Becoming an Insider

About two years ago, David from Blue Mass Group accused me of being a poltical insider in part because I was attending that year's Democratic State Convention. To me, this was quite laughable since the reason I was even able to attend the convention was that I had just organized a coup, defeating the candidate of real party insiders in his hometown caucus.

Two years later, things are very different. In March I was elected the chair of my Democratic Town Committee. Since then, I've lobbied on behalf of others for political appointments, I've been inside the proverbial smoke-filled room, my local paper has even used the dreaded I-word to describe me. I'm afraid that David is finally right. I have become a party insider.

I can even pinpoint the moment the transformation occurred. It wasn't when I became chair of the town committee, though that certainly contributed. Still, there are plenty of members and even chairs of town and ward committees who would still consider themselves party outsiders. It wasn't even when I was calling town councilors, trying to smooth the way for the committee's picks for election commissioner. That was as much me trying to avoid having to find more volunteers to put forward as it was advocating for specific people.

No, the moment I became a party insider, at least in my own mind, was May 21st, 2008, at roughly one or two o'clock in the afternoon. It was then that I received a phone call from my now-former State Rep, Rachel Kaprielian, who informed me that she was leaving to become the new Registrar of Motor Vehicles. This news was so unexpected that I could scarcely process it. At first I thought she was telling me that she was going down to the RMV to renew her drivers license or something and I couldn't figure out why I needed to know that. Eventually it became clear that she was resigning her seat at the state house to head up the RMV and that due to the timing of her appointment and the fact that she was unopposed in the Democratic primary, the Democratic Town Committee would have the opportunity to hold a caucus and replace her on the ballot with the candidate of our choice. As chair, it was my responsibility to guide this process.

The fact that the DTC had any sort of legal power was almost as much of a surprise as Rachel's abrupt resignation -- and not just to me, but to most of the other people I talked to over the next two weeks as well. In fact, the first time I called the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office to try and figure out what our responsibilities were, even they had never heard of the caucus option. This, unfortunately, left me in sort of a limbo for about a day and a half -- a long time in the age of instant communication. In the meantime, I was getting calls and emails from reporters, DTC members, potential candidates, and other interested parties and all I could tell them was that I would let them know the details as soon as I found them out myself. The only thing that was clear in the early going was that we'd have an unfathomably short turnaround time on this.

With the help of state party officials, state election officials and my crack legal team, we pieced together how the process was supposed to happen and who was responsible for all of the moving parts. Since the 29th Middlesex contains all but one precinct of Watertown and all of Ward 9 in Cambridge, our town committee and their ward committee were each responsible for picking delegates to a caucus that would be called by the state party in proportion to the vote that the Democratic candidate received in the last gubernatorial election. All of a sudden, I was glad I did all that GOTV work for Deval -- it turned out that Watertown got 18 delegates and Cambridge got seven. The caucus would be empowered to replace Rachel's name on the ballot. If the caucus failed to meet or failed to nominate someone, the primary ballot would remain blank and whoever got the most write-in votes over 150 would become the Democratic nominee. All this had to be completed by 72 weekday hours after the last day to withdraw names from the ballot, June 4th at 5PM.

The exact method of choosing delegates to this caucus is not specifically outlined in party rules or bylaws. We were instructed to use the method of selecting delegates to the senate district caucuses where Democratic State Committee members are chosen (another arcane process) as a guideline. Those rules allowed only town and ward committee members to vote for delegates, though 20-year and associate members are permitted to participate in that selection. This posed a slight problem since our records of associate memberships were sketchy and there was a challenge to our official list of 20-year members, forcing me to spend an evening sorting through forty years of town committee election results. These rules also required that we hold the delegate selection meetings within the jurisdiction of our town and ward committees, which ruled out having a joint meeting between Watertown and Cambridge (unless we wanted to conduct it in Mount Auburn Cemetery).

Watertown picked our delegates at our next DTC meeting, though I didn't really intend for that to happen. The plan was to lay out the process we were going to follow at our meeting so that everyone knew the rules we were playing by. Then candidates would have three or four days to line up who they wanted to be delegates and have time to lobby individual DTC members.

