Intrigue on the Campaign Trail
Oct 24 – As editor of the Cambridge Civic Journal, I occasionally receive mail and phone calls of the “drop a dime” nature informing me of some impropriety or scandal about which the sender feels very strongly or which he or she feels needs to be thrust into the public eye. For example, several election cycles ago there was a minor City Council candidate who had once been arrested for running guns from Georgia to the streets of Boston. I promised to only report on this if the candidate rose to the level of electability (which never happened), so I just let it go. Earlier this year a police report fell into my lap about a former city councillor who had recently been arrested on kidnapping and assault charges. I did (quietly) run that story without much fanfare.
Today I received a mystery in the mail – postmarked in Boston with no return address – containing in ransom letter format the suggestion that the Cambridge Education Association (CEA, i.e. the Cambridge Teachers Union) had violated state election laws in undertaking a large mail drop. The CEA is one of the “allies” of the recently cobbled together “Cambridge Progressive Electoral Collaboration” that consists of barely distinguishable left-wing activist groups such the Cambridge Residents Alliance, Our Revolution Cambridge, the Cambridge chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and several other “progressive” clubs such as the “Solidarity Squad”. I don’t actually know what, if any, laws were violated nor do I know what mail drop is referenced – though I suspect it may be the apparently citywide mailing paid for by the Massachusetts Teachers Association Independent Expenditure PAC funded by the Massachusetts Teachers Association. That mailing explicitly endorsed six Cambridge School Committee candidates – Caitlin Dube, Jess Goetz, Lilly Havstad, Jane Hirschi, Arjun Jaikumar, and Luisa de Paula Santos. The connection here appears to be with the Solidarity Squad group and Missy Page, a member of that group and the same person who unsuccessfully challenged incumbent School Committee member Caroline Hunter’s name being on this year’s School Committee ballot.
If anyone knows more about this, please contact me either by phone (617-661-9230), email, or ransom note.
