I’m not sure whether to be outraged or heartened by the Save Nonantum attack ad on Bryan Barash that’s appeared on Village 14 and, one presumes, other online media. Also, I was wrong. So very wrong.
Outraged, because I cannot imagine a sleazier ad. To state what I hope is obvious, the claim is vicious, unsubstantiated, and incapable of being substantiated or rebutted. Who thinks it’s okay to take advantage of the esteem some people have for a dead public figure to fuel a character attack on another? Just awful.
Heartened, because I have faith in voters that they will read the ad (and the similar attack on Maddy Ranalli) as desperate. (I’m even a little bit amused that anybody would think that such an offensive ad would help.)
Elections are zero-sum games. Any action that helps a candidate or candidates diminishes at least one other candidate’s prospects.* I suspect that this one is going to backfire on Tarik Lucas, and it should. Badly.
Candidate Lucas was silent during Nonantum Saves’ GoFundMe campaign, which used similar rhetoric as the ad, just without naming names. (I asked multiple folks publicly associated with Nonantum Saves for details. None replied.) Candidate Lucas happily accepted the Save Nonantum PAC endorsement. And, Candidate Lucas has been notably silent about this ad … an ad created with the express purpose of helping him get elected.
Leaders lead. Candidate Lucas could condemn the ad specifically and reject the Save Nonantum endorsement. Instead, he tweets about pizza. Candidate Lucas’s unwillingness to take a stand should cost him.
So, how was I wrong? I did not believe, as some suggested to me privately, that Save Nonantum was formed to bring ugly political attack rhetoric to Newton to defeat Candidates Barash and Ranalli. I sincerely read the original Save Nonantum GoFundMe plea assuming some good intentions on the part of the PAC. The movement appeared to arise out of the frustration with the Columbus Day holiday decision by 22 current City Councilors and not be focused on the special election.
I was so wrong. It just doesn’t get any uglier than this.
Just so we’re clear, I am not and never will be a civility scold. If a public figure has done something wrong or taken a questionable policy, they should be held accountable.** If Save Nonantum wants to publish fact-based negative ads, they should go right ahead.
For instance, in this case, I have taken Candidate Lucas to task. I have cited three very specific things he has done or not done. I have named him. And, I have criticized him under my own name.
You, the reader, can judge my conclusions and evaluate the factual bases. And, Candidate Lucas has a full opportunity to answer the facts or the conclusions. We’ll post his answer here, if he’d like.
Save Nonantum isn’t playing by those rules.
—
* Anticipating the critique from an occasional picker of (my) nits, the election results — votes for and against — are zero-sum. The greater community may be enhanced or diminished by a particular set of campaign-related activity. But, within the strict context of the candidates’ electoral prospects, any particular elections is zero-sum.
** Tone matters. I have been guilty of intemperance. I continue to work on it.
Yeah. I am still planning on voting for Tarik Lucas for City Council. His balanced, measured considerate approach to all things related to the city is what is needed at this point. His opponent is too divisive for my taste.
I think we just had a whole thread where we exhausted this discussion. I’m done posting on this particular issue. We all get to vote in a few weeks.
Cant we just move the election up a few weeks? I’m ready now 😉
One solution to consider is the use of the Ghostery & uBlock Origin add-ons for the Firefox browser – I haven’t been exposed to internet advertising of any form for several years now. I do of course subscribe and/or contribute to websites I value.
Sean, thought experiment here: what if Lucas (i) had no involvement in generating the ad, (ii) did in fact believe the contents of it, and (iii) his belief was based on private things that really have no business in the public domain and would be directly harmful to people if they were disclosed? (you can think of several examples) What would be the ethical, honest course of action? I have no inside information, and don’t know any of the people involved here. Swap “Candidates A and B” into this example if you’d like to. thanks.
I’ve yet to see a blog post discussing why Tarik’s policies are bad for Newton residents. I guess that is a good sign for him?
Oh great. A post from Sean Roche. That is sure to elevate the conversation
Why is there another thread on the same topic?
Elevating one commenters ideas to a new thread because she or he has posting privileges isn’t enough reason.
Medan- your ideas are no more valuable than anyone else’s- this did not merit a new thread to highlight your opinions over others.
To others that control V14- Sean’s posts have been net negative for the site for a while, please consider gating or revoking his privileges. We deserve better.
I don’t like the negative advertising approach the PAC has taken at all… but I can appreciate 100% why folks of any neighborhood would get fired up about displacement and representation in local government.
If an org popped up with a differently worded mission that read as follows:
– promote neighborhood cultural history
– advocate for neighborhood representation in city government
– prevent displacement due to rising property values in a built-out city
I would want to learn more – and honestly, it sounds close to parts of the priorities Kendra Hicks recently shared for her City Council campaign in Boston. https://www.hicksfordistrictsix.com/policy
Long way of saying, I don’t like the recent SN tactics, but per Matt’s other post, I do care about what neighbors have to say about policies that impact them.
