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Tom Duggan's Notebook
09/04/06
Don Stewart on the Rebound
Former North Andover Selectman Don Stewart may have been
defeated last March after 18 years on the board, but
Stewart is already rebounding back onto the  political scene. Stewart is
expecting to announce his candidacy for School Committee
on Friday, September 22nd, at the Stevens Estate.
Invitations for the event say that it is an appreciation
party for Stewart’s years of public service, but
insiders say Stewart will announce that evening that he
will run for the seat being vacated by embattled School
Committee Chairman Al Perry.
Perry, who advocated a trash fee scheme to pay for
additional school funding, has also been one of the most
outspoken proponents for Proposition 2 1/2 overrides for
the schools in past years. Stewart, on the other hand,
has been an opponent of overrides and opposed the trash
fees.
Look for the TUFF group and the so-called “school
advocates” to freak out beyond rational thought (not
too uncommon with that group). It will be fun to watch
them scramble for a candidate with good name recognition
and high positives to oppose Stewart. Could TUFF’s
perennial candidate Diane Huster be pressed into service
once again? Probably not - she doesn’t meet the
second requirement.
This campaign is sure to get ugly right out of the gate
... and the election isn’t until next March! For
updates, visit The Valley Patriot Web site (www.valleypatriot.com), and to express your
opinion, visit the new North Andover Bulletin Board at www.northandover.org.
Blanchette’s Cell Phone: Do As
I Say, Not As I Do
 Lawrence City Council President
Patrick Blanchette has been so up tight lately that he
has started to come unraveled at public meetings.
Blanchette has been heard on numerous occasions taking
cheap shots at members of the audience during meetings
and always finds a way to work in petty personal comments
while everyone else is trying to do city business.
Blanchette, who has a large sign warning people to turn
off cell phones and pagers during meetings, is
routinely seen checking his own pager and cell phone,
reading and sending text messages during meetings,
sometimes while in the middle of a presentation. Knowing
Patrick would deny this if I tried to call him on it (not
exactly the most honest politician on the council), I
sent him a text message during last month’s housing
meeting to see if he would interrupt a council meeting
yet again for his personal business.
Lo and behold! Blanchette, in the middle of making a
speech, stopped, excused himself, looked down at his cell
phone and without realizing how dumb he would sound,
announced to the world, “Tommy Duggan is text
messaging me - sorry Tommy, I have to shut you off.”
Funny thing is, his phone was already supposed to be off.
I guess Blanchette’s rules apply to everyone else
but him.
Speaking of Blanchette: Favors for
Blanchette?
Council President Blanchette has applied for two separate
positions with the city of Lawrence Workforce Investment
Board. Blanchette applied for adult workforce development
manager and youth development manager. But when the
Workforce Board submitted a list of candidate finalists
for each position, Blanchette’s name was not on it.
After Blanchette went storming into the mayor’s
office to find out why his name was not floated to the
top of the list (He IS, after all, the council president
who is holding up the mayor’s budget.), Blanchette’s
name was miraculously reinserted on the list of finalists
for one of those positions. Since then, Blanchette
has been harassing Mayor Sullivan and his
ad-ministration, interfering with personnel mat-ters,
bullying department heads (demanding firings) and
violating the separation of powers spelled out in the
city charter.
Speaking of Petty... I Mean
Perry....
North Andover School Committee Chairman Al Perry recently
told us at The Valley Patriot that he is refusing to call
fellow board member Dr. Charles Ormsby  “doctor” any more. Perry
says that Ormsby doesn’t have a doctorate in
education and using the title before Ormsby’s name
gives educators the wrong impression. “It’s
really kind of misleading,” Perry said. The outgoing
School Committee chairman has spent a great deal of time
calling Ormsby names lately, trying the best he can to
damage his adversary in his final months in office. For
his part, Ormsby said, “If I had a doctorate in
education, I wouldn’t use Doctor in front of my name
because I would be embarrassed and ashamed. A doctorate
in education is meaningless. I would be insulted if
people thought I had a doctorate in education.”
