The popular spin on Gene Tacy's write-in candidacy for Northampton mayor was that while he was hardly a contender, the competition at least allowed for a healthy debate on the issues. All the same, it's hard to imagine a campaign where the candidates' records played less of a role.
Tacy's campaign seemed to focus on the technicalities of filling out a write-in ballot. When I first saw his lawn signs, I wondered if his "connect the arrow" statement was to remind voters that a great many of this year's disasters (Academy going belly-up, destruction of Old Main, demolition of Green Street, expansion of the landfill into Easthampton's water supply, the Pulaski Park hotel project) all stemmed from mismanagement at city hall. Only when I went to his position-free website did I realize Gene wasn't the kind of guy to use metaphor. What you saw was all you got.
Mayor Higgins' bid for re-election focused on how little money or energy she was spending on her campaign in comparison with Tacy. Rather than confronting the criticism aimed at her, the mayor said disagreement was healthy, but then refused to even name the disagreements, much less explain her position. Anything that had happened more than a few weeks ago was deemed old news and irrelevant.
If there was anything enlightening (or entertaining) about the campaign, it was watching the mayor's clique sweat a little in the weeks before the vote, trying to put a bright face on what had been a bad year.
Councilmen Mike Bardsley and David Narkewicz seemed to realize that their political futures would be in jeopardy if their mayor and mentor were to be unseated, and both sought to stop the hemorrhaging of public goodwill by proposing legislation promising that they would try harder to care about what their electorate thought. Councilman David Murphy did his best to eliminate the negative by running rose-tinted ads that sought to turn Northampton's frown upside down. And he ended up with a negligible margin of victory that will likely be recounted. Indeed, all the contested council seat races were close.
The hardest working non-employee in the mayor's non-campaign, though, seemed to be former city councilman Bill Dwight. His near-complete roster of candidate interviews on his radio show on WHMP gave some insight into the character of those running, but instead of delving into candidates' positions on recent issues, he appeared often to be running interference for Higgins, interjecting city hall's successes into the conversation and steering around its failures. Only after WHMP's Eggs and Issues debate with the mayoral candidates did Dwight acknowledge his support for Higgins. Incensed by what he saw as an omission on the part of the debate's moderators, he finally came up with a probing question, demanding to know why Tacy would run for mayor when he owed back taxes. Fair enough—only Tacy wasn't present to answer.
Each day on the Bill Dwight show, an opening montage of voices has Mayor Higgins telling the world to learn from the successes and failures of those who went before us. It's alarming that Northampton doesn't appear ready to use this advice when selecting a mayor. What has happened in Northampton in the past 10 months or 10 years is not "old news." It's the political record of the current administration. If candidates are unwilling to defend their past, we are left with nothing but a popularity contest. Let the coolest clique win.
