Editor:
I write to respond to a letter claiming one of my mailers was false. First, I have an unblemished record for professional integrity as a lawyer with over 25 years experience and have earned the highest grade for ethics from my peers. I have not lied in any of my mailers or during this campaign. I am running to protect our state courts and values as Trump erodes well-established rights and values at the federal level, among them the attack on truth and facts. I am not interested in running based on falsehoods. I can support each of my statements.
Councilor Devaney has been an impediment to increasing diversity in our courts. I cite a number of examples, including her being the swing vote against a highly qualified African-American attorney with impressive academic and work credentials and her voting against a qualified Hispanic nominee when the Superior Court was without a single Hispanic judge. She was the lone vote against the highly qualified Debra Squires Lee and, in a straw vote, indicated her opposition to Jennifer Roberts who then withdrew her nomination. I would have voted in favor of each of these nominees.
Councilor Devaney has also been an impediment to criminal justice reform. Based on a taped hearing, she recently called for legislators to sign onto a bill to impeach a sitting Superior Court judge that has been initiated and pushed by Rep. Jim Lyons, a Trump Republican. She and these conservative Republicans believe that this judge is ‘soft on crime’ and did not like the sentence he imposed in a recent case. She called for the return of mandatory minimums in this context. She is at odds with her party and even Baker Republicans who recently passed important criminal justice reform legislation that eliminated many mandatory minimums because people agree on a bipartisan basis that they have led to excessive incarceration and that judges need more sentencing discretion.
I have been endorsed by Attorney General Maura Healey and the last 3 Massachusetts Attorneys General, the last four Middlesex County District Attorneys, more than 50 state and local elected officials, the Sierra Club and Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts. The reason I am getting this broad support running against a 20 year incumbent is that people know it’s time for a change.
Nick Carter
Candidate for Governor’s Councilor, District 3
I will vote for an independent person like Devaney instead of a person who will do whatever the progressive platform tells them to.
A straw vote? They either voted on a nominee, or did not. In this case, they did not. Why not just say you misspoke?
Judge Feeley should be taken off the bench. He is soft on crime and specifically, on drug dealers. He let a guy off who was selling drugs because he said he was just supporting his family. How many people did this guy potentially kill while dealing drugs? Do we want people let go to continue selling drugs? The police spent a lot of hours watching this guy and all their work was wasted. Feeley also has a record of being soft on criminals in other cases to the detriment of all of us. Marilyn checks into details before voting; she doesn’t go along to get along!
Dear Watertown News and Mr. Carter:
May I please be frank?
First, you Mr. Carter are a wealthy lawyer.
You and the some 50 lawyers in the Boston law firm (Todd & Weld) you work for will have a huge CONFLICT OF INTEREST when you appear before the very judges YOU vote on! You should not be on the Governor’s Council.
Second, contrary to your deceptive statements, Marilyn Petitto Devaney is second to none when it comes to voting for a diverse selection of QUALIFIED judges.
Ms. Devaney has voted for many women (Justice Budd), African Americans (Justice Ireland of the SJC, for example), Jewish persons (Judge Gants), Gays (Judge Lenk), Asians (Judge Duffy), and a whole lot more too numerous to list.
Marilyn has also been endorsed by Cong. Capuano and Cong. Lynch and many more prominent Democrats.
Mr. Carter, you are absolutely shameless in your trying to deceive the public and use race and ethnicity to rile people up. That’s called “race-baiting”.
Sir, you are NOT qualified to be a Governor’s Councilor – you are deceiving people. We do not need more deceivers in positions of public responsibility, do we?
If Marilyn votes against someone, it is because she feels they are not qualified. She has
long experience in interviewing persons to be judges. You do not.
Again, Marilyn does not vote for someone just because of their race/ethnicity/religion.
Marilyn is a full-time Governor’s Councilor, while you would only be part-time as you are a lawyer. That is one more reason you should not even be running for this position.
Marilyn was active in fighting denial of the Christian Armenian Genocide when people like you in Newton and elsewhere had been silent for many years because you did not wish to offend the “powers that be”.
Marilyn took the high road. You didn’t.
I would not vote for you if you were the last person on Earth, and I encourage others to vote against you and for Marilyn.
The rap on Marilyn Devaney seems to be that she is a free and independent thinker. Well, that’s fine with me. I very much prefer it over a knee jerk party liner like Nick Carter. I also find that his I’m more progressive than you attacks on Devaney are immature, hollow, and unfair. Not every progressive judicial candidate is fit to be a judge. Devaney is able to make those distinctions. They seem lost on Carter.
Nick –
If you’ve got Maura Healey’s endorsement them your the person to vote for.
Not that I’m so against Marilyn but after she pushed for snow insurance that was never used when she was in the Watertown counsel I have been kind of suspect.
I am voting for Marilyn.
Up with Devaney.
Down with Carter.
I think that this Nick Carter is being untruthful about Ms. Devaney’s real record on diversity.
And if he’s not telling the truth about that, what else is he being untruthful about?
I don’t like that sort of dishonest “the ends justify the means” campaign tactic. The kind of person who uses such tactics does not belong on the Governors Council.
I am sorry but that’s how I feel.
I like the fact that Ms. Devaney is a full-time Councillor. That’s her job. Mr. Carter, on he other hand, has a law practice and will clearly be just part-time.
Carter may also appear as a lawyer before the very judges he will vote on. That’s not a good thing.
My vote goes to Ms. Devaney.
The best candidate will prevail and that will be Marilyn Devaney.