Another candidate that lost an election has scored big time and moved on out – on October 11, Lawrence Paolella – former candidate and PDS‚Äôer in Ward 3, who lost the election two years ago, moved out of the city to follow the rest. The new Police Commissioner Anthony Holloway and his wife purchased Lawrence‚Äôs home on Oxford Street for a meager $679K – on the market for one day – hmmmmmmm guess the Commissioner can now walk to work since they boast in the listing a short walk to Union Square. It looks like Lawrence was more a capitalist then a Secular Progressive when it comes to cashing in‚Ķwe say good for you Lawrence – some of us will miss your spaghetti dinners though.   

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Tonight, Wednesday evening, don’t forget about United States Navy Band Northeast concert at the High School at 7 p.m. Sponsored by Mayor Joe Curtatone and Veterans Services Office, this is a FREE event and promises to be a very enjoyable evening.

By George P. Hassett

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone will return to office after beating challenger Suzanne Bremer and all three ward aldermen in contested races were victorious in Tuesday’s election. The only race that remained to be decided as of The Somerville News’ presstime was the at-large contest in which Tony Lafuente asked for a recount after falling 12 votes shy of fourth place finisher Bruce Desmond.

In Ward 4 James Norton, the managing editor of this newspaper, was elected to the School Committee in a race in which no candidate was on the ballot but two candidates — Norton and incumbent Charlene Harris — ran sticker campaigns. Harris did not submit the necessary signatures to appear on the ballot because of a family emergency, she said. Norton announced his campaign less than one week before election day and said his main priority is to abolish the School Committee as an elected office. During his weeklong campaign Norton picked up endorsements from his own newspaper and his rival The Somerville Journal. On Tuesday he won by 45 votes.

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The PDS’ers didn’t do well on Election Day with their so-called endorsements and whacked out friends. Seems like our newest moonbat Ms. Heller is not too keen on the private sector (probably never worked a day in her life outside of Government), wants businesses to cough up money for employee’s down payment on their homes, which begs the question: did she get her down payment from when she bought her Condo (3-family converted) up in Teele Square for $399K back in 2005 from her employer, the State? Good thing she lost the election. Now hopefully the residents of her boss’s district find out how much of a socialist is working for them in high priced Andover Рthat should go over well there.

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This from the bizarre and frankly hard to believe, but apparently last Wednesday – Halloween ‚Äì was quite the day at one local real estate office with the initials of ‚ÄúCB.‚Äù Seems some of the staff and or agents dressed up in costume and one young lady, apparently thinking it was funny and amusing, was dressed up as Jesus with the crown of thorns and bloody hands. She was gleefully asking fellow agents in the office if they could guess who she waseemed like the entire office of agents were having a lot of fun.  Apparently no one at the office was offended but some outsiders that were in and out of the office were very offended and made remarks outside. Most of us here were not amused either and certainly not surprised by the antics from that company.    

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Don’t forget this year’s Somerville News Writers Festival V Рcoming this Saturday evening at the Dilboy Post, 371 Summer Street (right outside Davis Square). Tickets can be had by calling our office and asking for Cam Toner or Bobbie Toner or you can purchase them at the door. The Festival is 5 years strong now and keeps on getting better and better every year Рthanks to the hard work and dedication of Doug Holder and Tim Gager Рwithout either one of them the event wouldn’t be as successful…we thank them for their hard work.

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Last Thursday the Fire Department was busy training the new SFD recruits in a lesson of “auto extraction”! Deputy Chief Dave Salvi was supervising the training along with members of Ladder 2. The lesson provided well-needed knowledge to firefighters on the do’s and the don’ts of cutting motor vehicle accident victims out of a crashed up car in a safe and timely manner! The lesson took place in the Holman’s building parking lot РPat’s Towing donated the two vehicles for the extraction lessons.

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Congratulations to the SPD Detective Unit for capturing sort of modern day crooked ‚ÄúRobin Hood‚Äù – who victimized his fellow Brazilian community.  ‚ÄúJR‚Äù Miranda, a Brazilian Coyote, was arrested by the unit during an ongoing sting that alleges this guy smuggles immigrants into the county from Mexico, shelters them in East Boston and Somerville, then robs them blind of their long hard earned life savings! He is also believed to be the same hoodlum that recently pulled off a $300K jewelry heist at an Everett jewelry store and also running a high tech loan sharking operation!  Miranda in now detained in Somerville and faces a series of criminal charges as well as INS/ICE deportation.

