Apparently the buzz now around the city is that Ward 5 Alderman Sean O’Donovan may have three, possibly four opponents running against him for his re-election bid.  We hear names like John L. Sullivan, Joseph Lynch and Jim Thomas so far.  We also heard another very well known name in Ward 5 is considering running, we will let you know who it is when we hear more about it.

The Somerville Police Department has been out in full force for the past three weeks of the NSTAR strike down at Brickbottom’s NSTAR plant.  The Police did a great job even considering their own short staff and budget situation.  The strikers walking the picket line on Linwood Street protested in an orderly manner and never posed a threat to any residents at any time.

Over the weekend we heard that Ward 4 Alderman Water Pero will have at least one opponent, maybe two.  One person thinking of jumping in the race is Domingo Santos, who was up until recently thinking of running in the At-Large race.  In the same conversation with someone, we also heard that popular life long resident and former City of Somerville ISD boss Mike Foley is contemplating a run at the seat.  Mike was a long time city employee who left the city under strange circumstances and he certainly knows the inner workings of City Hall, so he just might make a powerful statement in running. 

Mike is said to be enjoying his new job working for the Town of Framingham immensely – we know him to be a hard worker on the job and we are sure he’s happy.

We were reading some of the posts on the web site the other afternoon and we were wondering what kinds of things actually run through peoples heads to make them believe some of the stuff they spout off about?  Saying we are in bed with LaFuente and John L?  And who the hell is Giffis, Charlie Aliano and Hussey?  We haven’t even heard these names before – and we are supposed to be influenced by them?  Some of you need Haldol – and quick.  The owners of the paper have been involved politically for years, there’s no secret there – we openly supported and endorsed the current Mayor in the final election only after we supported former Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay to the end.  We still support the current mayor – we haven’t written a negative thing about him yet.

We went to the dance as they say, but apparently the dance is over because the mayor doesn’t want to dance unless it’s on his terms.  The former mayor was also guilty of the same thing – got to the position with the help of many, and then didn’t want to dance with them when the time came.  We didn’t make up any stories printed in this paper, we just printed what many already knew and were afraid of saying.  We personally like Joe Curtatone – he’s really a nice guy – but he has some people around him that are spinning wild stories and instead of taking the time to find out what the truth is, he’s just listening to these people.  We honestly hope he will wake up sometime soon and see that we are not the enemy, we are not against him, and that he will make an effort not to intimidate with the hopes of driving us from the city, because we are not going anywhere, and try to restore the ideals that made him such a great candidate for Mayor in the first place.

We’re thinking that his best has been seen and now it’s all unraveling in front of our eyes.     In the old days in politics you would never do anything to bring embarrassment to the administration that hired you and you certainly wouldn’t do anything which would display a personal agenda and not represent the administration as a whole.  The boat issue should have been a dead issue long ago, but instead it got blown out of proportion with personal threats that should have never been made.  These personal attacks are childish – even the Mayor’s enemies would agree.  We want to have a local newspaper that’s all local – with news, gossip and sometimes opinions – that will make people think, and maybe get more of the community involved in fighting for the goals that should be uniting us all as residents of Somerville – like the Green Line extension, the development of Assembly Square, safer and cleaner streets, and more financially secure municipal government.

Now some lighter stuff.

It was a great parade on Sunday here in the city, the many marching units and organizations that participated are a credit to the hard work at City Hall to show our local pride.  The veterans throughout the city were honored with an excellent tribute.  We here at the News want to thank the Administration for a job well done.  The DPW sweepers were out in force and did a great job before and right after the parade.

In Ward 5 – specifically on Medford Street – the rubbish pickup is on Wednesday and there also happens to be street sweeping the same day.  We have noticed, along with a lot of residents in the area, that Russell Disposal comes down the street right after the street sweepers, instead of the other way around, like it was in the past.  There ends up being a bigger mess than normal – former administrations would make sure the sweepers follow the trash trucks, making sure there was no mess, we guess budget restraints have struck again.

Is Alderwoman at Large Denise Provost “needling” Mayor Joe with her posturing as of late?  Maybe she’s going to take a “shot” at the Mayor’s seat.  We do know that she was the highest vote getter in the last At-Large race and her name is being thrown all over town as a potential candidate for Mayor.  Anything is possible.

Our count now for the Senate Race is 8 Democrats and 1 Republican so far taking out papers to run for the late Senator Charlie Shannon’s seat.  We have seen Alderman at Large Bill White, who some consider to be the smartest person to hold local office in recent years, out there collecting signature to get on the ballot.  Good luck Bill.

Still with the Senate Race, former State Rep. Joe Mackey has the backing of former Mayors Dorothy Kelly Gay and Gene Brune – he has a very popular name here in Somerville, even being away from politics as long as he has been.  Also, former Alderman and current Register of Probate John Buonomo is supporting State Rep. Pat Jehlen – we see her as one of the top, if not the top, candidate coming out of Somerville in this sure to be heated race.

Speaking of Register of Probate John Buonomo, he held an impressive fund-raiser recently with over 300 attendees from all over the county and the state – he reportedly raised $100,000.00 in one night for his campaign.  We have to be honest, we didn’t think an incumbent Middlesex County Register of Probate would need that much money for re-election, but maybe he has his sights set on a higher position?  Some local politicians, including the Mayor, seem to have fundraisers every two weeks and nobody comes close to raising those kinds of numbers.  Something to think about.