Medford Police Patrolmen's Association Endorses Michael J. Callahan For State Senate

Medford Police Patrolmen's Association endorses Callahan for state Senator

By George P. Hassett

     The Medford Police Patrolmen's Association today announced its endorsement in the August 30th special election for the late Charles E. Shannon's 2nd Middlesex Senate District seat.

      The labor organization said they gave its support to Michael J. Callahan because of Callahan's commitment to protecting worker bargaining rights and pension benefits.

      "Michael is a dedicated public servant who has represented the people of Medford with skill and integrity. His record of achievement on the Consumer Advisory Commission and the Massachusetts Governor's Council doesn't just tell me it shows me that he is the right guy for the job," said Harry MacGilvray, President of the 90 member Police Patrolmen's Association.

       Callahan said he reacted with pleasure and pride when he heard the news.

       "I am very pleased to receive this important endorsement from the Medford Police Patrolmen's Association. Having a well-trained, well-educated and solidly-equipped police department is a top priority for me. It keeps officers safe and it keeps the community safe," he said.

Comments

[goJehlen]

Why does this paper keep covering every little endorsement Callahan gets? Why do none of the other candidates get this kind of coverage? Are we reading the Somerville Callahan!?

[goanybodybut jehlen]

the other candidates are getting lots of press.
jehlen has already announced endorsements from every
left wing-ultra liberal group in area. read the papers go jehlen.

[caseysucks]

so does that mean that casey isn't getting any endorsements? i haven't seen any.

[gocasey]

Casey has been endorsed time and time again by the good people of winchester, stoneham and reading for nearly twenty years now. He the most qualified candidate for the job and i hope everyone doesn't get blinded by phony endorsements such as Jehlen and the PDS (a group she helped found) and Callahan and NAGE (a union that he WORKS FOR!!!). C'mon folks...you are smarter than that.

[caseydoesntdeserveit]

Casey has been endorsed by the people of Winchester, Reading and Stoneham for twenty years-what a laugh. Maybe he should stay over there in Winchester and Stoneham and Reading with the rest of those silver-spoon-in-mouth elitists. He is lucky to have his daddy's business to fall back on if his HOBBY of politics doesnt work out. I wish i were that lucky.

[caseysucks]

hahahaha. "lucky to have daddy's business ..." that is hilarious.

[mannyortez]

Finally, a candidate that cares about our safety. With all of the gang and drug problems in Somerville I am pleased to finally see a public safety union endorse a candidate in this senate race. While gangs and oxy contin have been destroying our community nobody has done anything to fight back. Jehlen opposes the anti-gang loitering ordinance, and voted against putting additional police officers on our streets and now she wants to be Senator!! She cant even represent the people in her Rep district and now she wants to push her radical agenda onto the rest of Somerville Medford, Winchester and Woburn. She is not worthy of a being a State Rep never mind Senator. John Corbett, Denny McKenna and Charlie Shannon must be having a good laugh over this one.

[mannyortez]

Finally, a candidate that cares about our safety. With all of the gang and drug problems in Somerville I am pleased to finally see a public safety union endorse a candidate in this senate race. While gangs and oxy contin have been destroying our community nobody has done anything to fight back. Jehlen opposes the anti-gang loitering ordinance, and voted against putting additional police officers on our streets and now she wants to be Senator!! She cant even represent the people in her Rep district and now she wants to push her radical agenda onto the rest of Somerville Medford, Winchester and Woburn. She is not worthy of a being a State Rep never mind Senator. John Corbett, Denny McKenna and Charlie Shannon must be having a good laugh over this one.

[kim]

The nage endorsemnt of callahan should be an embarrasment to callahan. Steve Bailey at the Globe has done an excellent job recently exposing the greed and corruption of nage leader Dave Holway. (see below) In direct violation of the nage constitution Holway is collecting over $100,000 for the thoroughbred breeders association of mass. Doesn't Callahan have something to do with the state racing commission? As a senator do you think he'd lift his pinky to delete the state law which funnels money to Holway? Callahn, Holway are the epitome of the old white boy network that have been working system for thier own profit for years.
From Bailey's 4/29 column:
"Holway calls himself a reformer, but he got his job the old-fashioned way: by helping to depose his predecessor and onetime pal, NAGE founder Ken Lyons, a union man with his own considerable baggage. If Holway is a union reformer, it is a better bet than any you'll get at Suffolk Downs that he is the only union reformer anywhere who runs a horse breeders association on the side -- and gets paid handsomely for it. NAGE and the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeders Association, an unlikely pairing, do have at least two things in common: Both are run by Holway, and both are hurting financially.

