Egremont 2011 Election

This is the first of four entries I plan on the 2011 selectman election.

Several people - both Egremonters and outsiders - have asked me or Laura how she managed to lose. The answer is the skill, organization and diligence of the Flynn team. They outperformed my efforts as Laura's de facto campaign manager by a mile.

The team began preparing promptly after the 2010 election. They thought Bruce Cumsky would run for reelection in 2011, and their dislike for him was so strong that they would do anything to defeat him. Their first task was finding a very strong candidate, because Cumsky was a formidable opponent. The best they could do was Charlie Flynn, who had campaigned vigorously for Bruce Turner in 2010 and had endeared himself to the "defeat Cumsky" team.

Flynn had several election weaknesses, such as his being a staunch conservative in a town filled with liberals and that his election would put a second school employee on the selectboard, a potentially serious conflict. So the team's strategy was to downplay Flynn's positions and instead concentrate on Cumsky.

By the time Cumsky decided not to run for reelection, the team was so dedicated to defeating him that they couldn't help but be adamantly opposed to whoever replaced him. Transferring their dislike to Laura - which at first blush seems to be irrational - was not difficult since they considered her to be "too close to Cumsky" - a mantra they repeated often during the campaign - and they disliked her husband almost as much as they disliked Cumsky. The unfairness of that to Laura - and the patently sexist character of it - was disregarded.

It was not easy to attack Laura as if she were Cumsky. One of the members of the Flynn team (Peter Goldberg) even told Laura shortly before the election that he would have supported her had he known she would be running instead of Cumsky. So not surprisingly there were no attacks on her or her positions throughout the campaign. She was attacked solely through guilt by association.

Two events that could easily have swung the election to Laura were skillfully turned by the team to Flynn's benefit. First, the members of the finance committee publicly supported Laura because of the conflict issues that would inevitably arise from Flynn's being a school employee and member of the Southern Berkshire school committee. Bruce Turner is already disqualified from considering school issues as a result of being an employee of the school district and Flynn may well end up in the same position. The Flynn team quickly cobbled up a claim that the endorsement - which most of us, and the courts, would consider an exercise of First Amendment rights - somehow constituted an ethical violation. That caused voters to focus on the alleged violation and not on the substance of the conflict issue.

The second event was the discovery by someone of Flynn's own Facebook page, which clearly demonstrated his very conservative leanings. The page was widely emailed to voters. That event was cleverly blunted by the Flynn team by a widely distributed email claiming, with no factual support, that Laura was just as conservative as Flynn. Furthermore, the email stressed the theme that Flynn was actually running against Cumsky. While clearly insulting, the email swung at least a handful of voters back to Flynn.

I admire the tactics of the Flynn team if not its standards. As Laura's de facto campaign manager, had I been more aggressive in exposing those tactics, Laura might well have won.

Vendetta

The members of the finance committee publicly supported Laura Allen for selectman in the last election. Bruce Turner and Charlie Flynn don't like that. They don't think finance committee members should be able to express their support for a candidate. If this indefensible position were just an electioneering ploy, it would be reprehensible but transitory. But Turner and Flynn are on a vendetta against the finance committee. Don't believe it? Listen to their own words, spoken at the most recent selectboard meeting, well after the election:

Bruce Turner:

"I’ve got a concern that I’d like to make . . . . It troubles me that we have a finance committee that’s more concerned about the politics of this town rather than the business of this town. I also think it’s very unfortunate that they attack members of the board and members looking to be elected to the board because of the jobs we possess. As you know, we live in an area that doesn’t have a lot of good jobs around, and having a good job working with the school district I think is as good a job as any of the manufacturing jobs and a lot better than the manufacturing jobs in the area because we don’t have manufacturing in this area. We’ve become a very service-oriented community. . . . I’m deeply concerned and deeply troubled with the finance committee that we have now and I’m making that as an expression of my concern tonight."

Charles Flynn:

"As people may or may not be aware, because of the actions of the finance committee I have filed an ethics complaint with the state of Massachusetts as well as an open meeting law complaint with the state of Massachusetts. I would like to have a good relationship with this finance committee because I think it’s critical that the selectboard and the finance committee work closely together. If one were to look at the bylaws and look at Massachusetts general laws, the finance committee is an independent body that is to look after the finances of the town. And as Bruce said, it’s not a political body. I think those boundaries were stepped over during the election. Consequently, I do not feel that the current reappointees are people that I can support. . ."

P.S.: (1) No one on the finance committee attacked anyone "because of the jobs they possess." The members just pointed out their concern about the conflict issues that will arise if we have two selectmen who are closely affiliated with our schools. And they were right: those conflict issues have already arisen because of the rejection of the school budget and the school bond issue by two of the towns in our school district. And they'll keep arising, meaning we'll have only one independent selectman to protect the taxpayers and two who will often have to recuse themeselves, or worse. (2) The business of the town is somehow separate from the politics of the town? Not in this universe. (3) There is nothing in law or logic that makes one board or committee a "political body" and another one not. Where do they come up with this stuff? (4) Flynn's two complaints are specious. Town counsel has previously told the selectboard that muzzling the political views of town position holders violates their first amendment rights; and there was no violation of the open meeting law because the finance committee never met on the subject of Laura's candidacy. (5) The qualifications of the current members of the finance committee are really impressive. We're lucky to have them. Turner and Flynn just want people they can push around.