PAYING
ATTENTION!
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Israel
Reyes Talks of Integrity
While
Misleading the Public and Launching Personal Attacks
Don’t
Let him Get Away With it!
published
in Rumbo 11/01/00
Election day is but a few days away and the people of
Lawrence and Methuen are being asked to choose who will
represent them in the state house. First term
Representative Jose Santiago, a Democrat, is being
challenged by Republican Israel Reyes. There is a lot of
rhetoric in this campaign. There is no question that it
has become very personal. Personal, because Israel Reyes
is not running to do something, he is running to be
someone. Almost everything he says can be disproven with
documentation and facts that would leave anyone else
shamed into dropping out. But not Mr. Reyes. His
political machine consists of support from the Eagle
Tribune, Mayor Dowling, Barry Finegold, Governor
Cellucci, and a host of political insiders. Yet he
campaigns saying you need a fresh new face in the state
house.
Sure he has his good points. He says he vehemently
supports doing away with bilingual education and opposes
Jajuga’s newest proposal to outlaw cell phone use
while driving. But the real question is can you believe
him? He opened the WCCM Hot line debate saying that he
wouldn’t engage in personal attacks and that his
campaign is about integrity and character. But, half way
through the debate, he had his campaign manager Tommy
Sullivan (who no longer lives in Lawrence) call the show
and accuse Representative Santiago of not paying child
support for his children. He attacked Santiago saying he
was on disability from the Methuen police department when
in fact he is on leave of absence.
What’s worse, Mr. Sullivan, brother of former Mayor
Kevin Sullivan, who is financing the Reyes campaign, was
a coward by gutlessly remaining anonymous while hurling
personal attack after personal attack against Santiago.
Yet never identifying himself as the Reyes campaign
manager.
It is this kind of personal attack and gutless political
tactic that has kept the City of Lawrence on welfare in
the greatest economy in American history. Mr. Reyes ought
to be ashamed of himself for not having the guts to make
these personal attacks on Santiago himself if he thought
it was important enough to bring into the debate.
Instead, he hid behind the anonymous voice of his manager
letting someone else do his dirty work.
Santiago did clear the record saying that if he had
failed to pay child support he would have been put in
jail, because that’s the law. But he shouldn’t
have to defend himself against a coward who hides behind
anonymity and slings mud to achieve support for his
opponent. Tommy Sullivan doesn’t live in the 16th
Essex district and neither does his brother Kevin who
abandoned this city after putting us in virtual
bankruptcy eight years ago. It is part and parcel of the
lies and dirty tricks that keep Lawrence from succeeding
year after year.
Reyes has mislead the public on so many issues that it
would be impossible to list them all and clear the record
on each one. But his stand on abortion and in, particular
partial birth abortion is the greatest example of his
willingness to lie to the public. On WCCM’s Hot Line
Program with Ronnie Ford, Reyes said that he favored
partial birth abortion as "the right of a woman to
do what she wants with her own body." It is the very
same language used by his best friend and mentor State
Representative, Barry Finegold (D) Andover. Within a
week, however, Reyes revised his position on partial
birth abortion when the brothers at Central Catholic
(where he attended high school) expressed outrage about
his position.
One week later Israel appeared on WCCM once again saying
"I support a woman’s right to choose but maybe
I was a little hasty in saying I support partial birth
abortion. According to our sources at the Eagle Tribune,
Reyes is expected to change his position yet again this
weekend to declare full support of the pro life position
with only days before election day.
It is clear to anyone unfortunate enough to listen to
Israel Reyes that he means nothing he says. He has ducked
question after question about major issues like the death
penalty and the right of felons to vote in jail. He
strong armed absentee voters by appearing at their homes
to ‘help’ them to vote. He had his mother file
a false police report claiming Rep. Santiago assaulted
her at the Italian Festival last September. (The Lawrence
Police said the report was false.) Reyes has proven with
his abhorrent behavior that he is incapable of playing
fair or telling the truth.
What do think he will do on important issues like
abortion if he wins and represents us at the State House?
Will he change his position yet again? What’s really
sad (for Israel anyway) is that he really could have won
this race if he just believed in something. If he
believed in anything at all and told people what those
beliefs were, maybe even have the integrity to take an
unpopular stand on issues, people would have respected
him for it even if they disagreed. And he may have a
chance to win on Tuesday.
But it’s up to you the voters. You can let him get
away with it and suffer the consequences or you can
defeat a man who supports partial birth abortion and lies
to your face about it.
Send a message to Israel Reyes and all his buddies on the
inside that Lawrence is not going to tolerate the
politics of dishonesty, division and hatred any longer. A
wise man once said you should only trust a person’s
behavior. And in this race, Mr. Reyes’ behavior is
not something to be proud of. Neither are the actions of
his campaign manager Tommy Sullivan. Lawrence can surely
do better. And you have an obligation to be sure that it
does.
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