Looks like Dr. Chuck won’t be losing any sleep over
Perry’s pettiness, but it does show how juvenile Mr.
Perry (who has no doctorate in anything) has become since
Dr. Chuck refused to lie to the taxpayers and opposed
Perry’s fantasy that 28 teachers would be laid off
if the town didn’t pass a trash fee. For the record,
the town voters opposed those fees and 28 teachers have
not been laid off.
No, No, Don’t Take My Picture!
 Methuen Mayor Billy Manzi,
never one to shy away from a camera for any reason,
avoided our photographer recently at Bob Andrew’s
fundraiser for state representative while Lt. Governor
Kerry Healey and Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins were
endorsing the Methuen Republican. Manzi, known to be
hostile towards Republicans, said, “I’m not
here as a supporter, I said at the beginning of this
campaign that I was going to attend everyone’s
fundraiser, but I’m not taking sides. I have
attended everyone else’s event and it is only right
that I come to Bob’s.” Manzi did pose for one
picture with Andrew (page 16), but begged us not to
publish it. Insiders on the Manzi bandwagon say that
Manzi is supporting Linda Dean Campbell. Manzi, however,
denies this despite the fact that his own consultant has
been conducting phone polls for the former councilor.
So, Does the Trib Have a Desk in
the Chief’s Office?
Lawrence Police Chief John Romero may not return phone
calls from The Valley Patriot, but when it comes to
sucking up to the Eagle~Tribune Romero has brought brown
nosing to a new height ... even higher than Methuen Mayor
Billy Manzi! Reporters for the Trib are seen coming and
going from the chief’s Lowell St. office so often
these days that some people are starting to wonder if the
Trib actually has a bureau desk in the chief’s
office.
Merrimack Valley Credit Union
Solicits in City Hall
The Lawrence Firefighters Federal Credit Union is the
official credit union for all city employees in Lawrence.
Yet, somehow The Merrimack Valley Credit Union has
managed to reserve City Council Chambers at City Hall to
hold an event (during business hours) for the purpose of
soliciting new memberships. I was always under the
impression that soliciting in City Hall was illegal, and
I’ve always been under the impression that City
Council chambers were for city business only, not for a
private business to peddle its services. Not only is this
a slap in the face to the Lawrence Firefighters Federal
Credit Union, but to the taxpayers of the city of
Lawrence who expect that City Hall will not be used for
pimping private businesses.
Correction...Kind of
Last month we ran a point - counter point feature with
Dracut School Committeeman D.J. Deeb opposing Israel and
Richard Landes supporting Israel. Mr. Deeb took exception
to us referring to his position as “D.J. Deeb
Defends Terror Group Hamas.” Mr. Landes also took
exception to our titling his column as “Local Social
Studies Teacher has Anti-Semitic World View.”
As is the practice in most newspaper editorial rooms, it
is the privilege of the editors to write the headlines
and titles for columns and features.
While Mr. Landes did not write the title above his
column, he did spell out in very clear terms that he
believed Deeb was anti-Semitic without using that exact
term. We at The Valley Patriot believe in calling things
the way they are and not caving in to political
correctness by shying away from controversial language or
descriptive words that apply.
While we do not feel Mr. Deeb is overtly anti-Semitic, we
believe that encapsulating Mr. Landes’ column with
the headline “Local Social Studies Teacher has
Anti-Semitic World View” accurately represented what
he wrote. As for our assertion that Mr. Deeb was “pro
Hamas,” he certainly used the same arguments and
talking points of the terror group in his column.
However, I want to apologize to Mr. Deeb for
characterizing his position as “pro Hamas,”
since he has never publicly supported the terror group
and has some differences with its position when it comes
to Israel.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The September, 2006
Edition of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2006, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 9,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
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