From email Councilor Cote sent to constituents today:
I would like to thank you and the many other residents that have voted for and supported me over the past 6 years I have served for you on the City Council. My current term will end on December 31st.
My goal was to always be representative of the concerns of the residents and to use my skills and background as a “common sense” leader on the Council. Unfortunately, in this past election, the influence of anonymous one issue Political Action Committees (PAC’s), took away your ability to review and to vote for the candidate that has, and would represent you on all issues in front of the City Council. (Emphasis mine — GS)
Albie and I will be meeting with a group of supporters soon to determine possible next steps in my community service to the residents of Newton. These steps may include a return to the City Council, or a State elected political race.
Please let me know if you would like to remain on my email list for future updates.
Thank you and best wishes.
Jim
Councilor Cote, is correct in saying that the fact that neither Right Sized Newton, Newton Democracy or Voters for A Vibrant Newton endorsed him most likely lead to his loss (since voters who followed those groups’ slates probably bullet voted leaving him on the sidelines.)
And he’s more right than not to suggest that they were “one issue” PAC’s (well technically Right Size is not a PAC).
But I disagree that they were anonymous.
The PACs were right not to endorse him, because his voting record on development was mixed. But it’s not about the PACs, it’s about what people care about. Was it a single-issue election? Maybe. But blaming it on the PACs is simply incorrect. Candidates from both slates were able to win.
I feel bad for him. Good Luck Councilor.
I agree with Councilor Cote’s assessment. Jim was on my personal list, and in retrospect, it wasn’t a responsible decision to place my name on a slate with different recommendations. Live and learn.
Meh, sour grapes. One-sixth (15,432) of Newton’s population cast ballots in this election. Municipal government in these parts has never been remotely representative of the will of the people. How could it be? It’s a rare bird indeed who has the energy, attention span, or access to reliable information to allow them to make any informed choices in a local election.
Local government should be abolished and all matters to do with education, public safety, public works, and zoning should be administered uniformly and equitably at the state level.
Enough of this nonsense where the rich (and those pretending to be) are able to set up their own system of police, schools, and architecture designed with the exclusive goal of perpetuating their own ilk and excluding the undesirables.
This post seems a bit mean-spirited to me. But since it is here I will say that when Jim says: “ …. took away your ability to review and to vote for the candidate that has, and would represent you on all issues in front of the City Council,” he is wrong.
I’m sorry Jim lost even though I couldn’t vote for him but “Nothing – including slates from PACs, anonymous or otherwise – takes away my ability to review and vote on a candidate of my choice.
Marti: Why couldn’t you vote for Councilor Cote?
As I shared on the election page, I found out on Election Day that my .7 mile move in April within Newtonville required me to re register to vote and that I had just barely missed the 6 months deadline – so I couldn’t vote for anyone. I did check to make sure no one won or lost by 1 vote.
First, let me say I voted for Jim. One of the reasons voters voted against him was that he was out front on raising Councilor salaries. This was definitely a contributing factor. Perhaps, Jim now has set his sights on running for the State Legislature.
He will probably enjoy the strong support of Governor Charlie Baker.
V14 regulars probably remember a particularly sordid comment thread involving councilor Cote. I don’t remember what the topic was (it was about 2 years ago), just that it eroded my respect for him. I’m only mentioning this now to point out that Cote should give voters more credit than assuming they just follow PAC endorsements.
Many commenters here, in the leadup to the election, remarked “I don’t agree with Councilor Cote but I respect him.” I agree with that sentiment. I suspect that many people — myself included — bullet-voted for their preferred candidate in this race, leaving the other slot blank. Indeed, the “under-vote” counts in this race in particular bear out my theory.
It is high time we switched to ranked-choice voting. In ranked-choice, voters such as myself would rank a moderate such as Councilor Cote second. We would wind up with a much less-polarized elected body.
Don’t forget that Cote is a Trump supporting Republican who was the only councilor to refuse to sign that highly publicized letter expressing opposition to Trump’s policy of separating parents from children at the southern border. When he talks about running for state office, that’s the kind of policy-making that he’d espouse. The only reason he got onto the Council in the first place is that he was elected unopposed. As soon as he faced an opponent with any kind of base constituency, in this case the anti-development crowd that backed Wright, he lost. The notion that his loss was due to some anonymous PAC is as ludicrous as the idea that he could somehow get elected to a state office. Jim, thanks for your service, both in the military and in Newton government, but it’s time now to stand down and leave local elective politics behind.
