A little birdie landed in my inbox this morning, bearing news of retiring School Committee Member Matt Miller after four years of service to Newton and announcing, simultaneously, the news that, with only 4 weeks left to gather signatures, longtime, presently retired, School Committee member and Miller supporter, Margie Ross Dector has thrown her hat in the ring again. (City Hall affirmed that she has taken out papers.) Apparently, dust is flying everywhere as other candidates are being ferreted out by the local ferreters.
Birdie opined on how this campaign maneuver resembled the often scoffed at entry of Chris Markiewicz to replace retiring City Councilor, Jay Harney, close to the candidate signature filing time. Is this the new campaign tactic to discourage new candidates and competitive campaign races? I hope someone from Ward 8 rises to face-off against Margie. The voting public profits greatly from watching candidates debate their stances before any election.
Editor’s Note: I received criticism from colleagues that my headline and article might suggest a V14 cabal. No such thing. I was attributing the info to a source other than myself, as well as the observation of that source (with which I agree) of the similarity to Councilor Harney’s departure from the Council. While this kind of seemingly collaborative departure and entrance from an elected seat is clearly legal, I do not believe that it serves the public well. I hope that a post-pandemic salubrious effect is one that motivates many formerly uninvolved residents to become entrants in all our elected races and wipes out the voter apathy that has infiltrated our very busy and complicated lives for too long.
Also N.B.: Misspelled names of Margie Ross Dector and Chris Markiewicz have been corrected. As someone with constantly misspelled first, middle, maiden and last names, I humbly apologize. Sallee Edyce Horhovitz Lipshutz.
Sallee,
I too really hope we see a contender. After the disaster that was the past year and a half on the school committee, the last thing we need is more of the same old ways. I hope I am wrong as I don’t really know Margie, but bringing back someone who previously termed out isn’t exactly new blood and doesn’t give me hope. In addition, I agree it sounds very fishy that only hours after Matt stepped down we had this announcement.
I hope someone else decides to run. The school committee was a disaster last year an we need new leadership to step up and right the ship.
Pretty sure Margie and Matthew are very close personal friends, so there’s no way this is a coincidence.
Margie is a lovely person and I know she cared deeply about the schools but we did not arrive at the current frustrations with the NPS only in the last 3.5 years of Matthew’s term. We have to look at past School Committees for decisions that were made. We need new people who are not only invested in our schools but also want to ask difficult questions and work together with our educators to move forward. It has seemed pretty clear to me that Matthew was probably not going to run again and yes, often a decision is not announced until a successor is lined up. Is this the case here, who knows, but there must be wonderful, smart, passionate people with kids in the NPS who are willing to serve their community at this really pivotal moment.
Tell your birdie there is a big difference from this and Jay Harney’s maneuver. From what I recall, Harney withdrew after it was too late for someone else to turn in signatures. Big difference.
@Andreae: It still seems to me like an anointing with oil.
A competitive race is always good for the voters. Hopefully, we see other candidates jump in.
@Sallee that wasn’t me, and I don’t know any other Andreae’s. Some other ‘Andrea”