planes are depicted in that video," Ogonowski spokeswoman Alicia Preston said. "One is shown by the smoke that has already crashed into the building; that is where Jim's brother John was."

IT'S NO secret state Treasurer Tim Cahill is an ambitious guy.

But Cahill revealed just how far he is willing to go to succeed -- and kowtow to legislative leaders -- when he admitted he was evasive with a Sun reporter last week.

Immediately following a public meeting of the state Lottery Commission, in which votes were taken on lottery-game issues, Cahill told a Sun reporter he hadn't been briefed on changes to the Daily Game, a Keno-style racing game.

In reality, Cahill had just voted to sell the game at an additional 1,300 locations. He also voted to change the figures used in the game from racing cars to horses.

The reason he kept mum?

Cahill wanted to make sure Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Sal DiMasi knew about the changes first. Seems Cahill faced a huge legislative backlash the first time he moved ahead with the Daily Race in 2005 because he surprised lawmakers.

When asked why he told a reporter a mistruth, Cahill said: "I need to be successful, and one way I need to do that is by making sure I don't surprise people, and if that means I have to keep other people in the dark, then that's what I have to do."

After all, what's a little fib when it comes to Tim for Treasurer's political ambitions?

LAST WEEK the Lowell Plan, the business development group composed of many of the city's most powerful and influential businessmen, and state Sen. Steven Panagiotakos, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means and Committee, went public with their support for Lowell High School Headmaster William Samaras in his battle with Superintendent of Schools Karla Brooks Baehr.

Now Paul Georges, president of the United Teachers of Lowell, is stepping up for Samaras, who wants to work one additional year, beyond the current school year. His request, however, has been rejected by Baehr.

Georges, a Lowell High history teacher, said Samaras is well-respected by UTL rank-and-file members at the school.

"How he manages to hold that school together on some days is truly an achievement," said Georges, who isn't one to back away from leveling criticism if he feels it's warranted. "Certainly, in my opinion, he does more than an adequate job."

Despite the outpouring of support for Samaras, Baehr is sticking to her guns and still hasn't made a public statement explaining why she's opposed to Samaras working an additional year.

TYPICALLY, WHEN a city employee union endorses council candidates, the union seeks publicity for its nod and for the recipients.

But it seemingly took a crowbar to get Keith Rudy, president of Local 1705 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, just to admit the union had made its endorsements for the November city election.

Still, Rudy, a city painter, wouldn't divulge by name the beneficiaries of 1705's political clout, or lack thereof.

The Column, however, has learned that the local is backing incumbents Edward "Bud" Caulfield, Rita Mercier and Armand Mercier and challengers Alan Kazanjian, Mike Lenzi and Bob McMahon.

No surprise there. Some workers at City Hall are still bemoaning the loss of John Cox, the former city manager. Especially Rudy.

Rudy was also one of the union chiefs going around the city claiming that Cox's replacement, Bernie Lynch, was going to raise health premiums on city retirees, which isn't true.

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but the six 1,705 candidates are the same six that have lawn signs on the front lawn of Cox's home in Belvidere, along with a sign for Niki Tsongas.

ON HER daily walks with friends throughout the city's voter-rich Belvidere section, Nancy Donahue has noticed that candidates Lenzi, Kazanjian and McMahon appear to be clumping their lawn signs in strategic groups of three.

Count Donahue among the set that doesn't buy the candidates' explanation that their campaigns are based on "giving back" to the city as well as economic development and public safety.

Donahue believes it's more than a coincidence the signs are appearing in threes.

Not true, said Kazanjian. "I'm running my own campaign." In a meeting with Sun editors, Kazanjian added: "I have no agenda. I'm not a vindictive person."

But, as Donahue points out, there are connections among the three. For instance:

* Kazanjian owns the SAC Club on Market Street, and that's where McMahon tends bar and manages the upstairs apartments.

* Kazanjian has many campaign volunteers, but one who is ubiquitous is Bill Moriarty, the patriarch of the well-known Moriarty clan. Moriarty's son, John Moriarty, is managing Lenzi's council campaign.

THE MOTION seemed innocent enough.

The answer could prove a bit uncomfortable for some councilors.

Armand Mercier last week asked for the city Division of Planning and Development to provide a "progress report" on urban-renewal efforts in Lowell's downtrodden but improving Acre neighborhood.

During last week's meeting, he said he was specifically interested in why a business he didn't name had moved out of the neighborhood and the city.

That business, Mercier said later last week, is Soucy Ironworks. The firm is moving across the border to Pelham, N.H.

Mercier said he was wondering how DPD let the company get away at around the same time it was advocating for the Planning Board to allow the expansion of a nearby homeless-services agency.

The truth of the matter is that DPD officials had brokered a compromise with company owner Will Soucy that would have seen Soucy redevelop his firm's current Mt. Vernon Street site with up to 30 units of housing, with the city paying for the ironworks' relocation to a spot a few blocks away on Western Avenue.

Local radio lambasted that plan as being too generous to Soucy.

It failed on a 5-3 vote with Councilors Caulfield, Rodney Elliott and Rita Mercier opposed. The measure needed six votes to pass. Mayor Bill Martin, an attorney, abstained because he's Soucy's lawyer.

That particular meeting was also marked by some rather harsh questioning of Soucy by Caulfield.

Councilors subsequently voted to take Soucy's land by eminent domain instead of allowing him to redevelop it.