It didn't work out that way, though. Early on in the packed DTC meeting it became apparent that the majority of members did not feel comfortable putting someone on the ballot, which would essentially anoint Rachel's successor without a general vote. Nearly all those in attendance spoke against replacing Rachel's name, and we passed a near-unanimous motion (none opposed, two abstentions) declaring that the DTC wanted to leave the ballot blank. We spent the bulk of the meeting after that motion trying to figure out the best way to achieve that goal. Since the quorum requirements at the caucus where a potential replacement would be named were so low (10%, or three attendees), we could not afford to boycott the caucus by not selecting anyone to attend. Instead what we did was elect delegates with the instructions that they try to ensure that no name is placed on the ballot and that they would only be seated on condition that Cambridge Ward 9 also selected delegates.

The discussion at our meeting was so one-sided that most of us assumed that the Cambridge delegation would make the same decision and that there wouldn't be a caucus at all. After all, our delegates would only be seated if Cambridge picked theirs, and Watertown had enough of a majority of delegates that we would have the votes to get the outcome we wanted. On Saturday, however, the Cambridge Ward 9 Committee decided to select delegates and so the caucus was on.

The caucus was held June 3rd in the Watertown Town Hall, with State Senator Steve Tolman as chair. Originally I had thought that the caucus would be a quick affair, with the Watertown delegation making a motion to adjourn shortly after the meeting opened. After calling around to some of the Cambridge delegation, however, I changed my mind. Several of the delegates from Cambridge felt that they were shut out of the process and that Watertown had decided what was going to happen regardless of what they thought. This was a fair criticism, though I think it was more of a consequence of the process -- we couldn't have a joint meeting to select delegates and we couldn't expect Cambridge to know anything about Watertown politics (and vice versa). I thought that at least we owed it to the Cambridge delegation to explain why we thought the way we did, even if we disagreed on what we should do. So, I told my committee's delegates that we should allow a debate, even though we had the votes to end the meeting before it began.

This was not necessarily a popular decision with my committee. The danger was that if the Cambridge delegates were to open nominations and nominate a candidate, we could potentially end up in a situation where someone had to win. I was accused of being naive, and threatened (in jest) with being strung up from the town hall chandeliers if someone ended up on the ballot. Luckily for me, things worked out pretty much how I planned. We had a short debate -- about 45 minutes -- on the merits of naming someone to the ballot or not, and at the end the caucus voted 19 to 6 to leave the ballot blank.

Personally, I was glad it worked out the way it did. Even though I'm now officially an insider, that doesn't mean I have to act like a party boss. Not to be overconfident, but the 29th Middlesex is a strong Democratic district. To put someone on the ballot unopposed in the Democratic primary and potentially unopposed (depending on whether someone wins the Republican, Green or Working Families party primaries as a write-in) in the general is basically appointing someone to the State House for at least two years and then giving them the power of incumbency for any challenges in 2010. It just did not seem necessary to do this, at least to me. It would have been different if this were a general election with a Republican opponent on the ballot, but the stakes seem lower since this is a primary and we have a number of good potential candidates.

President Younger's Inaugural Speech

I attended Wednesday night's inauguration of town officials at the Commander's Mansion. It was a small, tasteful affair with some good food and of course all of the usual suspects one would expect to see. Returning council President Clyde Younger gave the inaugural address, which you can see on tape at the TAB's blog. Here's the text of the speech as delivered:

Two years ago, the thirteenth town council session began with six new councilors, which constituted a 2/3rds turnover of the committee in one election. That included my going back on to the council. We were immediately thrust into getting to know one another's idiosyncrasies, learning how to work as a team and also negotiating a new contract with the town manager.

I'm acutely aware that all of the happenings surrounding the council these past two years gave the public the appearance that little town business was being accomplished. However, I wish to dispel any question in your mind of the effectiveness of the 13th council. It was one of the hardest working councils that I have been associated with in my prior six years on the council. In the past two years, the council has met innumerable meetings per week in the town council and in subcommittee. Outside of the work on the manager's contract, most of the work accomplished was in subcommittee,
which allowed for considerable dialogue, discussion and input from interested parties that resulted in establishing a consistent policy direction for the council.

