The primary election here in Somerville is next Tuesday, September 19. Only Ward 1 has a primary race for School Committee with four candidates running. The top two vote getters will run in November. It’s possible for a School Committee candidate to get elected and be declared a winner with less than 300 votes, maybe less than 200. The citywide primary is for mayor in all the wards and precincts in the city. Three candidates are running. The top two vote getters will run in November. It’s the first time a mayoral primary will be held in about 13 years.

****************************

Congratulations to local activist Ben Echevarria for being named to El Planeta’s Powermeter 100. He is one of Massachusetts’ 100 most influential people in the Hispanic community. Ben and his family have been involved in many local Somerville and community causes. A good guy, a great family. We wish him the very best with this honor, he deserves it. El Planeta reaches the Hispanic community in Greater Boston with all the latest news both local and national. We think Ben would make a great candidate for public office and hope that someday he decides to do that.

****************************

The Somerville Police Department will be holding a golf tournament in memory of police officer William “Billy” Nolan, a great officer and wonderful family who is remembered by many here in the city. The tournament will be held on Friday, September 29, at 7:00 a.m. for coffee. 7:45 board golf carts and 8 Shotgun start. Golfers are $150 and Dinner only is $50, to be held at the Hillview Country Club, 149 North St., No. Reading. If you’d like to participate and want more information contact Somerville Police Relief Association c/o Captain Michael S. Cabral, at the Police Department, 22 Washington St., Somerville 02143. If you’d like to help out by sponsoring, the cost is $100, send to same.

****************************

Happy birthday this week to a lovely lady who is wife, mother and a fantastic pastry chef, Ms. Juscella LoRusso. A good guy who travels a lot between here and his home country Brazil, Sergio Deassis has his own construction company and is good at what he does. We hope he has a great birthday for himself with his family and many friends. Happy birthday to our good friend and former Ward 7 Alderman Bob Trane. We hope he has a great day for himself as well. Soon to be leaving the office of Ward 4 Alderman, popular gentleman and good friend Tony Lafuente celebrates this week. We wish him a very happy birthday. Watch out, he might be back running someday. Happy birthday to our good friend Jodi Gallo, who is a big fan of our paper. Jodi, have a great day for yourself. Finally, the nicest, most thoughtful Alderman At-Large, Mary Jo Rossetti is celebrating this week. We wish her a very nice day for herself.

****************************

Check out www.ocpf.us and plug in a name to find out who and how local politicians stand in fundraising. We’re looking it over and seeing who contributes to whom. Remember, it’s not illegal to accept money from special interests, including developers, lawyers or unions of any kind.

****************************

So the stupid crap out there is still going on with certain people. They are saying that certain candidates are getting money from developers, and although that is not illegal, they make it sound like it is. If it’s wrong to take developers’ money, then is it also wrong to take money from unions? In particular, School Committee candidates receiving money from the Massachusetts Teachers Association. How about their endorsements? Are the expecting something in return?

****************************

People complain all the time, “Bring back the old Somerville.” Especially those that moved out of our city some time ago. It’s not the same Somerville of your dreams. Somerville has changed and changed for the good. Housing prices are up, not because of the administration, it’s because of the supply and demand equation. Lack of supplies and huge demand drives prices higher, not the mayor or the Board of Aldermen. No matter what you think, the city is changing because old Villens are moving out and new ones are replacing them. It’s happening all the time. It’s great to have memories, and we will always have those memories. But prices on everything has gone up. The price of a gallon of gas back in the late 60’s and early 70’s was anywhere from .25 cents per gallon, new cars cost on the average of less than $3K, and housing in Somerville back in the 70’s was on an average for a single family 35K to 40K. Think about it.

****************************

Congratulations to Ward 1 Alderman Matt MacLaughlin, who now has a full time job over in Cambridge working for City Councilor Dennis Carlone as his aide, at a reported salary of over $50K a year. We can’t tell you how excited we are that Matt finally secured employment other than his Board of Alderman job. So let’s see, he’s an aide. Aren’t aides usually younger student types? If you combined both salaries (alderman = $41K ) that will mean that Matt will be making roughly $90K plus a year. We think that’s great. Matt now becomes one of the 1% percenters. By the way, we heard that his good friend and former alderman from Ward 6 Rebeckah Gerwitz was responsible for him getting this job over in Cambridge. We do think it odd though that Cambridge City Councilors have aides at $50K a year. How much do the councilors get paid? Matt is going to be pretty busy with Councilor Carlone’s upcoming re-election and his own re-election at the same time. We guess Matt won’t have time now to campaign in Ward 4, or will he? We do know that it’s not unusual for Matt to NOT show up at local Ward 1 events or meetings. Never mind NOT returning phone calls from constituents. So this job over in Cambridge won’t be so bad, will it? By the way, Matt has a challenger, lifelong resident of Ward 1 and business man/family man, Elio LoRusso.

****************************

We guess the Progressive Democrats of Somerville have changed their name but it’s still the same group. They are now called One Revolution Somerville, with about 60 members (enough to fill a small function room). They have endorsed a ticket for our elections this year, and at the head of the ticket they have endorsed candidate Payton Corbett for mayor. The Boston Globe had and interesting article this past Friday. Google “Progressive-backed candidate acknowledges stupid immature jokes” written by Frank Phillips. It seems that Mr. Corbett might like to make derogatory remarks about women. He claims that the remarks were made in his youth (when he was 30 years old), but he is now 34 years old. One such remark was removed from Corbett’s Facebook page. Quoting the Globe, “Corbett is also having to explain some embarrassing Facebook posts in which he aired politically incorrect views, such as referring to women as ‘dumb broads,’ suggesting Asians have a penchant for restaurant specials, and comparing Black History Month to a coffee chain’s ‘Chocolate Lovers Month.’” In questioning him, he tried to brush it off by referring to George Bush’s comments that he made when he was in his 20’s, as opposed to him at the time he ran for President. Corbett is 34 years old, and he was 30 years old when he made those comments. That’s only 4 years ago, so we guess he’s trying to say they were simply immature remarks when he was 30 years old. Is Our Revolution Somerville agreeing with those remarks? If so then they can’t be very progressive, can they? We’re shocked that a candidate for public office would make such rude and crude remarks. Just shocked! Aren’t you?

****************************

The slate of candidates sponsored by Our Revolution Somerville is the aftermath of the Bernie Sanders campaign (does that make them Socialist?), or like we said, a remake of the Somerville Progressive movement. The slate of candidates that are being endorsed by them is pretty bizarre, with Payton Corbett leading the top. What does that say about the rest of the candidates they are endorsing? Newstalk will, as usual, bring you the scoop on the various endorsements that Our Revolution Somerville is making for the November election. You’ll be as shocked as we are.

****************************

We have a lot to be thankful for, but those in Texas and Louisiana will need our help. Join us at The Somerville Times in donating to the many charities that are set up and being set up: The Salvation Army, Red Cross and various clubs and organization as well a “gofundme” page that was set up to donate directly to residents that need our help and money. We send them our thoughts and prayers for a quick and speedy recovery to normal. We are all proud Americans and we are very generous to other countries with their disasters, but we all need to step up to the plate and donate – even $10 – to help out our fellow Americans. Imagine if everyone here in Somerville sent a check or donated online. Every $10 or more would be a great help to our fellow Americans who need us now. God Bless Texas and Louisiana and all those affected by this horrible nightmare.