We now live in an age of Trump and having a Trump supporter in office, even as a City Councilor, is a deal-breaker to many residents including myself.
@Gerry and @MMQC: You two are the best at promulgating incorrect information and tagging people based on nothing. You may recall that in 2016 I was promoted in Newton as the “write-in” alternative to Donald Trump should you want to vote Republican.
My focus on the Council was always strictly Municipal business and that is why I don’t get involved in national policy on the Council.
I have never supported President Trump, and was on record backing other candidates.
Please you two, correct your message!!!
@all: Thank you for the nice and direct feedback.
@Gerry one last comment as I just read the rest of your post.
I ran unopposed in 2013, because others that pulled papers, including Yourself (so rumored), dropped out prior to the deadline. Just saying!!
I then had opposition in 2015 and 2017, winning decisively in 2017.
Most of the City Councilors never have an opponent so there is no way to measure your point, just the way it is.
Thank you.
This is a totally unfair character attack on a fine man and great civic champion. In no way is Jim Cote anything like our President in terms of character, temperament, military and civilian public service. Every contact I’ve had with Jim has been honorable and above board, and his word is his bond. No, things would be far different and far better in every respect if it Jim Cote was in the White House rather than Donald Trump. No, this is not a political endorsement, just a statement of fact.
It’s comments like this that led me to not vote for you Jim. I wouldn’t vote for Gerry either based on some of his comments.
“@Gerry one last comment as I just read the rest of your post.
I ran unopposed in 2013, because others that pulled papers, including Yourself (so rumored), dropped out prior to the deadline. Just saying!!”
@Jim Cote, Sorry that you lost the election. Every interaction I’ve had with you has been a pleasant experience and you acquitted yourself well as a councilor.
However, the taint of Donald Trump would be political death in Newton. Can you clarify that further? Are you a supporter of D. Trump? Did you not sign the Council letter criticizing the family separation of immigrants because you disagreed with the policy or you disagreed that the Council should not be involved in National issues?
I dislike slates and PACs as they are not interested in the overall best candidate but the candidate who strongly supports one special interest issue. Some of the blame for your loss lies at their feet in the form of bullet votes. You were sandwiched in between two extremes who each received bullets. But it’s only a piece of the 676 votes difference.
BTW: It would have lit things up if Gerry Chervinsky had run in 2013. But word has it that he never pulled papers and had no interest in running. Papers were pulled by rascals looking for election fun. Scoundrels!
You are a good and honorable man. I hope you pull papers for Council in 2022 and give it your best campaign. Or, maybe others will pull them for you…
I agree with Bob Burke.
I’ll also add that it is essential that
every community have a range of political views, so despite the fact that a Jim is a Republican or not a far left councilor, it is a fact that Jim represents the views of a number of silent, but political active residents that don’t hew to the standard Democrat dogma. It’s lazy and wrong to tie every non Democrat to Donald Trump. The letter about the immigrants doesnt belong on a local docket, and it is a red herring or useful excuse to punish someone for not adhering to the group think on the city council.
There are plenty of middle of the road or slightly right leaning voters and candidates.
I didn’t agree with all of Jim’s views, but the city is poorer for not having
an alternative voice on the council.
For those interested to get a view of the challenge our residents face with trying to elect more than 20 people for our government ever two years, please watch this video. It is a little long (for those of us on internet time). I personally find Malcolm one of the few fact based analysts. This does not mean he is always right.
His premise is that after a small number of candidates, we are simply unable to align our views with the positions the candidates are taking. Hence when the pool of candidates is as large as we now have in Newton, “single issue elections” are likely how we will continue to move forward. I appreciate this is not an exact parallel to our election but it talks to the challenge we face to become “informed voters” when there are so many candidates.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/malcolm-gladwell-the-science-dems-need-to-know-for-beating-trump/vp-AADm4xp
I was at Dunn-Gaherin’s after results were in on Election Night and was heartened by the reactions of Councilor Cote’s colleagues on the City Council. Everyone I spoke with was sad that Jim lost and thought it was a loss for the community. I expected more opposition to him because he’s a Republican but people reacted to the man, not the label.
Thank you for serving Councilor.
Let’s not forget that Charlie Baker running for re-election in 2018 took the City of Newton with 57% of the vote while winning state-wide with over 65%. Jim and the Gov are Republicans with small r’s much like former Mayor Ted Mann. The person over party always!
Hindsight – 2 years and another election defeat later for Mr. Cote … I stumbled upon this and thought it rather interesting in light of the current thread. Trump continues to throw a long shadow imho.