These achievements were due to the fact that we had individual councilors who were not afraid to ask hard questions on behalf of their constituents. We approved very important programs ranging from coalition bargaining with all town employees that has the potential to save the community a considerable sum of money in health care costs. We increased moneys for sidewalk and street reconstruction. We approved quarterly water/sewer billing, provided additional capital funds for our schools and town buildings, and also we approved the lease of the Coolidge school that is designed to bring in an additional $355,000 in the first year and thereafter $55,000 in fees per annum for fifty years which should result in $2 million in revenue to the council and the community.

Of special importance, the council established a new subcommittee, namely the Budget and Fiscal Oversight committee. This Committee is charged with the responsibility through the Council to provide policy direction to the town manager on fiscal matters.

Despite the accomplishments at the end of the term of the 13th council, we were marred by multiple situations where questions were raised regarding the election process and the actions taken by the town manager. Although it is apparent that the manager had the authority to initiate a court review of the election, bypassing the Council was inexcusable.

I look forward to working with the 14th council on such issues as the following: improving the town's overall infrastructure, both above-ground and underneath; and in view of the fact that Watertown is one of the most densely populated cities in the Commonwealth, we need to look for opportunities to support and improve upon our commitment to open space. We also need to resurrect the bicycle/walk path plan that has become dusty on the shelf. We also need to investigate the town's electoral process, and this examination will cover all activities before, during, and after the election, including the manager's preemptive bid to take the matter to the Superior Court if the candidate had not taken action.

In addition it is imperative that we examine our charter, in order to make some substantive changes to it. It has become quite evident that changes are in order. One question that quickly comes to mind is whether the president of the council should be chosen by the council rather than the general public and also whether any other form of government would be closer and more representative of the people. There has existed for some time an imbalance between the legislative and executive branch that must be addressed.

In closing, in reflecting back over the past two years, could we have presented ourselves better on camera -- certainly so. My personal goal for the next two years is to officiate over a more mundane, hard-working council. I am asking for the cooperation of each and every councilor to assist me in this endeavor. Thank you for your attention this evening.

A couple of things stand out. First, I think it's interesting that Younger wants a more "mundane" council, but he peppered his speech with barbs directed at the town manager, Mike Driscoll. Twice he chastises Driscoll for threatening to go to court to determine what went wrong with the town's election, and after that he implies that Driscoll's abuse of power is sufficient enough to change the town charter over. Never mind that Younger admits that Driscoll had the authority initiate a court review of the election. I will say that it seemed strange to me that Driscoll would want to take the town he manages to court, but it's even stranger still that he would need to ask permission from the very council whose election was the one that was suspect.

Younger appeared defensive, bringing up that everyone thought the last council didn't do anything. Then his examples of the things they accomplished were that they held a lot of meetings. Now, don't get me wrong, I know that the town councilors work very hard for very little compensation. Still, it seems to me that it would have been a better speech had Younger decided to talk more about his plans for the next two years than trying to defend any perceived inaction.

I hate to bring up George Lakoff in a discussion of town politics, but if someone tells me not to think of an elephant, my head is going to involuntarily fill with pachyderms. Similarly, if the president of the town council tells me that the last session wasn't as ineffective as everyone says, I'm immediately going to think the opposite.

Preview of Grove Street Condos

Last week I trudged out in the storm to try to go to a hearing on the condo complex being proposed for the Grove St. Aggregate site by the Hanover Company. The meeting was canceled -- which was the right move given the road conditions -- but thanks to Chris over at the TAB's blog, I was able to find this artist's rendition of what the new property may look like:

You can find the picture on Hanover's website. I think this would be looking at the building from Grove Street, with Coolidge Hill Road going up the side. The complex as pictured is certainly more appealing than the Aggregate site is now -- largely piles of dirt and rock -- but I remain concerned about the trend in Watertown of turning commericial property into residential.

Susan Falkoff Campaign Video

[Cross posted to H2OTown]

Part of the reason that I have been absent frm this blog lately is because I've been working overtime on friend-of-the-blog Susan Falkoff's campaign to return to the Watertown Town Council. It's just under a week until the election and the campaign has released this video on Youtube. Check it out:



It's a little long, but it's a great way to see why Susan is running for Town Councilor-at-Large and it features testimonials from Don Levy at the Town Diner and some other families in town. I think Susan's really the only candidate who has much of a website, and if you haven't seen it yet, click over to www.susanfalkoff.com right now. There is great information about who she is and why she is running for Town Councilor-at-Large.  Susan even has a  campaign blog.

