"Greenfield's Hatfields & McCoys"
(Note 5/4: I'm making this post public.)
So says WRSI The River morning host Monte Belmonte. I heard him and fellow local radio personality Chris Collins on the Bill Dwight show Tuesday, while driving to Springfield. Monte and Chris, apparently, had aimed to start a half-hour radio show on Greenfield politics to be broadcast from the People's Pint. And there was an e-mail campaign, started by former School Committee Chairman Greg Aubin, threatening a boycott of the Pint, because -- as Monte and Chris claimed -- Greg didn't want Collins on "his turf."
I haven't seen the e-mail and there seems to be only tweets about this on Aubin's Greenfield Optimist website. Apparently, the campaign suceeded and the show has been cancelled. This, says Belmonte, is another skirmish between the long-standing factions in Greenfield over the big-box issue, he calls them the "Hatfields and the McCoys." You can hear Belmonte and Dwight talk about it on Dwight's show at Dwight's podcast page (look for the MP3 under "April 28").
Collins wrote about the controversy in his Recorder column this morning. I looked, but it's not on the website. He wrote that he and Belmonte had intended the show to "help bring both sides of the caustic Greenfield development debate a little closer together." He writes later down that he believes the central issue of the upcoming Mayoral race is "which candidate will do the best job bringing together what my future co-host bas come to refer to as the Hatfields and the McCoys." You can hear some of Belmonte's commentary on his River audio page. And there is some conversation at The River forum.
I haven't commented here at all on the Greenfield mayoral race, although it promises to be a doozy. The preliminary election was held last Tuesday -- which caught me by surprise, I was out of town and didn't make it back in time to vote -- and the incumbent mayor, Christine Forgey, finished third out of four candidates and therefore won't be on the ballot for the June election. The top two candidates were town councilors Al Siano and Bill Martin. Forgey has been mayor for the past six years and is Greenfield's first mayor. So this election may turn out to be one just as momentous as the one I wrote about for the Valley Advocate four years ago. It was called "A Battle for the Soul of Greenfield." I can't find it on the archives now, but I can find one I wrote in 2006 about Collins and his role in the divide. (For the record, though I guffaw at Collin's apparent surprise at being labeled "the bad guy" on Dwight's show -- he's been a combatant in Greenfield's factional skirmishes -- I applaud his efforts to start dialogue and have always respected his political analysis -- if not his claims of objectivity.) I find it annoying to try to link to articles in the archive, so I'm going to copy the whole thing below the jump.
Bully Politics
In Greenfield's mayoral race, it's another chorus of the subterranean big box blues.
Count on Chris Collins to go straight for the open nerve. In last week's mayoral debate at the Greenfield Senior Center, the redoubtable talk show host and Recorder columnist lobbed this loaded question at mayoral challenger Dalton Athey: "Is a vote for Dalton Athey a vote for Al Norman?" You could feel the temperature in the room rise as the gathered crowd let out a gasp and a groan. You see, being asked if you are associated with Al "Sprawlbuster" Norman is, among the current powers-that-be in Greenfield, the equivalent of being asked if you are or ever have been a member of the Communist Party -- and by the way, Senator McCarthy wants to know.
Greenfield has been stuck in this acrimonious debate for at least 13 years, since it famously voted down a zoning change that would have brought Wal-Mart to town. Al Norman made his name as an anti-Wal-Mart crusader by helping to organize that vote. But in the past four years, Greenfield's body politic has seemingly changed its mood on big box stores, with a pro-growth cadre backing Forgey in her mayoral election three years ago and then a slate of pro-growth town councilors two years ago (see "A Battle for the Soul of Greenfield," June 3, 2004).
In the debate, Athey said he hadn't talked to Norman and that his town council record was solidly pro-growth. He admitted that he has support from people who opposed the French King rezoning and are suspicious of the renewed effort to bring a Wal-Mart to town. But he said he had supporters from across the political spectrum in Greenfield.
