On Monday October 19 I discovered a message on my answering machine from Northampton's Ward 2 City Councilor Paul Spector. In his message he asked me to give him a call, so I did.
Our conversation lasted but a few minutes. He said he reads Redoubt and generally appreciates the research and writing I do, though he frequently disagrees with me on matters of city policy. Fair enough.
The conversation then turned to the incendiary September 16 email that was sent to supporters of the city's incumbent mayor, Mary Clare Higgins, by WHMP radio personality Bill Dwight. September 16 was the day after Higgins lost the preliminary mayoral election to Michael Bardsley by about 475 votes. In that email Dwight was trying to, "buck up," Higgins' supporters and referred to Bardsley's supporters and others he linked to Bardsley as, "angry yellers," "tea baggers," and, "angry white men." After about ten days the email had spread like a virus and made its way to the Bardsley campaign, who in turn released it to The Valley Advocate, The Daily Hampshire Gazette, The Springfield Republican and Northamptonmedia.com. It seems Bardsley knew about it before Higgins did. The story broke on Redoubt on September 26.
Since then reports on the Dwight email have appeared in the print editions of The Valley Advocate, The Springfield Republican and The Daily Hampshire Gazette, resulting in scores of comments posted online. At-Large Candidate Kathleen Silva responded with a letter to the editor published in the Gazette and with public comments delivered to the City Council. At least one other person named in the email, Kenneth Mitchell, feels he was defamed by Dwight leading to concerns about his ability to make a living in the city as a professional fundraiser. The story has become one of the overarching issues of the mayoral campaign and has revealed the soft underbelly of politics in the Paradise City, supposedly a progressive and diverse community welcoming to all.
Councilor Spector who is serving as a Higgins Volunteer Coordinator and as her Ward 2 Captain was included on the distribution list of that email and he acknowledges both receiving it and sending it on to others. He is the only one to publicly fess up to the deed of distributing the email as its other recipients have decided not to address the issue on their own to date, which is surprising.
The list of other original recipients includes a Higgins dead email account, Ward 4 City Councilor and current At-Large City Council Candidate David Narkewicz, Higgins Campaign Co-manager Lisa Baskin, Higgins Volunteer Coordinator and Ward 4 Captain Jean Hoose, Bill Dwight's brother-in-law and Higgins Ward 5 Captain Phil O'Donoghue who also serves as a Higgins Volunteer Coordinator, Corinne Philippides, Bill Rosen, JB Hoyt, Northampton Housing Authority Director Jon Hite and Jack Hornor.
For a time I expected the group or a member representing the group to pen a letter to the editor renouncing Dwight's words and apologizing, both to those named and to the greater public for engaging in this type of vitriol. But there has been no closure of this nature forthcoming.
For his part Spector's call was in response to questions I've raised regarding the number of people the email was forwarded to besides the above mentioned group. Spector acknowledged on Gazette's Talkback where he first apologized to Silva that he forwarded the email and the available evidence suggests Baskin did likewise. I've asked why Spector and Baskin have not come forward to inform the public as to how many people they forwarded Dwight's email to so Spector decided to respond.
He wants to apologize again and said he has personnally apologized to Silva. He added that forwarding that email was, "a stupid thing to do," and he regrets it. He also informs me that he remembers sending the email to about 10-15 people and no more. He said he did not send it to the YES email list.
Thanks Paul, for standing up and giving me a call.