Election Day is next Tuesday, November 6.  If you contact the Susan Falkoff campaign at falkoff2007@aol.com, they can help you get to the polls.

Upcoming Watertown Events

There are a couple of interesting events over the next couple days here in Watertown. First, on Thursday (tomorrow), Sept 27th, the Watertown Democratic Town Committee will be meeting at 8PM in the lower hearing room of the Town Hall. Senatorial candidate and former Watertown resident Ed O'Reilly is scheduled to speak at that meeting. O'Reilly is challenging current Senator John Kerry for the 2008 Democratic nomination. I met him briefly during the unveiling of a memorial to his father, the late Watertown Fire Chief Robert O'Reilly, and I'm interested to hear why he's decided to take up such a seemingly impossible task.

On Friday, frequent guest blogger Susan Falkoff is having her campaign kickoff party. The event will be held from 7 to 9PM at the home of Barbara & Jeremy Ruskin, 140 Spring Street in Watertown. Susan is running to return to the Town Council where she served from 2004 to the end of 2005. For more information on the event, see her website, and be sure to check out her campaign blog.

On Saturday, from 10AM-4PM in Watertown's Saltonstall Park, the town will hold its annual Faire on the Square. Last year, then-gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick, fresh off of his primary victory, came and was a big hit (Kerry Healey was scheduled to attend as well, but stood the town up). This year, the Watertown Democratic Town Committee is conducting its first presidential primary straw poll at the Faire. I will be manning the booth for most of the day, so if you're attending, stop by, cast your vote, and say hello.

Tonight's Sawins Pond Community Meeting

Tonight I went to a presentation of the results of an initial Phase II Comprehensive Site Assessment of the Sawins and Williams Pond property located at Arlington Street and Coolidge Avenue here in Watertown. Sawins Pond is privately owned and the assessment was carried out on behalf of the property owner. Both ponds are currently contaminated and fenced off. They're filled with muck, barrels, and a lot of old rubber from the former BF Goodrich site which used the pond as a landfill. Any potential cleanup would not be financed by the town. The assessment was tasked with finding the potential sources of contaminants. Their scope was limited to PCBs, metals, petroleum products, etc, and they did not look at any biological contaminants such as human or animal waste. There were about a dozen people in attendance.

The company doing the assessment, Vineyard Engineering, took 17 sediment samples, six soil samples, surface water from five locations and groundwater from 14 onsite wells. The water in the ponds is only a few inches deep on top of several feet of muck and during the sampling, Vineyard did not get the sense that there was any current dumping going on.

Fifteen of the sediment samples had high levels of PCBs, particularly in the western part of Williams Pond, close to Elm St. There was not as much where the water's deeper, but PCBs were found in the sediment throughout both ponds. Metals found in the sediment followed the same profile as PCBs. The found higher than acceptable amounts of six metals: Cadmium, Copper, Lead, Mercury, Nickel and Zinc. EPH (petroleum) and SVOC (semi-volatiles) concentrations were found in Williams Pond and under the Arlington street culvert. Ten volatile organic compounds were also found, with acetone most prevalent (though thismay be caused by natural anaerobic fermentation processes). Gasoline leakage from motor vehicles may be a primary source of some of these compounds.

So, while the sediment seems to be extremely contaminated, the surface water was a different story. There were no PCBs detected in the surface water. This was mostly expected, as they don't tend to enter the water body very easily. Only five metals were detected in the water, with nickel the most common at low levels. A little bit of arsenic was also present, but not mre that would be expected in an urban environment. There was no apparent source of either, however. In addition, the surface water contained no petroleums, only small SVOCs at very low levels. No volatile Petroleums or Organic Compounds apart from Xylene at low levels.

The soil tests revealed no soil PCBs apart from one boring with a very small amount. There were slightly elevated levels of Beryllium, Chromium and Nickel (with no explanation). There were surprisingly low levels of Lead and Mercury in the soil, considering the high levels in the sediments. One soil sample smelled of gasoline and had high levels of VOCs. There was so much rubber on the site, it's impossible to not get any rubber in your sample, but that was outside of the scope of the project.