Stung, Athey tried to resort to Collins' tactics and asked Mayor Christine Forgey why it was that the Merrigan family--a politically influential Greenfield family that includes Governor's Council candidate Thomas Merrigan--is now supporting Forgey when three years ago they supported her opponent, Ed Berlin. It was a clumsy move and Forgey sidestepped it, calling Athey on his inartful use of the term "blood feud" and saying that she would "take the high road" and not answer the question.
Score one for Collins and score one for pro-growth cheerleader Penny Rickets, who has repeated "A vote for Dalton Athey is a vote for Al Norman" often enough to call it the unofficial Forgey campaign slogan. Greenfield is the city (er, town) where I live. And I have to admit, I'm baffled by Greenfield politics these days. On June 13, Greenfield voters will go to the polls and the only choice they'll have is the one at the top of the ballot, where Forgey, Greenfield's first mayor, faces off against Athey.
Despite a stark division in town over growth, the pro-growth councilors seeking re-election are running unopposed. The so-called "smart growth" set couldn't find candidates to run. I know because they asked me to run (and you won't see my name on the ballot).
And I fear that the mayor's race--no matter how many times both candidates profess to be issues-oriented and taking the high road--will largely be decided by just the sort of subterranean rumor-mongering and factional infighting that Collins alluded to in his question. In my view, that's just what happened three years ago, when frontrunner Ed Berlin was the target of an ugly whisper campaign and Forgey emerged from a pack of nine candidates (a pack that included Athey), placing second to Berlin in the preliminary election and then eating him for lunch in the general election.
That's not to slight Forgey. But even if she's not an active participant in the phenomenon--and I don't think she is--she has become the mayor of a city that's sliding into a culture of bully politics. A city where smart, responsible citizens will be scared away from participating because they don't feel they "fit in" with the city's dominant political culture, and they will be labeled and heckled if they so much as get seen in public talking to the wrong people. And no amount of smiling and gee-whiz positivism will change that.
So says WRSI The River morning host Monte Belmonte. I heard him and fellow local radio personality Chris Collins on the Bill Dwight show Tuesday, while driving to Springfield. Monte and Chris, apparently, had aimed to start a half-hour radio show on Greenfield politics to be broadcast from the People's Pint. And there was an e-mail campaign, started by former School Committee Chairman Greg Aubin, threatening a boycott of the Pint, because -- as Monte and Chris claimed -- Greg didn't want Collins on "his turf."
I haven't seen the e-mail and there seems to be only tweets about this on Aubin's Greenfield Optimist website. Apparently, the campaign suceeded and the show has been cancelled. This, says Belmonte, is another skirmish between the long-standing factions in Greenfield over the big-box issue, he calls them the "Hatfields and the McCoys." You can hear Belmonte and Dwight talk about it on Dwight's show at Dwight's podcast page (look for the MP3 under "April 28").
Collins wrote about the controversy in his Recorder column this morning. I looked, but it's not on the website. He wrote that he and Belmonte had intended the show to "help bring both sides of the caustic Greenfield development debate a little closer together." He writes later down that he believes the central issue of the upcoming Mayoral race is "which candidate will do the best job bringing together what my future co-host bas come to refer to as the Hatfields and the McCoys." You can hear some of Belmonte's commentary on his River audio page. And there is some conversation at The River forum.
I haven't commented here at all on the Greenfield mayoral race, although it promises to be a doozy. The preliminary election was held last Tuesday -- which caught me by surprise, I was out of town and didn't make it back in time to vote -- and the incumbent mayor, Christine Forgey, finished third out of four candidates and therefore won't be on the ballot for the June election. The top two candidates were town councilors Al Siano and Bill Martin. Forgey has been mayor for the past six years and is Greenfield's first mayor. So this election may turn out to be one just as momentous as the one I wrote about for the Valley Advocate four years ago. It was called "A Battle for the Soul of Greenfield." I can't find it on the archives now, but I can find one I wrote in 2006 about Collins and his role in the divide. (For the record, though I guffaw at Collin's apparent surprise at being labeled "the bad guy" on Dwight's show -- he's been a combatant in Greenfield's factional skirmishes -- I applaud his efforts to start dialogue and have always respected his political analysis -- if not his claims of objectivity.) I find it annoying to try to link to articles in the archive, so I'm going to copy the whole thing below the jump.
