By Linda Scott
Watertown Resident
Because There are No Kings…
I’d like to comment on the way people conduct themselves when running for office. Hundreds of Watertown residents were in the Delta a few weekends ago, proclaiming that there should be no kings in the United States, that rules are for everyone!
I believe that it’s important to take that into consideration when making our very important choices. Here’s an example:
I had heard rumblings of candidates for City Council, School Committee and Library Trustee skirting the election rules that are clearly spelled out in the election information available to them when they sign up.
I contacted Noelle Gilligan, our City Clerk and Chief Election Officer, to ask about any rules that apply to those who submit papers to run for a city office. She referred me to the Running for Elected Office page on our City site. https://watertown-ma.gov/1508/Running-for-Elected-Office, where under Electioneering Restrictions, it states in simple terms:
“Where can Political Signs be Placed: You cannot put political signs on municipal property.”
Noelle also sent out an email to all candidates emphasizing this:
Rules for placing campaign materials
- Public property is prohibited: Campaign signs cannot be placed on any city-owned property, including parks, public buildings, and the grass between the sidewalk and the street.
Despite the City’s unambiguous election rules, Sheila Krishnan, (running for School Committee) or someone from her campaign, placed campaign signs on the Commander Mansion’s grounds (municipal property) for her and Theo Offei (running for City Councilor at Large) and Xin Peng (candidate for Library Trustee) during the Wicked Watertown Halloween celebration.
Signs of Sheila’s campaign could also be seen in the Commander’s Mansion as well.
The pictures on the City’s Event Facebook page (see above) also garnered these candidates extra attention and publicity. When the City was contacted about this, they were taken down. It was a great night and event to spread the word about their candidacies. Too bad it’s illegal and unfair to the other candidates, their political rivals, who adhered to the proper City election standards.
It’s up to us what we will tolerate in our community and where we draw the line. This election is going to be a very important and consequential one. With the fiscal storm that is brewing, it’s never been more important to make wise choices.
Send letters to the editor to watertownmanews@gmail.com. The deadline for election letters is Nov. 1 at 5 p.m.
So if someone paid out of pocket to sponsor that event at Commander’s Mansion and decided to put the signs there as part of their PAID spot – you make them out to be so vile? ….. why do you have to assume the worst intent possible?
This seems like a pretty targeted reaction – why do you have to act like the candidates are so awful when the sponsorship and display was approved by the event organizers at the Commander’s Mansion? It could have been denied from the start if it was a problem.
I don’t think the villainizing of these three candidates is the answer…. ever heard of benefit of the doubt?
Well said. As the former Election Commissioner for the City of Revere, I can attest to how vague some of these sign guidelines can be. This hyperbolic response is beyond the pale.
I am writing this as a resident.
Most people have never run for office and if you haven’t, you’d be surprised what it takes to learn and comply with all of the rules, run a campaign, work a full time job, continue with your community volunteer roles (in Sheila’s case, among other activities – helping families at risk of and impacted by ICE presence in our community) and parent young children, all at the same time and in just four short months. Only one of those being paid work. And doing that while expending energy managing the bias and intolerance people of color must contend with, wherever they live in our country, all the time.
It’s fine to correct people for mistakes but let’s have some civility and give people the benefit of the doubt. The author clearly doesn’t understand White privilege either. Otherwise she would have mentioned it as another unfair advantage candidates with it often take (usually without realizing it). And if we’re stooping to the level of calling out (minor and honest) mistakes folks make, let’s be thorough. Since I have run for office before, I can say that while the City Clerk’s office does their best, information is not made available in as thorough and timely a manner as would be ideal, which I attribute not to staff incompetence but rather to City staffing workloads that can sometimes be overwhelming. And, it was City departments who accepted and processed the sponsorship of the candidate. They also were unaware of the rules, and yet the author doesn’t make that clear. This was a case of the City innovating and trying a new model for Wicked Watertown, a candidate purchasing ad space she believed was sanctioned based on it being accepted by a City department, and people – all of them – doing this in service of community improvement and particularly for youth.
There are other candidates who have made some mistakes during this election. I haven’t heard members of the public criticize them publicly or do so with so many incorrect and biased assumptions. Examine yourself carefully before tearing down people who face challenges you may never imagine when putting themselves out there for our community’s common good.
Lisa Capoccia
Couldn’t agree more!
Linda, I’m so sorry your reasonable request for everybody to respect campaign regulations was met with such hostility. You wrote nothing that warranted that reaction. There seems to be a subtext to this election I’m not wholly aware of. Elections are to be celebrated: state your case to your community, and may the best candidate win. Even the candidates I won’t vote for are impressive people with much to offer. I will simply vote for someone else. You made no disparaging comments, and deserved none in return.
I think equating this minor oversight over campaign signage to the concerns of the No Kings protestors to be positively absurd and shameful. Frankly, anyone who steps forward in this toxic environment to serve in public office deserves better than nasty sniping from others!