Giorgio: Winners and Losers in City Politics in 2015

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Paul Giorgio, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Biggest loser:
The biggest loser in this past November’s city election was the truth. The blogosphere was filled with stories of break ins and shootings. All of this created fear where non needed to exist and all for short term political gain.

The truth, according to the Worcester Police Department crime stats released two weeks ago was that B&Es were actually down 20% this year. The four-year figure is even more astounding. Break-ins were down 37 percent. We had 6 murders this year compared with 5 in 2014. However, murders have been trending down. We had 9 in 2012. So truth was a loser.

Biggest winner:

Mayor Joe Petty sailed to an easy victory beating Mike Gaffney by 12 points in the mayor’s race. This is considered a virtual landslide by many. Petty won every ward in the city.

If Petty was the big winner, that makes Mike Gaffney the big loser. Gaffney spent $65,000 with $45,000 out of his own pocket to get drubbed. It cost him over $8 per vote. He did finish second in the council race, beating Kate Toomey, by a mere 300 votes. She only spent $10,000.

He does, however, get to be vice chair of the city council.

But then again as John Nance Garner, Franklin Roosevelt’s Vice President once said about the Vice Presidency, that it “ Wasn't worth a warm pitcher of piss." I think the same is true of the Vice Chairman’s job.

Council winners and losers:
The big winner in the council race was newcomer Krystian King, who became the first black man to win a council seat since the 1930’s.

King beat former councilor Juan Gomez for the sixth seat by 77 votes.

Gomez filed for a recount but couldn't get the required 100 signatures out of the almost 100,000 registered voters in Worcester which makes Gomez a big loser.

City Councilor Phil Palmeri was a loser. Palmeri switched from his district seat to running at large but finished 11th in the preliminary, just 5 votes ahead of perennial candidate Bill Coleman, which prompted Palmeri to drop out of the final. This gave Linda Parhan, an opportunity.

City Councilor Rick Rushton is a winner, because he dropped out of the race to spend more time with his son, who has special needs. So I guess parenting wins here also.

The school committee race also had winners and losers:

Donna Colorio the TEA party candidate won back her seat after losing it 2 years ago. Newcomer Molly McCullough won a seat. They beat incumbents Hilda Ramirez and Tracy Novick, neither of whom spent any money. Ramirez, who had real potential, never lived up to it.

The real winner here was former School Supertendant Melinda Boone who resigned to take a job in Norfolk, Virginia. With Novick and Ramirez gone, Boone most likely would have been fired, so another winner were the taxpayers, who would have had to pay Boones large severance package. She had three years left on her contract.

Ed Augustus is a winner because he still has a mayor he can work with.

Police Chief Gary Gemme is a winner.

He found the fact that the police union did not endorse Joe Petty for mayor disturbing and told the press his opinion. Gemme maintained that crime was down and that Petty had always been a strong supporter of the WRD.

The Republican Party was a looser.

They felt that if Mike Gaffney, a supporter of both the Republican and TEA Party, won, they could then go after Jim McGovern in 2016.

So, Congressman Jim McGovern is a winner too.

And finally, Bill Coleman is once again a loser. This maybe the perennial candidates 10th race and 10th defeat. Time to say goodnight, Bill

Giorgio: Winners and Losers in City Politics in 2015

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