Bully Politics
In Greenfield's mayoral race, it's another chorus of the subterranean big box blues.
Count on Chris Collins to go straight for the open nerve. In last week's mayoral debate at the Greenfield Senior Center, the redoubtable talk show host and Recorder columnist lobbed this loaded question at mayoral challenger Dalton Athey: "Is a vote for Dalton Athey a vote for Al Norman?" You could feel the temperature in the room rise as the gathered crowd let out a gasp and a groan. You see, being asked if you are associated with Al "Sprawlbuster" Norman is, among the current powers-that-be in Greenfield, the equivalent of being asked if you are or ever have been a member of the Communist Party -- and by the way, Senator McCarthy wants to know.
Greenfield has been stuck in this acrimonious debate for at least 13 years, since it famously voted down a zoning change that would have brought Wal-Mart to town. Al Norman made his name as an anti-Wal-Mart crusader by helping to organize that vote. But in the past four years, Greenfield's body politic has seemingly changed its mood on big box stores, with a pro-growth cadre backing Forgey in her mayoral election three years ago and then a slate of pro-growth town councilors two years ago (see "A Battle for the Soul of Greenfield," June 3, 2004).
In the debate, Athey said he hadn't talked to Norman and that his town council record was solidly pro-growth. He admitted that he has support from people who opposed the French King rezoning and are suspicious of the renewed effort to bring a Wal-Mart to town. But he said he had supporters from across the political spectrum in Greenfield.
Stung, Athey tried to resort to Collins' tactics and asked Mayor Christine Forgey why it was that the Merrigan family--a politically influential Greenfield family that includes Governor's Council candidate Thomas Merrigan--is now supporting Forgey when three years ago they supported her opponent, Ed Berlin. It was a clumsy move and Forgey sidestepped it, calling Athey on his inartful use of the term "blood feud" and saying that she would "take the high road" and not answer the question.
Score one for Collins and score one for pro-growth cheerleader Penny Rickets, who has repeated "A vote for Dalton Athey is a vote for Al Norman" often enough to call it the unofficial Forgey campaign slogan. Greenfield is the city (er, town) where I live. And I have to admit, I'm baffled by Greenfield politics these days. On June 13, Greenfield voters will go to the polls and the only choice they'll have is the one at the top of the ballot, where Forgey, Greenfield's first mayor, faces off against Athey.
Despite a stark division in town over growth, the pro-growth councilors seeking re-election are running unopposed. The so-called "smart growth" set couldn't find candidates to run. I know because they asked me to run (and you won't see my name on the ballot).
And I fear that the mayor's race--no matter how many times both candidates profess to be issues-oriented and taking the high road--will largely be decided by just the sort of subterranean rumor-mongering and factional infighting that Collins alluded to in his question. In my view, that's just what happened three years ago, when frontrunner Ed Berlin was the target of an ugly whisper campaign and Forgey emerged from a pack of nine candidates (a pack that included Athey), placing second to Berlin in the preliminary election and then eating him for lunch in the general election.
That's not to slight Forgey. But even if she's not an active participant in the phenomenon--and I don't think she is--she has become the mayor of a city that's sliding into a culture of bully politics. A city where smart, responsible citizens will be scared away from participating because they don't feel they "fit in" with the city's dominant political culture, and they will be labeled and heckled if they so much as get seen in public talking to the wrong people. And no amount of smiling and gee-whiz positivism will change that.