As for the groundwater, no PCBs were found. There were only trace levels of Arsenic and Zinc, well below the standard. Only Xylene was detected above the risk standard.

The study concluded that the North bank of Sawins Pond needs further evaluation, as does the source of Petroleum-related hydrocarbons. That may be reflective of garbage that fills the pond, or it may be runoff from the road. The representative from Vineyard noted that a likely source of the PCBs was a 1983 release of about 500 gallons of PCBs into the ponds from a nearby Boston Edison (now NStar) facility. They did a cleanup then, the levels they found after the cleanup are consistent with what we have today. In addition, in 1979, there was an oil spill in Sawins pond. There have apparently been many releases on the NStar property. NStar may be responsible for cleanup of the sediments.

I spoke briefly with the presenter after the meeting, and he noted that any such cleanup of the sediment would cost millions of dollars, and he couldn't speculate on what the end result would look like. After all, the woods around the area would have to be cleared for roads so that trucks can be loaded with the toxic muck and cart it away. He imagined two craters where the ponds once stood after all was said and done. Alternatively, they could "cap" the sediment and divert the water into culverts that would lead to the Charles River. In any event, it may take another century to return Sawins Pond back to the condition it was when a fancy hotel sat on its banks over 100 years ago.

ADL Recognizes Armenian Genocide (Mostly)

One week ago today, the Watertown Town Council broke off ties with the Anti-Defamation League's No Place for Hate program due to the refusal of the ADL to call what refer to the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide and reports of the League's lobbying efforts to defeat a Congressional resolution that would recognize the Armenian Genocide. Since that time, this amazing chain of events has occurred:

• Other local communities started exploring the idea of cutting ties with No Place for Hate.
• The New England chapter of the ADL broke with the national group in acknowledging the genocide. The local chapter called on the national ADL to do the same.
• The next day, Andrew Tarsy, the regional director of the New England Chapter was fired for breaking with the national ADL by recognizing the genocide.
• Two members of the ADL's regional board resigned in protest of Tarsy's firing.
• Other Jewish groups started to pressure the ADL to change its stance.
• Finally, today, the ADL announced that it has changed its policy and will now recognize the slaughter of Armenians as genocide.

Of course the ADL has not changed its stance on the Congressional resolution that would recognize the genocide as such. They still oppose it as something that would endanger Turkish relations with the US and Israel, as well as Jews living in Turkey. I understand these concerns, but isn't it somewhat worse to acknowledge the genocide but then claim that we shouldn't do anything about it because it's too contraversial? This strikes me as a half-measure, though it is at least a step in the right direction. The ADL's credibility has really suffered during the course of this controversy, and while they claimed that it was not one of their own making, every response they made to critics seemed to be formulated to generate the maximum amount of outrage, miring them deeper. One would expect more sensitivity from an organization created to combat bigotry and promote understanding.

On the other hand, former regional director Andrew Tarsy managed to come out of this looking like a hero. He did the right thing by refusing to wait for the national group to recognize the genocide, and he lost his job because of it. He took a lot of criticism here in Watertown for toeing the ADL line, and I'd like to think that part of the reason he changed course was because he came to town and met with the people the ADL's stance was affecting. If he had not called on the national ADL to change, it's unlikely that they would have done anything.

There's a lesson in this, and I think it's the opposite of the one from last week's Watertown Tab editorial. The Tab's editors looked at the situation as of last week and decided that it was evidence that Watertown should not get involved in "national or international issues". Leaving aside whether fighting bias is not a local issue (my personal experience in Watertown says that it is), I think that sentiment is exactly backwards. What this episode proves is that the measures we take in local government can, in fact, change the world. A 94-year old organization referred to the killings of Armenians during World War I as a genocide for the first time today in large part because our town council stood up to them.

Unsaid Word Speaks Volumes

Guess what word is missing from the letter to the editor in yesterday's Boston Globe by Anti-Defamation League New England Regional director Andrew Tarsy and Regional chairman James Rudolph?

Give up? It's "Genocide".