Anne Barton, a deputy DPD director, said after the brokered compromise fell through, Soucy opted to take his business and his more than 100 employees to Pelham instead of the Western Avenue site.

Soucy could not be reached for comment on just why. With the pounding he took over the relocation proposal, perhaps his decision should have come as no surprise.

"We looked for years," Barton said. "The Western Ave. site was perfect. The whole thing was perfect, kept him in the neighborhood, kept him in the city."

The city now is paying for Soucy Industries' relocation costs to the tune of more than $1.5 million, as required by state and federal laws for any eminent-domain taking, Barton said.

Meanwhile, Soucy hasn't completely cut ties with Lowell. He still lives here and is developing the Tremont Yards site on Father Morissette Boulevard into an office building.

MEHMED ALI may be considered the honorary Cambodian candidate in the Nov. 6 city election, but he's not alone in drawing support from Cambodian community leaders.

Vesna Nuon, a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals and a three-time unsuccessful School Committee candidate, confirms he's backing Ali, but that support isn't exclusive. Nuon said he's also helping former ZBA Chairman Alan Kazanjian as well as several other candidates he wouldn't name.

Meanwhile, former Councilor Rithy Uong -- the only Cambodian-American to ever hold elected office in Lowell and one of Cox's most loyal supporters -- said he's supporting Kazanjian, Lenzi, McMahon, Caulfield and the Merciers as well as Ali.

Uong said he also is supporting "quite a few more" other candidates, but he didn't wish to name them.

"I don't want to upset too many people," he said.

Rady Mom, who ran unsuccessfully for council in 2005, said he isn't working for anyone in this year's race.

MUFFINS WITH Mehmed.

That's how Ali is billing his campaign event this afternoon at the Brew'd Awakening coffee shop on Market Street. As the only Muslim candidate running for office in Lowell at a particularly delicate time, Ali -- who changed his name from Jim Bernard and converted to Islam as a young man -- has a long row to hoe.

He's been making up for that with an inventive and hardworking campaign that also has featured tiny boxing-glove key chains in a humorous nod to legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.

Kazanjian is the only other challenger who seems to be working as hard.

HOMEGROWN PRODUCT W. Spencer Mullin is among the four finalists for the job of school superintendent in Dracut. He is the only finalist who is not a superintendent of schools or has served as one.

Two members of the committee, Dennis "D.J." Deeb and Nancy Mendonca, had Mullin as an English teacher when they attended school in Dracut. By the time Ron Mercier Jr. was in high school, Mullin was vice principal.

Mullin was raised and educated in Dracut. He was the vice principal at Dracut High School when Elaine Espindle came on as superintendent in 1997. He then took over as principal at the junior high school. Mullin left Dracut in 2000 and has been the principal at schools in Haverhill and Woburn.

Although he has never held the position of superintendent, he does own a doctorate, something the School Committee said they wanted to see when the search began. Eyebrows were raised when his name was announced.

CHELMSFORD TOWN Manager Paul Cohen says keep the change, because rumors that town officials are planning to blanket Chelmsford Center and Vinal Square with parking meters are "not true."

But the idea sparked pages of commentary on www.chelmweb.com -- and a few doctored photos including a toll both in Chelmsford Center manned by Selectmen Bill Dalton and Sam Chase, as well as Cohen.

"It's nonsense," said Cohen. "I'm not considering it. I have not considered it, and it's certainly not on the horizon."

Cohen said the rumor might have stemmed from a report previously submitted by the town Revenue Enhancement Committee. Once a year, the committee brainstorms ways to put more cash in town coffers. Parking meters was an item on the punch list, Cohen said. But it never floated.

A collage of snapshots on the Web site depicts different scenes in town with meters doctored in front. Then there's the toll-booth photo.

"If somebody says 'I heard a rumor,' why don't they pick up the phone, call Town Hall, and just ask if it's true?" wonders Chase. "Most of the stuff on (Chelmweb) is inaccurate, people's rantings and ravings. But I thought the picture was very funny and give the person who did it credit for their creativity."

TEWKSBURY'S THREE Board of Selectman candidates engaged in a civil forum Thursday night on NewsTalk Live with Sun editor Jim Campanini. Ed Dick, Doug Sears and Ron Hall shared ideas as they contend for the seat vacated by former Selectman John Mackey.

The only animated moments of the hourlong show came when Selectman Jerry Selissen called in to ask candidates to state their No. 1 goals if elected. Sears jumped at the thought, saying he would be opposed to "serial overrides" and would cut government spending to the bone before he'd raise taxes a single penny. Hall shook his head as Sears delivered his slash-and-burn policy, later saying that a lot of budget work and prioritizing must come first. Dick said that he'd hate to raise taxes, but acknowledged it might be impossible in Tewksbury's present fiscal condition, where a $3 million deficit is forecast.

All seven Lowell School Committee candidates will debate the issues this Thursday night on NewsTalk Live. The show begins at 7 p.m. Callers can ask questions or simply listen to the responses by dialing (978) 364-8255.

This week's Column was written by City Editor Christopher Scott, City Hall reporter Michael Lafleur, Statehouse Bureau Chief Hillary Chabot, Statehouse reporter Matt Murphy, Dracut reporter Dennis Shaughnessey, Chelmsford reporter Rita Savard and Editor Jim Campanini.

Posted by Admin at October 15, 2007 3:37 PM