Mary Berninger, Carlo Basile and Gloribell Mota have responsed to this week's Hubster Forum question for the 1st Suffolk race, and it's refreshing to see the candidates talking (writing) about the issues. I am trying to make sure that the campaign of Jeff Drago is aware of the forum. This week's question is on casino gambling and you can scroll down to see it, or click the direct link right here:
thehubsterblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/hubster-forum-week-1.html
Responses from Berninger and Mota follows that link; Basile's response is the first comment for this post. I appreciate each of the candidates taking the time to address the question. The week 2 question will be posted Sunday morning. Suggestions from readers are encouraged. I hope this helps us understand who the candidates are and what they stand for.
15 comments:
We have a fight on our hands with officials who want to put another enormous burden on us with a quote un-quote world class casino in our town. I will stand up to those who want to congest our streets more and thrust more upon us so that the state and city can reap more money and more taxes at our expense. Enough is enough – we have paid our fair share to the Commonwealth with three tunnels, an airport and a horse track within our borders. How much more can we take?
No one asked us if we wanted this – no one consulted the people of this neighborhood – look what happened in SB when they tried to jam the football stadium down their throats. We need to stand up and be heard. We need to fight to ensure that our opinions matter and we have say in what happens in East Boston.
This is OUR town and we as a community will decide what is best for us!
Carlo Basile
Democrat for State Rep.
I'm glad to see that Mary and Carlo have weighed in. Where is Jeff on this issue? Why hasn't he responded yet? Is it because we already know that he's in lockstep with the Mayor?
Jimbo, I'm an undecided voter but I can tell you that I wouldn't vote for Drago or Mota for not responding!
Why don't you point out that they haven't responded or are you supporting one of them? Also, I was told by my neighbor that you work for Sal Lamattina, now that sounds like conflict of interest and you never mention anywhere that you work for him! Interesting reporting ha!
JImbo why haven't you mentioned that 2 od the 4 candidates haven't responded. By the way you work for Sal Lamattina?
I think I know why you haven't said anything!
I'm down to 2 candidates as far as my vote and Drago and Mota are one of them because they have no stance.
Gloribell responded on August 3, 2007 10:12 PM
http://thehubsterblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/hubster-forum-week-1.html
A comment above seems to question my integrity, so allow me to clarify some things. I do, in fact, work a few hours a week for City Councilor Sal LaMattina. I haven’t attempted to hide that, and the four candidates are aware of it. I have some communications duties for the councilor, who asked me to help him out starting in February. It is not my main source of income.
I started the blog in January with no idea that anyone besides a few friends would bother to look at it. I am quite opinionated, and the blog is a vehicle for me to say what I think. The councilor has never mentioned the blog to me, and I have never mentioned it to him. I have no idea if he’s seen it or knows it exists. The work I do for him is done from my apartment, so I am not at City Hall that often. The councilor has never mentioned the House race to me, and if he were to ask me to moderate or change what I say or write or who I support, I would refuse to do so and resign from that job if need be.
What else? I’ve lived in East Boston for 40 of my nearly 45 years. I worked for quite a while at the Boys & Girls Club and taught, mostly English, at Savio High School. I wrote a column in 2000 and 2001 for the old East Boston Sun Transcript, which was usually given the heading “The View from Eastie.” I worked as a sports reporter and editor for two years for Current Publishing, which puts out eight weekly newspapers in suburban Portland, Maine. I went to Savio High School, and I have a journalism degree from Suffolk University. I have three godchildren, and my cousin makes the sausages at Santarpio’s.
I've known Carlo Basile since he was 5 years old, Jeff Drago since he was 16, and I met Mary Berninger several times a few years ago when her daughter was a student at Savio. I met Gloribell Mota for the first time at the Italia Unita feast and have run into her a few times since.
My hope is that the race for the 1st Suffolk seat will be about the issues, and that people will vote for whoever is the better candidate. Providing a forum for the candidates to respond to questions was not my idea, but was suggested to me by one of the candidates and then endorsed by a second candidate.
Three of the hopefuls have responded so far, and I have no idea if Jeff Drago knows about the forum, so I am not ready to condemn anyone. There is no time frame for response, other than the day of the election, and further, no one is under any obligation to respond.
As a voter, I am grateful to the candidates who do respond because I am interested in what they each have to say. As a blogger, I am grateful to anyone who takes the time to visit my site.