Not to belabor a point I made earlier this month, but if I had been accused of Holocaust Denial by the ADL and then came back and said "many groups have experienced horrific atrocities" as a way of explaining myself, I'm not sure that anyone would find that answer satisfactory. I'm sure that Tarsy was surprised by the controversy, but he keeps digging himself and his organization deeper into it with each statement he makes to the local paper. It would have gone a long way toward quieting the uproar if he had simply used the word "genocide" to describe what happened to the Armenians under the Ottoman Empire instead of dancing around it with "massacre" and "suffering".

No Place for Genocide Deniers

What started out as one man's crusade to be able to hate gays "and not be called on [it]" has now ventured into the world of international politics and landed on the front page of the Boston Globe. At issue is Watertown's participation in the Anti-Defamation League's No Place for Hate program, and specifically, the efforts of ADL national director Abe Foxman lobbying against a Congressional resolution that would recognize the Armenian Genocide as exactly that. From the Globe:

Sharistan Melkonian -- chairwoman of the Armenian National Committee of Eastern Massachusetts, based in Watertown -- accused Foxman of engaging in "genocide denial" in an interview with the Globe. She said she will call for the Watertown No Place for Hate program to sever its ties with the ADL unless it denounces Foxman's position and acknowledges the genocide.

In a separate interview, Foxman countered that it would be "bigoted" to dismantle a program focused on fighting hatred simply because the ADL does not share the Armenians' point of view. And Foxman maintained his position that the ADL, which has spoken out against ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and genocide in Darfur, does not have a role in the long-standing dispute between the Armenians and the Turks.

See this Daily Kos diary for more background on Foxman and the Armenian Genocide.

Previously, complaints about No Place for Hate were nonsensical claims about how it was some sort of left-wing mind-control conspiracy. But now that it has become known that the program's sponsors are linked to deniers of the Armenian Genocide, the controversy has exploded here in Watertown, which if you believe Wikipedia, has the third largest population of Armenians in the US.

The ADL's regional director Andrew Tarsy wrote a letter in last week's Watertown TAB trying to defend the ADL and Foxman's stance -- or lack thereof -- on the Armenian Genocide. Here's what he had to say on the matter:

Neither ADL nor our national director, Abraham H. Foxman, has lobbied against the legislation. Rather, when asked by media, we expressed an opinion that the issue was one to be resolved between the two countries -- Armenia and Turkey.

There may be disagreement with our opinion, but, as you rightly say, getting rid of "No Place for Hate" is not the answer.

Now the ADL has done a lot of admirable work, but I have to say that if someone had said the same thing about the Holocaust -- that it was a matter for Germany and Israel and the rest of us needn't have an opinion -- they'd surely consider that Holocaust denial and denounce it (as well they should). Certainly they would not chalk it up to a mere difference of opinion, as Tarsy does. Nor does Tarsy go on to explain that their 'opinion' implies that the US should not, in fact, recognize the Armenian Genocide. Given how concerned they are at fighting Holocaust denial, it seems to me to be hypocritical for them to turn around and deny an earlier genocide because they don't comment on "something that happened in the past". I also find it particularly offensive that Foxman himself would claim that it's bigotry to fight for recognition of the Genocide.

Personally, I can't fathom why the ADL doesn't have a position on the Armenian Genocide. After all, inscribed on one of the walls of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington is this quote from Hitler himself: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" One would think that the ADL would take that seriously.

I do, however, understand that Israel needs the support of a friendly Turkey, and pro-Israel groups may be hesitant to antagonize that country. Still, fighting prejudice in general and genocide in particular sometimes means you have to be critical of your friends. I would have more respect for Foxman if he admitted that this was the real reason why the ADL refuses to take a stand, but that does not excuse his denials.

In any event, the position of the ADL on the Armenian Genocide has little effect on the work of the Watertown No Place for Hate committee, which is according to its chairpersons, an autonomous local group that "fully recognizes" the genocide. It does, however, receive program grants through the ADL. According to the Globe, the committee plans to meet with Tarsy and question the ADL's stance on the Armenian Genocide and will consider their options after that meeting occurs.

It would be the height of irony if the NPFH committee were forced to sever ties with the ADL because they didn't live up to their own standards. Yet that might be how it shakes out. I would hope that the Watertown No Place for Hate committee could continue its work without the support of ADL grants, either under that name or as a new group committed to promoting diversity and preventing hate crimes.

Happy Fourth of July!