Neither Holway nor the SEIU will talk about his second job. ''Have fun," Holway told me, and hung up. ''Good luck on your story," says SEIU spokesman Ben Boyd. ''I'll have no comment from a SEIU perspective on Mr. Holway."

Let's go to the records then. According to the organization's website, board minutes, and the state auditor's office, Holway is the executive director of the breeders association, a group designed to encourage thoroughbred breeding in Massachusetts. The group's website lists Holway's home -- the one in Cambridge, not the one in Martha's Vineyard -- as its mailing address. Suzanne Swaim, who answers the phone at the association, at first confirmed that Holway is the executive director, but then called back in a panic to say he was only ''covering" for his sick brother who is executive director. Not so, says the state auditor's office, which earlier this year completed an audit: David Holway is the executive director -- even if he doesn't want to talk about it.

It is good work if you can get it. The group is funded through a small levy on races at Suffolk Downs. In 2003, for instance, the group received $1.5 million from Suffolk Downs, the auditor's report says. The group's website notes that Holway, a longtime lobbyist who cut his teeth on Beacon Hill working for a fellow Cambridge homeboy, former House Speaker Charles Flaherty, worked ''without charge" to help secure that funding. What it doesn't note, but the auditor's report does, is that Holway gets 7.5 percent of the group's revenue from the track, or about $112,000 in 2003 using that formula. He would have been paid about $106,000 the previous year using the same formula."

[isthisacampaignforumnow?]

Well,I guess this blog has turned into the campaign times. Does anyone believe that a private citizen went through all the trouble to research the background of an ELECTED union President. The above blog is a shameful and surely the handy work of some campaign staffer-one who didnt check her facts. If i remeber correctly Ken Lyons was removed as NAGE President after National President Andrew Stearn seized the union from Lyons when he was caught wining and dining the Commonwealth's HRD Director and then destroyed legal documents proving this violation. Hey, but what do I know I am only represented by NAGE as a member of the IBPO.

[Facts]

Read the post - a private citizen didn't do the research, a journalist did. And, it's not too hard to do a quick online search on a subject you care about. NAGE people and other unions are out there plugging Callahan for one reason - his past on the racing commission and his support for anything relating to the tracks. And how much does this Louis C. person stand to make from slots coming to the tracks? Follow the money...

: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=dave%20holway%20AND%20date(last%2012%20months)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=-12qzM&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=("dave%20holway")&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no

[kim]

Dear "isthisacampaignforumnow" I am a member of nage. I work as a receptionist in DOR. You're right Lyons was a crook and should have been canned. I had hope that Holway would be different; but he is not. What happend a few years ago was simply a falling out amongst theives. He is ripping off the nage membership like you and me just as bad a lyons did, if not worse. The Globe reports his combined public income is over $340,000 per year. That is only what is on the public record. Can you imagine what else he is skimming off the top for himself. Callahan was hired by lyons, has no track record of reform and will obviously continue to let the likes of Holway to continue feeding off the backs of tax payers and members of the union.
Kim

[caseysucks]

here is what adam reilly wrote about the race in the phoenix this week. i don't agree with his take on the race, but here is hoping he takes a deeper look:

Handicapping the Second Middlesex special election

So far, the race to replace State Senator Charles Shannon — who died of leukemia-related complications in April — hasn’t received the attention that was paid to this spring’s special House elections, which saw Linda Dorcena Forry and Michael Moran succeed Tom Finneran and Brian Golden. And given the drama inherent in those races (see, respectively, "The New Bostonians," News and Features, December 10, 2004, and "Great Golden’s Ghost!", News and Features, February 25), it probably never will.

Still, as the August 30 Democratic primary for Shannon’s Second Middlesex seat — which includes Medford, Somerville, Winchester, and Woburn — draws closer, it’s worth paying attention to the course of the race, which offers a test case for the growing progressive momentum in state politics. Right now, the liberal candidate of choice in the Second Middlesex race seems to be State Representative Pat Jehlen, a lefty stalwart who’s received a bevy of endorsements from groups like MassEquality, the Commonwealth Coalition, and Neighbor to Neighbor. Democracy for America also just added her to its list of national endorsees.

