Decision Time or Yard Signs Don't Vote

Three years ago Kathy Fagan threw her hat into the ring for a seat on the Board of Selectman. Although she had been involved in town affairs, she was unknown to many Milton residents. She ran on a legitimate platform for change, responding to a clear groundswell of feeling that the most important Board of Town Government simply didn’t represent a town much changed over the last 20 years. She vowed to focus on tackling problems the town faces rather than trying to turn the clock back to a time that is gone forever.

She took this message to the voters in her intelligent, energetic and respectful way. They responded, and she won, defeating incumbent James Mullen in a close race. In the three years since she has begun to deliver on issues she campaigned on. That’s why I endorsed her three weeks ago.

But much remains to be done. And those who see change and progress as a threat are poised to attempt to defeat her. If we look at the campaign of her opponent, it differs in style but not content from her opponent three years ago. His campaign themes are meaningless (Putting the taxpayer first), contradictory (smart growth/ commercial development only in commercial districts), or code for no overrides (Be fiscally accountable). Supporter and loser in the race three years ago James Mullen attended the COA debate and in his loud way asked a question about the last override to make sure opponents of overrides got the message.

Rather than addressing any of the challenges we face in a thoughtful way, the Sweeney campaign has spread false rumors about Fagan’s stance on dense residential housing on the Governor Stoughton land. They’re trolling for votes on private ways telling people they going to lose free plowing, clearly an issue of monumental importance to the future of the town. And then there is Mr. Sweeney’s response to a question about diversity at the first Selectman’s debate. I print his answer verbatim.

“I fully understand your question, and I do believe there’s a minority population out there that feels a bit isolated. In my case, after about the second night of town meeting, I deliberately made an attempt to meet with some African American people who shared the same view as I did on the Temple issue and I talked to them in the back and I was really trying to lead them, to get them involved and to let them know there was certainly one town meeting member that welcomed their input, and recently I’ve spoken to an African American gentleman from Precinct 1 who’s upset about the issue and he’s a candidate for town meeting. So I think in terms of the issue of minorities I think we need to reach our hand out to them a little bit better. They’re part of the community, and they’re welcome so long as they do what the rest of us do –work hard, contribute, etc., and I think we could improve our relations in that area.”

Do we really want to go thru this again. I have no reason to believe there is a hateful bone in Mr. Sweeney’s body. But the sheer insensitivity, and blindness to prejudice that statement represents is astounding. Diversity is reduced to reaching out on condition of agreeing with him politically, and on not exhibiting traits he apparently associates with certain non-white groups.

Let’s focus on the serious challenges we face as a community, a whole community. Get out and vote for Kathy Fagan for Selectman on Tuesday.