The front page of today's Boston Globe suggested heading to a high place to watch the fireworks. So, I went up today to Mount Auburn Cemetery, and climbed Washington Tower, which is may well be the highest one can go up in Watertown (Yes, the Cemetery's street address is in Cambridge, but most of the actual land, including the tower falls in Watertown). You won't be able to watch fireworks from there, unfortunately -- in closes too early -- but there's a great view from the top:

Here are the rest of the pictures I took today.

Saturday Evening Links

• Another candidate has surfaced in the race to replace state Senator Jarrett Barrios (D-Cambridge) as he's slated to leave the legislature next week. The Cambridge Chronicle reports that Jeff Ross has announced his intention to run. Ross once worked with California Senator Dianne Feinstein, and founded the Brockton Civil Rights Task Force to address social justice issues.
• No sooner did yesterday's Boston Globe say that localities were lobbying for power to levy meals taxes, did I get a letter from the mayor of Revere, Thomas Ambrosino, who also serves as chair of the Metropolitan Mayors' Coalition urging me to take action in favor of the Municipal Partnership Act, part of which would do just that. As I've said before, I'm not sure that meals taxes are a good fit for Watertown, but that doesn't mean that I think I should have any say over whether Revere (or Cambridge, or Boston, or Nantucket, etc) should be able to enact them.
• Also in yesterday's Globe, Ellen Goodman had a great column responding to the alarmist claim that Massachusets would turn into the gay Las Vegas if the 1913 law prohibiting out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying were repealed. The short version -- even if it did, good! If you missed it, it's well worth a read.
• State Rep Rachel Kaprielian (D-Watertown) -- a friend of the blog -- had a good week last week. Not only did the bill she filed that would allow municipalities enter into the state's health insurance plan pass the House, but she was also named legislator of the year by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.
• Just down the street from the .08 Acre homestead, the Watertown Fire Department dedicated a flagpole to the memory of the late Fire Chief Robert O'Reilly, who passed away last year. Here are my pictures from the dedication ceremony. Ed O'Reilly, a former Watertown firefighter himself and one of Chief O'Reilly's sons, was there. He has announced he's running against Senator John Kerry in the 2008 Democratic primary.

Kerry Touts Watertown Battery-Maker

Watertown company A123 Systems has been all over the news lately promoting their new plug-in hybrid car technology. I have heard of people converting their hybrids to take power from a wall socket for some time now but this is the most attention I've seen the idea get in the news. Senator John Kerry today touted his support for plug-in hybrids after the Senate finance committee approved incentives for the production and purchase of such vehicles. Here's his statement:

"Plug-in car technology offers a blueprint for clean, efficient, affordable driving and it should be widely available to consumers very soon," Kerry said. "I don’t know of anyone who isn’t interested in getting 150 miles to the gallon with their car and that could soon be a reality. The American people are ready for advanced auto technologies, and companies like A123 Systems are ahead of the curve, giving hybrid drivers the option of actually running their cars on battery for the majority of their daily commute. This is exactly the type of technology that we will promote by passing strong CAFE standards this week in the energy bill."

In addition, Google recently announced that it was using A123 System batteries in a $10 million effort to get the company to use plug-in hybrids and NPR did a story on the company last week. Whoever's doing the public relations over there in the Arsenal is sure earning their salary.

Watertown Native Challenging Kerry in '08

Yesterday's Boston Herald reported that Gloucester attorney Edward O’Reilly, a Watertown native, is planning to challenge Senator John Kerry in the 2008 Democratic primary for his Senate seat. O'Reilly's complaint about the Senator is his 2002 vote in favor of the Iraq War resolution, a vote that Kerry himself now even admits was a mistake.

O'Reilly described himself to the Herald as "no flash in the pan," but he faces high hurdles to even get on the 2008 ballot. He not only needs 10,000 signatures, but he'll need the vote of 15% of the delegates at the 2008 state convention. The latter is a feat that gubernatorial candidate Chris Gabrieli only barely pulled off last year. O'Reilly would likely have to accomplish that without the support of any institutional Democrat and without the benefit of a pre-convention advertising blitz. It seems doubtful that O'Reilly will make the ballot.

The article notes that O'Reilly will be at tomorrow's Democratic convention in Amherst. I'm also going, and perhaps I'll try to track him down and find out more.