Jehlen isn’t the only candidate targeting the district’s liberal voters, however. Joseph Mackey, who held Jehlen’s Somerville-based seat before she was elected in 1990, has been vying for many of the same endorsements and seems intent on peeling off as much of her base as possible. He may get some help from former Somerville mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay, who’s backing Mackey and recently told the Boston Globe that Jehlen — who was consigned to the State House margins during the Finneran era — "has not been able to deliver much to her constituents." (A Jehlen-campaign source scoffs at the charge, noting that Kelly Gay was trounced in her 2003 re-election effort by challenger Joe Curtatone.)

Still, if Mackey manages to chip away at Jehlen’s base in Somerville — which has about 42 percent of the district’s population — the two other Democratic candidates might take advantage. When Michael Callahan, a Medford resident and member of the Governor’s Council, announced his candidacy at Somerville’s Good Times Emporium last month, state auditor Joe DeNucci was on hand to sing his praises. If DeNucci takes an active interest in the race, Callahan could become a viable candidate, especially since Medford contains about 40 percent of the district’s electorate. Then there’s Paul Casey, a state representative from Winchester, who has the advantage of running as a sitting legislator. Winchester has just 14 percent of the Second Middlesex’s electoral base, but Casey’s opposition to gay marriage could make him a popular choice among moderate-to-conservative voters in other parts of the district. (Jehlen supported gay marriage at last year’s Constitutional Convention; Mackey has also staked out a pro-gay marriage stance.)

As is often the case in state politics, whoever wins the Democratic primary will be the heavy favorite in the general election, scheduled for September 27. Thus far, Somerville alderman-at-large Bill White is the only Republican candidate to declare. "The reality is that any one of these four candidates could win," says a source close to the race. "That doesn’t mean they have equal chances of winning. But I can certainly see how any one of them could pull it off."

[jared]

I recently heard that mike callahan is trying to buy up all of sen. shannon's old staffers in a pathetic attempt to land frontrunner status....sad

[silkworm]

hey, maybe caseysucks can land a job with callahan...oh wait..sounds like he already works for him

[caseysucks]

i haven't decided yet who i am voting for. however, i do know who i am NOT voting for ... and that is crybaby casey.

[Out of control Medford cop]

To Mike Callahan and other Medford elected officials including Rep Scortino, there is an out of control cop on the Medford Police Department by the name of Sergeant Barry. This cop is way out of line and completely out of control. He is a liar and a liability to the people of Medford. This man should be put inside the police station and be ordered on desk duty before he hurts someone out on the streets. An internal investigation should be assigned for him along with a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he is safe around the public especially carrying a firearm. Please look into this matter because we are all watching the outcome of this situation. This will not go away!

[Medford cop is out of contol]

To the author of the "Out of control Medford Cop article." I can relate to what you are talking about. We have received numerous complaints in the past months regarding this
Sergeant and most recently this week. Also today there were a couple of Somerville News Reporters roaming around parts of Medford and also in and about the station inquiring information about him also. He gets himself in these predicaments then has to hide behind other sergeants and lieutenants to cover his ass. I personally am glad that someone has the balls to go after him like this. It must be the guy from the news. He deserves it! A superior has to control him ASAP before he hurts someone.

[Crissy]

I know the police officer that you are talking about, he's really not a bad guy. He is a bit of a hot head at times. Maybe a bit of Bi-o-pola involved. He became like this after he announced that his sexual preferences were other men. Please give him a break.

[A friend]

Barry's a ok cop. He means well but has a hard time showing it. Get to know him before you judge him!

[George]

Most Medford cops tend to be a touch arrogant and persuasive as long as I've have been living here its been the same! They have to engage in an anti brutality course! I'm surprised they have been getting away with this as long as they have been. But they are also the best in blue around the area! Hopefully this will be an eye-opener for us.

[louis c]

Well, if you want to know who this louis c guy is, I'm the President of IBEW Local 123, and we just endorsed Callahan for Senate. I represent the workers at Suffolk Downs and I stand to make nothing except to keep my job and help those I represent. Jehlen's position on slots is the same as Jeb Bush, mine and Callahan's is the same as the AFL-CIO.

Louis Ciarlone, President and Business Manager of IBEW Local 123, AFL-CIO.

Now, big mouth, post your name.

[louis c]

By the way, my above post was in response to "facts". I just wanted him or her to have them.

[Mary]

Good enough for me, He got my vote!