I have commented in support of Bryan & Maddy in several forums because their progressive policy approaches for housing access and community safety align with my views. At the same time, in the spirit of keeping it positive, I wanted to mention Tarik was kind enough to spend some time talking policy with me a few weeks back – he shared valuable perspectives I hadn’t considered, and I’m enormously thankful for it. We have a strong group of candidates.
With his obvious brilliance as a political thinker, I have to wonder why I have not seen Mr. Roche on any of the Sunday morning news shows. Certainly Farid Zakaria or Chuck Todd would benefit from Mr. Roche’s modest yet penetrative insight into the big political questions and personalities of our day.
Oh, Jerry. After this weekend, I would think you would be exhausted. But here you are again – And I can’t decide if you suffer from a psychological condition where you’re both attracted to and repulsed by drama and gore or whether you are purposefully giving this story a life extension in hopes that it does damage to a candidate.
As I’ve come to expect, a weekend with V14 provides a wealth of entertainment value similar to watching a Netflicks series where layers of a story slowly peel away.
Many of the key bloggers here are kindred political spirits who support Bryan Barash. All good. No harm, no foul.
Regarding Mr. Cicconni Sr’s ad, I believe that we all reacted similarly with, “Oh, I wish he hadn’t done that,” followed by a, ‘Who paid for that? … Who is responsible?” I don’t think anyone who commented this weekend thought the ad was ok.
However, the conversation persisted, with cries of foul and calls for Lucas to denounce Cicconni’s ad, along with a fair amount of shame for anyone who had anything else to say. By mid-day yesterday, I thought to myself, ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks’
After all that was said this weekend, left in the background was a former city councilor who said Bryan Barash couldn’t be trusted. So, what about it? Forget for a moment the negative campaigning and forget for a moment the reference to his son.
The ‘funny’ thing is, I have the same opinion of Bryan. My view of Bryan comes out of the charter commission campaign where I believe he was dishonest in defending the commission’s proposal to remove ward representation on the city council. I think it was an attempt to remove north-side opposition to housing projects by taking away ward representation.
Bryan is THE reason I began to have a voice in Newton politics. I went back to read the threads to make sure I was being fair, and you can too.
https://village14.com/2017/10/18/just-what-is-this-thing-called-ward-representation/
At some point, the character of a candidate becomes a valid issue.
Not taking the bait and will let the new infamous ad fade away into election folklore. But….
1. The ad may have been off putting to many, but the fact that enough disenfranchised neighbors; our Newton brothers and sisters; felt their only way to be heard is to create a PAC… says a lot about who we are as an overall community. Nonantum and the north side of Newton have my support (despite growning up a Brookine kid) and I hope after this election Mayor Fuller and the City Council work to mend this rift. United is better than separate.
2. I wish I could vote for all 5 candidates. Unfortunately there are only 2 slots and I will be voting for Tarik and John. Specifically because I do not believe we can build our way into affordabilitiy. Unless the local economy or the relationship between work and home changes dramatically, I cannot see a scenario where we outbuild demand, to a point where affordabilty – both in renting and buying – comes down to Earth. Disagree with me if you wish (and you will try), but I will not be changning my mind. So from that perspective, I will be voting for Tarik and John, as my interpretation is that they will take great care to make the most of what we have and not over build; to advocate for equal and affordable housing by creating funds, subsidies and working with developers who want to build in Newton to fund them as well as preserving our business zoned lots and helping business grow in general, so our residential tax base is not our only tax base.
No matter the results, I hope to see all 5 candidates participate in the community after this election.
@Mike Ciolino – I think you’re mixing me up with Sean. This is his post …. but yes I did have more than my share of V14 over the weekend.
Check out the Story of Week. It’s well worth a listen.
Jerry I’m sorry I think this is the second time I’ve done this. This is what happens when everything is online and you never get to meet people in person. *Embarrassing*
Why are we seeing this again? It was three days ago that we had the same graphic coupled with the same outrage. Jees- we get the point. And then of course the same people give vent again. ( i.e., one of the chosen 20 who has permission, initiates a subject and then invariably the remaining 19 respond. The roles rotate but the voices are the same. Do you hear the echo? )
I like V14. This was my news trough for the great Northland debate – none better. And that goes for the current NPS/COVID quagmire. However, I am tired of reading comments from the same people again and again and again. How can V14 attract new blood? How do trolls become participants? And finally why is there not a max limit on the word count for commenters? My lord ,some people go on and on. A major turn off while the eyes glaze over. This is not the Constitutional Convention. Be kind to your neighbors.
@Mike Ciolino – No worries.
Once the Covid cloud blows over we’ll have to plan one of our periodic in-the-flesh Village14 evenings out so we can all put some faces on each other.
