Mayoral Elections

Figured it was time to crack this open.
I believe that fund raising has commenced among those who are vying for seats on the CC as well as the "Big Seat". I heard Sullivan had thrown his hat in the ring for the big seat. Who else is running (I know Carpenter is, already have my vote ready).

Has Sullivan officially thrown his hat in the ring?

I'd like to tag on to CC Race.
Tagger running for Michelle Dubois?

CAL - I heard Pina? He would not have my vote. I don't like his posts on FB, I think he's somewhat coarse and speaks dsparingly to those who don't share his opinion IMHO.

There was a rumor that Jass wouldn't run?

right now there have been only a few announcements of people running

For ward 6 Jacob
ward 5 Ollie
CAL Craig Pina
CAL Gary Keith

School Committee
ward 4 Brett Gormley

Are you running again, Ray?

I assume Gormley can run even though he's a teacher, but in Boston?

I like Pina. And listening to the morans on FB, I can see why he is course. The supporters of STP could make Jesus swear. One of the anti Carpenter-anti progress posters mentioned Sullivan was running or maybe it was wishful thinking. He is no longer CC prez so I assume he can run.

I understand your point but I believe anyone running for office needs to remain cool even on FB He lost my vote for that reason.

I didn't know you couldn't run for Mayor if you were CC President?

I guess you can, I wasn't sure but then Dubois ran for state rep so. It would take a lot more than a gruff exterior for me to drop a candidate, like Sedell not answering my question then blocking me from posting, shit like that. Any info on Gary Keith? The name is vaguely familiar.

Gary Keith is a local family man who seems levelheaded, thoughtful and fair minded, at least as far as I've seen in the last couple years. I know he has a large family in the area. Other than some FB posts, and a mention of running I haven't heard much. I wish him, Jacob and Ollie much success.

Keith has got some issues from what I was just reading, Housing court, default, non payment and property damages. Not on one house but two! I guess all you need to get appointed to the planning board is a spiffy resume. That is a prime position to accept kick backs from developers. Not saying that is what he is doing but with that kind of trouble it may be a temptation.

www.enterprisenews.com/article/20140701/News/140709435

Not sure how to get the link to work but I'll figure it out later. (I just saw, it comes up automatically)

Hmmm, yeah, I had not seen that article, thank you Scott.
Well, then perhaps Mr Keith has a bit too much on his plate and may want to re-think a run for Ward Councillor. I can possibly understand issues with one landlord but 2 in a short time gives me pause, not that most of us don't have a skeleton or two in our past. But, maybe there's a plausible explanation...

Here's my neutral looking viewpoint on the mayors first 14 months. If I had to grade him, I would probably give him a C- and would expect that he will be re-elected ........ unless there is a lot more steadfast power plant or casino opposition than I think.

He has been beset by what appears to be "bone head" move after "bone head" move, Hasn't done anything to really improve anything but ..... he is at least doing something.

Here's by list of Carpenter flops:

1. The police chief "rock star". Not that it happened but that they didn't look into it enough to know he could not work full time.
2. Making a deal to buy the water plant and then deciding the city has no money to move forward on it. Watch where all the casino money flows out to.
3. Suing the council about the water appointment, and then dropping the suit.
4. Nepotism hire(s).
5. The Casino and Power plant deals. Not that these shouldn't be done but without a PPI/CPI/inflation component, these are horrible deals. Time will tell if the PP deal becomes another "bone head" move, if the legality wasn't researched properly.

There is a pattern here of quick decisions without a lot of thought put into them. That is troubling.

Not really a flop but: What ever happened to dept heads having to reapply for there positions? Except for the water dept, it seems there has been no effort whatsoever to change how the city runs. It's business as usual.

Good things: 1. all I can really think of is the selling of city property. The crime initiative in general didn't seem to have significant effects although it does have a "feel good" effect.

Now here's the kicker: Let's say Sullivan runs against Carpenter. Carpenter has this list of attempts to change things and attempts to make things better. Sullivan or anyone else may not be able to win a battle against that since they can't really say they've done much. So in spite of a list of some poor decisions by Carpenter, I still see him getting re-elected.

JB did a good job on some of weaknesses. I wanted to point out some other positives:
He shows up at scenes; re instituted multi family inspections; showed Thorenson the door...putting in a current employee for DPW who I hear is a hard worker. I like how he is trying to sell Brockton with a mini media campaign. I think there is a learning curve and hopefully he and his staff learn from that.

The contentious relationship with the City Council, wish that was better. You either like him or hate him seems to be the trend.

B +

Voted for Carpenter don't think I'll vote for him again. Although a personal thing I didn't like his hard stand in the School Department budget issue. I don't want this to turn into a union busting thing but that's in my list of cons. I was disappointed but not surprised on his nepotism hires. I thought even though it was a bad winter, that snow removal was poor in Brockton. I disagree with Daisy on the Brockton Marketing Campaign. It's wasted money IMHO.

I guess everyone is assuming Sullivan will run? Not sure he can beat Carpenter. Don't think his Anti PP will garner enough votes. I'd like to see a strong opponent emerge as I think competition is a good thing, but it's definitely very quiet out there.

Overall I'd give the Mayor a C for this term.

If your giving Carpenter a C-/C, I wonder what Balzotti would have gotten if you were to grade her. He is a lot more involved and shows more initiative than our past Mayors. He is getting it done as best he can even with the CC throwing monkey wrenches into the works. I'm glad he pushes back on the CC, they've had it to easy the last 4 years as Balzotti was a very weak Mayor. To weak. From what I've heard from Pina and Monahan he has got a lot of projects lined up that will get Brockton back on track. I think the only way he can get things rolling is force it down the CC's throats or do an end run. So all the more power to him.

I have to say this about the Mayor...he is very easy to speak with, I've seen him at a couple of meetings and spoken with him. His days must be 10-12 hours long. I like his Chief of Staff, also puts himself out there. Mayor Carpenter is no push over and does make it known, he is the Mayor. Forgot this one...his Admin has done for the first time...Single stop for permits for builders, this is huge and makes it so much more convenient to do business here.

New faces have new ideas...ppl in the system sometimes follow the status quo and no fault of their own, don't have new ideas and don't want to rock the boat!

@ Scott, I would have given Balzotti an F, that's why I didn't vote for her this time. Who is Piña?

I'd give Balzotti a W.

Craig Pina, running for CAL I believe.

I don't believe Sully has announced yet. I've also heard Moises Rodriguez mentioned. The other thing flying around is Ed Byers bankrolling a Kate Archard campaign