Springfield Mayoral Primary 2001

 

In 2001 Springfield State Representative Paul Caron challenged incumbent Springfield Mayor Michael Albano, running on a reform agenda. The Albanoites defeated Caron in both the primary and the general election, dashing all hopes of avoiding the fiscal meltdown that resulted in Springfield being placed under a state control board. I recently came upon my post-primary analysis from the mayoral primary, which gives a pretty good overview of the Springfield political scene in October, 2001.

 

Paul Caron with talkshow host Tony Gill in 2004.

The supporters of the Albano Administration were almost giddy with relief last week as Mayor Mike Albano bested State Representative Paul Caron to win the mayoral primary. The Mayor's victory was by a surprisingly wide nine point margin, sufficient to prevent what Albano's supporters feared would be a post-primary stampede to Caron had Albano come in second.

While they would deny it now, the fact is that before the primary Albano supporters were extremely nervous about how well Albano would do. While Albano's victory hardly assures he will win in November (Springfield politics is full of examples of primary winners who lost in the home stretch) Albano's solid victory ensures that he will at least publicly be able to hold his coalition together until Election Day.

While Caron supporters would deny it, the fact is they had hoped to do much better. Caron himself had said that he needed to finish within ten points of Albano to remain viable, a goal he reached with a point to spare, but many observers felt that a much stronger showing, even an outright victory, was within reach.

The difficulty in predicting the outcome stemmed in part from the fact that there is such an overlap in the Albano and Caron camps. Most Albano supporters were also once fans of Caron, indeed many have relationships with Caron that far predate Albano's mayoralty. They were caught by surprise by Caron's late entry into the race, and are extremely uncomfortable with the rivalry that has developed. 

This is after all not a race against some Republican they could gleefully revile, or a jokey campaign by someone like Brenda Branchini or the Powell's dog that they could just laugh off. This is Paulie, one of the city's most respected Democrats and an ally in many of the political struggles of the past. How many would stay loyal to Albano once they reached the privacy of the voting booth simply could not be predicted.

The results showed that they stayed onboard where it counted, especially in the sections of the city with a high percentage of minority residents. Albano and Caron split the city's eight wards equally with four apiece, which might suggest a closer final tally than actually resulted. What skewered the results so strongly in Albano's favor is that while Caron won solidly in the outer belt precincts, the inner city wards went for Albano by absurdly lopsided margins. For example, in the heavily Hispanic Ward One, Albano romped to a 1,450 to 309 vote blowout over Caron, garnerning a breathtaking 81% of the vote.

Such incredibly high margins almost look suspicious. You many recall that it was in the Hispanic communities that Albano ran up the huge victory margins in 1995 that gave him his citywide win over Charles V. Ryan. It was also in that part of the city that the scandalous lawsuit-marred election for State Rep between Chris Asselin, Nick Fyntrilakis and Righty Keough occurred a few years later. That election degenerated into a farce with allegations of a wide range of voting irregularities that included charges of dead people going to the polls. One couldn't help but wonder whether those irregularities occurred for the very first time ever in that election, or were reflective of voting fraud practices that had gone on for years.

Some critics went so far as to wonder whether Albano had actually won the 1995 election at all. I remember former Mayor Robert Markel stating, "Frankly, I don't trust any returns coming out of the North End or Mason Square." That may have been just a reflection of cynicism and paranoia, neither of which is ever in short supply in Springfield politics. But if I were Caron, I would assign poll watchers to every single precinct in November.

Write On

In 1995 WHYN flooded the Pioneer Valley with these free promotional three sided pens. 

Amherst Stuff

Is this a picture from a local Acid Test? No, just an ad for an Amherst play. 

Amherst writer Mary Carey was in Denver the other day and took this picture of the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining. 

Is that a Safeway there on the left? Who knew safety was so close at hand when they were trying to get away from Jack Nicholson!

Libertarian Ted?

Kennedy's Forgotten Legacy

 



It's seems like it's been all Ted all the time on TV these past days following his death, but is anybody watching? Nielson ratings are in and according to the New York Times ABC's special Remembering Ted Kennedy drew four million viewers. The CBS special The Last Brother earned 4.6 million viewers. However NBC crushed them both with the nearly 11 million viewers it drew to the America's Got Talent reality show, which is more viewers than both Kennedy specials got combined.

Am I being cynical or just realistic when I say that many Democrats secretly hoped that Ted would die next month, when Congress is in session, instead of now, when congress is on vacation and any emotional outpouring is of little use in ramming through the Obamacare plan?

Oh well, at least we're seeing some good Pioneer Valley memorabilia surfacing regarding Kennedy. Amherst writer Mary Carey shares this picture of herself and Kennedy in 2004.

And this picture of her sister-in-law's sister in 1987 at the Holyoke Saint Patrick's Day parade. Waving beside Ted is former Springfield Congressman and local Democrat machine boss Eddie "House Mouse" Boland.

My sister Beverly once waited on Ted Kennedy in 1992 when she was working as a waitress at the Friendly's that used to be located in downtown Springfield across from the courthouse.

 

One day Ted stopped in with then Springfield Mayor Robert Markel. Both men ordered a coffee, a bill which in those days came to only a dollar and a half for both cups. Ted paid with a ten dollar bill, telling my sister to keep the change, resulting in an $8.50 tip on a buck and a half purchase. Hey, say what you will about Teddy - he was a good tipper!

We've heard a lot in the last several days about how Ted Kennedy was the "Liberal Lion" who fought relentlessly for the leftist cause. However, little has been noted about Kennedy's occasional libertarian tendencies. According to Reason Editor Nick Gillespie:

There is, buried deep within Kennedy's legislative legacy, a different set of policies worth exhuming and examining, precisely because they were truly a break with the normal way of doing business in Washington. During the 1970s, Kennedy was instrumental in deregulating the interstate trucking industry and airline ticket prices, two innovations that have vastly improved the quality of life in America even as—or more precisely, because—they pushed power out of D.C. and into the pocketbooks of everyday Americans.

We are incalculably richer and better off because something like actual prices replaced regulatory fiat in trucking and flying. Because they do not fit the Ted Kennedy narrative preferred by his admirers and detractors alike, these accomplishments rarely get mentioned in stories about the late senator. But they are exactly the sort of legislation that we should be celebrating in his honor, and using as a model in today's debates about health care, education, and virtually every aspect of government action."

 

That Ol' River

You just can't beat the gorgeous view of the mighty Connecticut that you get as the river passes through Hadley.

Of course you have to stick to the public paths. 

I'm jealous of the people who have homes right on the river. 

Today's Video

Electric Kool-Aid Obama.