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Barbar L'Italien's Hissy Fit

How much does State Representative Barbara L'Italien love The Valley Patriot? First, L'Italien called all her supporters last month sobbing over a front page story we ran about her race, crying about how "unfair" it was (for the record, L'Italien refuses to return phone calls from us). Then she appeared at a local newspaper interview (not us) clutching a copy of the "Patriot"  and whining about our coverage (again, despite the fact that she refuses to return our calls).   But last week, L'Italien publicly threw a hissy fit at an event for Bill Manzi's 2005 mayoral campaign. Seeing a Valley Patriot photographer trying to take her picture, she immediately lashed out, screaming that she didn't want her picture taken. "NO!" she yelled. "You want a picture so you can use it in a Republican smear flier; I know why you want my picture," she continued yelling as we snapped the above picture. Apparently someone in the GOP took one of our pictures off line and used it in an "issue" ad that criticized L'Italien's tax-and-spend record, giving her the impression that it must be some right wing conspiracy. After she finished her temper tantrum (embarrassing her "friends" on the Methuen City Council), several councilors apologized to us for her behavior.  

Trib's Pathetic Endorsements

The only thing more pathetic than Senator John Kerry's failed presidential bid was the Eagle-Tribune's last minute endorsement of "all incumbents" in local races. For the past year, the daily paper spent gallons of ink whaling about issues and castigating members of the legislature for not allowing the public to vote on gay marriage and refusing to roll back the income tax rate to 5%.  

Yet, in the end, despite their hand wringing and complaining about our incumbent Massachusetts Legislators, the editors at the Eagle-Tribune gave them all a free pass with a resounding endorsement to continue to ignore the will of the people. The endorsements showed the Tribune's hypocrisy in endorsing a State Representative like Brad Jones (R) Reading, who is a fiscal & social conservative and supported the will of the voters, and also endorsing incumbents like Barbara L'Italien (D) Andover, and David Torissi (D) N. Andover, who thwarted the will of the people by refusing to put gay marriage on the ballot and refused to roll back the income tax rate to 5%. How can anyone take them seriously from this point forward when they editorialize on an issue or complain about elected officials not being held accountable? The fact is, it is the responsibility of newspapers like the Eagle-Tribune to hold our public officials accountable and they clearly failed at that task miserably.  

And then there is the N.A. Citizen

Kudos to the North Andover Citizen for publishing the most comprehensive election coverage in the area and doing so without editorializing in the body of their newspaper. The Citizen not only covered the candidates and the issues  in depth, but, unlike the Trib, they give credit where was due. Last month the Valley Patriot published an exclusive editorial about the Senior Centers in Andover and North Andover not allowing candidates to campaign in their public facilities. While the Tribune took our editorial and rewrote it as their own editorial, the North Andover Citizen noted in their editorial that it was The Valley Patriot which first brought the issue to light.  

The Lawrence Democrats
The old joke about Lawrence voters goes like this; if Hitler came back from the dead and ran as a Democrat against Jesus Christ  as a Republican, Hitler would win!  

The fact is, voters in the City of Lawrence vote party above all else. Despite moral issues that most Lawrencians claim are important them (especially among the elderly and Latino voters) no Democrat can ever beat a Republican in a partisan election. As we predicted last month, incumbent Sheriff Frank Cousins (who is a Republican) lost only one city in all of Essex County to Democrat Bill Murley, Lawrence.   The only exception? There isn't any. State Representative Willie Lantigua secured his reelection against former State Representative Jose Santiago, but Lantigua ran as a registered Independent, calling himself "an independent Democrat" while Jose Santiago couldn't quite capitalize on his party affiliation.  

Rest assured, if Lantigua had run as a Republican, with the very same platform and issues, he would have been overwhelmingly defeated by the anti-Republican voters in the city. This, despite the fact that most Latinos consider themselves pro-life and are adamantly against gay marriage.
Go figure!

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