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Congrats to old friend and Union Square comic Baratunde who landed the job of web editor at The Onion this week. Baratunde has always dreamed of reporting the fake news and we wish him well —- he’s pretty funny for a liberal.

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Anybody else see the Cambridge Chronicle‚Äôs coverage of McCabegate ‚Äô07? The Chronicle reported that Neil McCabe, owner of two neighborhood newsletters in Somerville and Cambridge demanded a payment from a candidate in exchange for running a story and possibly endorsing him. The Alewife endorsements are up to the highest bidder? Say it ain‚Äôt so Neil, say it ain‚Äôt so. We say over here that the Chronicle seems a little obsessed with McCabe and more than a little excited in going after him (did you see that picture?) but hey if it‚Äôs the truth, it‚Äôs the truth right? We just hope that is not how he is going to run his operation in this city now that he has expanded his newsletter empire to West Somerville with The (sic) Powderhouse (that‚Äôs his spelling error not ours). That type of quid pro quo stuff might work in Cambridge but it don‚Äôt fly here (right? right?). Also his backers for the Powderhouse probably do not want their names mentioned next to such tom foolery. One final thought on McCabegate: Do you think the Chronicle‚Äôs editors and reporters ever dream about him?    

In three races for ward alderman all three incumbents returned to office. In Ward 5 Sean T. O’Donovan defeated Joseph P. Lynch by over 600 votes, according to early unofficial results.

Lynch had criticized O’Donovan during the campaign, saying O’Donovan used his elected office for his own personal and financial gain. He produced a video package, posted on his Web site, in which he said O’Donovan had been acting as a developer in the ward.

“I was disappointed to see my opponent go negative,” O’Donovan said. “I don’t think voters want to hear that.”

O’Donovan received strong support from Curtatone during his campaign and he ultimately outlasted Lynch. He said his main priority over the next two years will be the revitalization of Magoun Square.

In Ward 6 incumbent Rebekah L. Gewirtz turned back challenger Charles Chisholm by winning 71 percent of the vote. Gewirtz said the victory was an endorsement of the work she has done in her first two years on the board. She said her next two years will be devoted to “promoting open, responsive and transparent city government.” She said she wanted to continue working with neighborhood groups she formed in her first term such as the Davis Square Area Business Initiative (DARBI) which promotes business interests in the square and a traffic study group seeking to reduce the gridlock on Ward 6 streets.

“I also want to bring the issue of affordable housing to the forefront,” she said.

In Ward 7, Robert C. Trane turned back challenger and senate aide Rachel Heller by a margin of 250 votes, according to the unofficial results. In the days leading up to the election Heller’s campaign distributed mailings to ward voters attacking Trane for his work in real estate. She had attracted support from the Progressive Democrats of Somerville and State Rep. Carl Sciortino, D-Somerville. Trane said he was “extremely disappointed” in Heller’s attacks and Sciortino’s rebuke. His victory was proof that negative campaigning does not reach local voters, he said.

“I beat back the Beacon Hill power brokers in Heller, a senate aide and State Rep. Sciortino. My win proves that people not politics are what is important here in Somerville,” he said.

Election day’s intrigue came in the at-large race which featured six candidates running for four seats. Challengers Tony Lafuente and Fred Berman fell short of the four incumbents John M. Connolly, Bruce Desmond, Dennis Sullivan and William A. White Jr. But Lafuente impounded the ballots and asked for a recount after falling only 12 votes shy of Desmond for the fourth and final seat. Sullivan topped the ticket with 5,999 votes, according to unofficial results.

If his recount does not produce a new result this would be Lafuente’s second close loss in four years. In 2003 he lost by less than 5 percent to Curtatone for mayor. The recount results were not available as of The Somerville News’ presstime.

In the mayor’s race Bremer had run on a platform of inclusive city government and long-term planning on development. She said Curtatone’s administration took a “square by square” approach to development. However, she was ultimately overmatched by an incumbent with wide support in the city and the backing of Gov. Deval Patrick. The results in the mayor’s race were not available as of The Somerville News presstime.