Sciortino lawyer: Nomination papers were stolen
By George P. Hassett

State Rep. Carl Sciortino says he noticed his nomination papers were missing on May 6. And after he spent the next week, including one entire day, searching without success for the elusive documents, his lawyer is arguing they were stolen from his State House office.

The twelve missing papers – which included 72 signatures from residents in his district – left Sciortino 36 signatures shy of the required 150 he needs to appear on the ballot for the Sept. 16 Democratic primary. On Friday, Judge Linda Giles denied Sciortino’s request to have his name placed on the ballot despite the shortage.
“The court is not unsympathetic to the plight of Sciortino, the apparent victim of innocent, very human inadvertence. Nevertheless, the duty to keep one’s important nomination papers safe and reproduced photostatically is not onerous,” Giles wrote in her decision.
In court, Sciortino’s lawyer Ed Colbert said Sciortino had 186 signatures certified by Medford and Somerville officials. But before Sciortino could submit them to the Secretary of State, Colbert said, the papers had been stolen.
However, Giles was skeptical. “The papers are missing,” she said. “We don’t have any information other than that they were on [Sciortino’s] desk and now they are not – either by negligence or intent.”
Sciortino reported the papers missing to the State Police on May 19, almost two weeks after he first noticed they were gone. According to the police report, Sciortino said his office is usually unlocked.
In an interview with The Somerville News, Sciortino said he would take further legal action to try and have his name placed on the ballot. His opponent, Ward Seven Alderman Bob Trane, submitted the necessary paperwork to the Secretary of State’s Office and will appear on the Sept. 16 ballot.
If Sciortino is forced to run a write-in campaign against Trane, it would be the second time in four years that such a campaign was mounted in the 34th Middlesex District. After Sciortino upset incumbent Vincent Ciampa in the Democratic primary for the seat in 2004, Ciampa ran an unsuccessful write in campaign during the general election.
On Friday, Sciortino said Trane was “trying to keep me off the ballot despite the fact that I have enough signatures.”
Trane’s attorney Bill McDermott appeared in court Friday to intervene in the case and oppose Sciortino’s request to appear on the ballot. The Secretary of State’s Office also opposed Sciortino’s request.
“People who lose papers ought not to be able to come into a system and say ‘I want to get on the ballot,’” McDermott said.
Ward One Alderman Bill Roche, a supporter of Trane’s, was more direct. “It sounds like he is using the dog ate my homework excuse,” Roche said.
The signatures were discovered to be lost almost exactly two years to the day after another costly Somerville disappearance. On May 8, 2006 two police officers assigned to clean up the department’s evidence room threw away a desk drawer containing $31,535 in cash seized from drug suspects. Sciortino’s blunder could wind up being even more pricey: if his name does not appear on the ballot and he loses his seat, he will have lost a $55,000 a year job.