Good evening, Mr.Correale.
Actually, until I read your blog entry dated today, I had no idea that you worked in any capacity for Councilor LaMattina. Others may have been aware of your employment status with the Councilor. but I was not. Knowing it now does not detract from my enjoying your blog. I hope you will continue to stay neutral as a good journalist should.
Sincerely,
Mary Berninger
For one thing, mayor menino has been the mayor since 1993, he's done so much for Boston,they should rename the greenway after him,he done so much for the city, new sidewalks, paved streets,new elderly housing, new parks, low income housing, main streets program,it is an endless list- before 1993 most neighborhoods in boston were crumbling, roxbury, dorchester, jp, east boston hyde park only one neighborhood got most of the funding that was Ray flynn's south boston. My point here is that who ever the mayor is endorsing, my vote goes to that candidate, East Boston must carry on with big budget projects like the newly elderly housing on marion street,
and low income maverick housing, and more police officers in the neighborhood, in my 40 plus years living in East Boston, i've seen the neighborhood on its last leg with no sign of hope,in the post menino years, people selling their homes by the droves for hundreds of thousand below todays market values, those same people want to return here, but can't because they can't afford to. East Boston is on a great path now, the streets are always gleaming with no litter,
sidewalk is cracked , called the city , they will come and fix it right away, that is what I like about the menino administration.
Obviously the last poster is working on someone's campaign and is trying to be sneaky about it! That being said you obviously don't walk around East Boston which has broken sidewalks and streets that are full of thrash.
Yes the Mayor has done some good work but now he has become one of those politicians that feel that he somehow owns this position for life.If you are votingfor someone because another pol thinks he is the best than your not a self thinker and that's what sad with our society.
Now please stop thinking that people arent smart enough to read through the smoke screen and by the way, the mayor is showing good judgement by trying to push another embedded city hall worker.
I agree the Mayor has done good things but i don't like how involved he is in other races and how he runs former employees to push his agenda. If he has good ideas for how bthe state should be run he should run for State Representative in his Hyde Park neighborhood. I'll pick who represents me in this side of town.
Can anyone beat Carlo? Is Jeff "Italian" ENOUGH (we know Carlo is)? Can Mota mobilize her Latino base (probably about 100 registered voters)? These are important questions. But the most important question is where the candidates stand not only on the casino, but also on the casino support plan (which insiders tell me is at least two strip clubs along the Revere-Eastie line). Personally, I think the plan would be a boon to the area, providing excellent paying jobs and also significantly contributing to our tax base (the more commercial property in Eastie the lower our taxes will be). I would love to get a job there as a dancer. Anyway, I hope Carlo supports this plan, because I think he's going to win. He can work with Mayor Ambrosino to make this amenable to the folks in Eastie and Revere. At the end of the day, Jeff's connections to Mayor Menino may be irrelevant as to whether Eastie survives fiscally. It might instead come down to whether he, or Carlo or Mary or Gabby, can work with the elected officials (and non-elected officials) from our fair neighbor just north of us.
Jenni
I think a certain candidates background should come into question and then we should all ask ourselves if we want to endorse a man to take a political office seat knowing that he was forced out of his last job due to his shady dealings...
A Casino(means Donkey in Italian) in East Boston will put the lottery outlets in East Boston out of business, all of the degenerate lottery gamblers will flock to the new suffolk casino, having a new casino will mean more revenue for the state, and more jobs, studies have shown that the ledyard, CT foxwoods casino has done wonders for ledyard and surrounding towns, real estate prices skyrocketed
in ledyard alone, hoping it would do the same for East Boston revere,winthrop. It will be a resort destination just like mohegan sun and foxwood, musicians comedians high end resturaunts will all be in East Boston, only if the mayor and community leaders and suffolk downs owner agree on this one.
What in the world is going on in East Boston driving by putnam Sq I see brick sidewalks on all for corners of the sq, looks fantastic, looks a lot like beacon hill, I know it was completed a couple of years ago, but folks, what about the rest of east boston like marion, saratoga, princeton, lexington, border liverpool havre london paris st's are these streets not worthy enough to replace the cement with bricks, see that's what I don't like about other area's of East Boston they are receiving the royal treatment, newly paved streets close to piers park cottage and marginal and webster streets and what about st andrews rd up the heights trav territory paved rd every year, not right folks, people need to wake up
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