Marilyn Devaney and the Curling Iron Caper

The most recent antics of Watertown town councilor and Governor's Councilor Marilyn Devaney have now made the front page of the Boston Globe. Most readers of this space will be familiar with the incident on April 13th where Councilor Devaney allegedly threw a curling iron at a beauty store clerk in Waltham after the clerk would not accept her check without a drivers license.

The Globe article is mostly a fair profile of Councilor Devaney, though it leaves out the details of some of her most recent capers -- like when she called the Watertown Tab's anonymous SpeakOut line to defend herself, got caught and flatly denied it. It divulges one of the secrets of her success, which is mainly that since she has no other job than politician, she has the time to show up everywhere, including nearly every wake in town. It also underestimates her personal income, however, leaving out the various pensions she receives (lovingly detailed by Howie Carr last week). One other thing I noticed is that the article seemed to imply that she's been on a downward spiral since her husband died in 2001. I've talked to a couple people in town who've also been concerned that her mental state has been deteriorating in recent years. I've only been in town for a few short years myself, but during that time, I've often wondered if there wasn't something more going on with her. I should say, however, that my personal interactions with Councilor Devaney have all been very pleasant, and she was very helpful during Deval Patrick's campaign for Governor.

Defenders of Marilyn have already started to come out of the woodwork saying that they clerks at the shop where the incident occurred are notoriously rude, and therefore they deserved to have things thrown at them, and if not they're probably lying anyhow. This is the sort of "No matter what happens, Nothing's Marilyn's Fault" line of reasoning that inspired Watertown Blogger Paul Day to start selling Marilyn-themed merchandise. My favorite is the wall clock that says "I am not late. Someone maliciously reset my clock" on it.

For better or for worse, it's that attitude that will likely be the reason Councilor Devaney weathers this latest storm. There's a sizable constituency in Watertown that believes that since she makes a lot of noise and ruffles people's feathers (particularly the Town Manager's) she is therefore "fighting for the people" -- no matter how effective she actually is. Councilor Devaney's friend and colleague on the Governor's Council, Mary-Ellen Manning hints at this at the end of the Globe article, noting how tough it is to be the "lone voice in the wilderness". Any criticism of the councilor can therefore be dismissed as the product of powerful interests trying to silence her -- the police chief, the town council president, or a publicity-hungry store clerk.

Monday Morning Catchup

I've been way behind posting on current events, and I have to admit that I haven't really spent any significant time watching the news or reading the paper in the past three weeks. There are a couple of things, though, I would like to comment on before I forget about them.

• It looks like Senate President Robert Travaglini has one foot out the door already. If he wasn't looking for a way out, these stories wouldn't be written. It's astounding to me that in Massachusetts, someone can be senate president one day and a high-powered lobbyist the next. Sure, he's barred from lobbying the House and Senate for a year, but everyone else in state government is fair game. The other thing I noticed was that almost every single one of these "Trav is about to leave" articles mentions how he has to put three kids through college on "only" $90,000 a year. I understand the sentiment, but Travaglini is not the first person in the world to have to put his kids through college, and most people in Massachusetts have a lot less than $90,000 annually to do so.
• The special election for state Rep is tomorrow in the 14th Worcester district (part of Worcester and all of West Boylston). Good luck to candidate Jim O'Day, who was kind enough to chat with me last month.
• In what universe is Politician Sends Email to Supporters a front page news story? I get so many messages from campaigns that I have a separate account for it. I'm becoming convinced that Andrea Estes is not a human being, but a machine that converts dropped dimes into front page articles. Andrea, just because someone sends you an email does not mean that you are obligated to print their story.
• Here at home, the Watertown Tab announced that former School Committee member Steve Aylward is running again for town council in District C. The Tab describes his tenure on the committee as "frequently combative" and marked by "battles with more liberal members." That's perfect, because if there's one thing that the Watertown Town Council needs, it's more battles.
• I'd also like to point out that my Mac iBook handled the early daylight savings changeover perfectly, while my machine at work, and our Windows laptop (which I just updated the system software for shortly before the time change) are still an hour behind.

I hope whatever readers I still have managed to enjoy the interviews from last week. I have a couple more planned