oh, it's on for sure
apologies for being more than a complete week late on this one, but the WTF (or WTFO as cliff at the right side of lowell would say), factor is off the charts on this one.
rita mercier, ex-mayor and presently self-appointed mouthpiece for the gang of six, (KMLEMC--Keep Making Lowell Elections More Competitive--Kanzanjian, Mercier, Lenzi, Elliott, Mercier, Caulfield--remember the names so you can forget them in november), (and, by the way, whose verbal gurgitations could make joe biden blush), has once again spouted off within earshot of the local press, and captured a good 8 or 10 column inches in the week before last week's "the column".
yes, it can now be confirmed that citizens asking for their otherwise legally-granted right to participate in a primary election whenever the number of city council candidates exceeds 19 are now a "special interest".
see, queen rita is "disappointed" that state senator steve pangiotakos is now rethinking his support for a state house measure to waive lowell's primary election requirement yet again. she says he's not "being his own man", and that he's "doing the bidding of a special interest". (that interest would appear to be us, btw). rita's big point? "a majority of the city council made a vote and now he is not going to respect that".
there isn't font large enough to emblazon WHAT THE FUCK all over this one.
steve, last time i checked, represents, among other people, the full citizenry of lowell in the great and general court of the commonwealth of massachusetts, and doesn't, last time i checked, answer to a voting subset of the lowell city council. or at least according to most people who aren't rita mercier.
see, if rita and five of her incumbent friends on the lowell city council want their own private election, custom designed to create the highest possible barrier to challengers, then rita will insist that everyone, including our sitting state senator, get on board with making it happen for her.
WTF
i'm guessing/hoping a civil lawsuit may have grounds if an election is waived, but what do i know.
i do know that the gang of six have to be carefully and diligently watched, or whatever passes for open democracy in this city is not going to be easy to bring back.
rita mercier, ex-mayor and presently self-appointed mouthpiece for the gang of six, (KMLEMC--Keep Making Lowell Elections More Competitive--Kanzanjian, Mercier, Lenzi, Elliott, Mercier, Caulfield--remember the names so you can forget them in november), (and, by the way, whose verbal gurgitations could make joe biden blush), has once again spouted off within earshot of the local press, and captured a good 8 or 10 column inches in the week before last week's "the column".
yes, it can now be confirmed that citizens asking for their otherwise legally-granted right to participate in a primary election whenever the number of city council candidates exceeds 19 are now a "special interest".
see, queen rita is "disappointed" that state senator steve pangiotakos is now rethinking his support for a state house measure to waive lowell's primary election requirement yet again. she says he's not "being his own man", and that he's "doing the bidding of a special interest". (that interest would appear to be us, btw). rita's big point? "a majority of the city council made a vote and now he is not going to respect that".
there isn't font large enough to emblazon WHAT THE FUCK all over this one.
steve, last time i checked, represents, among other people, the full citizenry of lowell in the great and general court of the commonwealth of massachusetts, and doesn't, last time i checked, answer to a voting subset of the lowell city council. or at least according to most people who aren't rita mercier.
see, if rita and five of her incumbent friends on the lowell city council want their own private election, custom designed to create the highest possible barrier to challengers, then rita will insist that everyone, including our sitting state senator, get on board with making it happen for her.
WTF
i'm guessing/hoping a civil lawsuit may have grounds if an election is waived, but what do i know.
i do know that the gang of six have to be carefully and diligently watched, or whatever passes for open democracy in this city is not going to be easy to bring back.
posted by kad barma at 11:40 AM
1 Comments:
Kad,
Great call-out of the egregious use of the term 'special interest,' which in this case seems to mean anyone and everyone who would've cared to see a primary on 29 SEP. Pretty Orwellian indeed to see what is ACTUALLY a special interest (the extremely small # of people who feared/opposed a primary) referring to several thousands-bloc of people as a 'special' interest.
Besides, as Cliff pointed out in a post about the health care debate, everyone is part of some interest group or another, so the term shouldn't just be thrown around as a code word for 'anyone I disagree with.'
best,
gp
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