Alec Wilson
Sean Roche and Greg Reibman started this blog oh so many years ago. Revoking his privileges would be like throwing George Washington out of the constitutional convention, it would be like tossing Curley out of the Three Stooges, it would be like tossing Tinky-Winky out of the Teletubbies.
Sean, you have a penchant for beating dead horses. You latch on to a certain topic and create multiple posts on the same thing. I tend to agree with you on issues, but find your communication methods and tone distasteful. Nothing will benefit from making a new post on this. Let’s talk about something else. Fuller said schools are aiming to fully reopen in about a month, let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about new businesses opening in Newton during a pandemic. Let’s talk about other local elections. Let’s talk about Festival of the Arts which looks like will be happening. There’s lots of stuff going on.
Enough on this topic.
@Peter
I am assuming that’s a hypothetical question, asking why we’re seeing yet another (the third?) thread on this topic. The ad is seen as a net negative against Tarik, whether he knew about it in advance or not. Sean suspects that it “is going to backfire on Tarik Lucas, and it should. Badly.” But the only way to ensure that it does is to keep it front and center. So as outraged as he is over the ad, he wants to keep people focused on it, to ensure that it continues to harm Tarik’s campaign. (And yes, I do have the self awareness to realize that I am assisting in this by adding another comment to the thread!)
I agree with Sean — whoever thought the ad was going to help Tarik’s campaign may have made a significant miscalculation. It may have pushed people away from Tarik and towards Bryan. However, some of Bryan’s supporters might want to learn the same lesson. Some of their comments and reactions are having a similar effect — they are pushing people away from him.
Thank you Mary. There is so much to be looking forward to. Spring is in the air! The local election will happen on March 16th and we will know the winners and be able to move on. St. Patrick’s Day is on March 17th and I heard that the new bar, Ward 4, in Auburndale is finally opening. March 20th is technically the first day of spring and I can put my new wreath on my door:-) And we will be able to socialize outside whether at a restaurant or in our backyards.
There is an enormous amount of pent up demand to support local restaurants, movie theatres, theatres, etc. Winter will be over and we will be able to get out of our houses. My favorite quote by Albert Camus – “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”
Hello- I have been reading posts on Village 14 for a few months on and off now. I have spoken to both Tarik and Bryan and I value the perspectives of both. I hope you join me in wanting to envision a quality boards of counselors that represents the diversity and equality most of us work toward.
Lastly, I want to thank Jerry Reilly for working hard to balance out the reactivity which have been present and understandable in these recent posts.
I have tried to stay off of this in regards to commenting since Save Nonantum first popped up but I cannot stay silent anymore. Do I agree with what save Nonantum has done, I don’t know, but the bullying and toxicity that has now been apart of every single post Sean has put up is 1000x worse. Sean, You constantly accuse this Nonantum group of playing dirty politics, but you Sean are no different. Maybe spend less time on village 14 spewing hateful rhetoric about your neighbors and spend some time reflecting on who you are and how you should treat people. Village 14 has strayed away from being a political forum for newton, it has turned into Seans very own bullying site. I don’t know if I will be coming to this site anymore, YOU Sean make newton politics a dirty game.
Hey Sean…are you ok? Is Bryan ok? How many times are you going to post about our neighbors in Nonantum? I’m looking forward to the post in the next day or so that’s coming on last night’s debate.
What did Tarik say that he had proof of on his phone that had Bryan so concerned? I’ll have to rewatch that. Did you notice that part about campaign donations? Where’s the V14 post digging into Bryan’s campaign donations? Dorchester Electrical Union $500, Wilmington Carpenters Union $250.
Is that post coming soon?
Hi @Casey, the portion of the debate where Bryan looked concerned and Tarik raised his phone happened just over 1 hour into Monday’s Boston Intercollegiate Student Govt. debate:
https://youtu.be/KvJYfHpJgkY?t=3602
Tarik noted Bryan’s support for eliminating single family zoning in Newton. And Bryan responded, “It’s just not true. I’ve been very clear I prefer a targeted approach to zoning reform.”
This reply directly contradicts a prior statement from Bryan on this topic. In a 8/23/20 V14 post – https://village14.com/2020/08/23/globe-editorial-board-tear-down-this-paper-wall-newton/ – a Newton resident asked, “Why won’t any of Newton’s elected officials or housing advocates denounce the 1/4 or 1/2 mile radius bit and allow multifamily across all of Newton?”
The only person to respond was Bryan, who said, “Many of us do. Constantly. I have. Sean has. Several of the city councilors have. Alicia Bowman said in her campaign she would support that citywide.”
This is not the first time I’ve observed Bryan moving away from a prior position and statements – https://village14.com/2021/02/21/alert-live-zoom-candidate-debate-today-at-2pm/#comment-124130.
And, it seems relevant to me as he urges voters to look at is record when deciding who to support.
Rich,
Your observation of this should deserve its own v14 post… but that’s not going to happen.
@Bugek – ye of little faith