Tag Archives: State Representative

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

Next Tuesday, Nov. 6, please vote for Mary Keefe for state rep, District 15 …

By Rosalie Tirella

OK, so state rep (Worcester District 15) hopeful Mary Keefe and I will never be best buds. And we won’t be drinking our vanilla creme Green Mountain coffee with her campaign manager Kevin Ksen any time soon. But we have to admit: We have always agreed with these two on the issues – and backed them up. Prickly personalities, aside.

Kevin Ksen and ChaCha Connor were able to run a huge piece in Incity Times on the state of our municipal pools. Cha Cha and Kevin led the charge to have our neighborhood pools fixed and even went so far as to get estimates from contractors down South. We ran EVERYTHING because 1. they worked so hard and their work deserved to be seen by the public and 2. WE AGREED WITH THEM. We wanted the city manager to get behind Kevin and all the neighborhood folks who were behind this project. That didn’t happen. The neighborhoods were betrayed.

We also agreed with Ksen re: rebuffing the COPS show from Worcester. That reality TV show would have made the City of Worcester one freakin’ big stereotype – hurt the very people the show claims to want to help (bull!).

We were and are fans of Barb Haller, and believed she was better for District 4 than Keefe, who ran for that council seat several years ago. But when it comes to District 15, Keefe is the gal for us. We urge you to vote for her. We urge you to vote for Mary Keefe NEXT TUESDAY because she is RIGHT on all the issues.

Mary Keefe will:

* fight to keep low-income residents in the Piedmont neighborhood. There are some efforts to do a bit of gentrifying in the ol ‘hood. We are OK with making things prettier and yummier, but we are AGAINST displacing good neighborhood families or men/women just because they are poor. Keefe is promising to keep the low-income housing complex on Pleasant Street low-income, so families who have lived there for years can continue to live there.

* Bring jobs to Piedmont. Forget about the coffee barristas! We want jobs in Peidmont! We want light industry there, factories where people can get jobs that pay $11 or $15 an hour. Not great dough but better than minimum wage jobs. Better than the Work a Day crap lots of Peidmont residents must take to keep on keepin’ on. We are tired of poor people being exploited. Mary Keefe will work to make sure they are not exploited.

* Keefe will also fight to increase the state minimum wage, which is a joke. She herself said that given high housing costs and daily living expenses, the minimum wage “just doesn’t cut it.” Right on, Mary! Go, girl, go!

Minimum wage blows. I was raised in Green Island by a (wonderful) single mom who had a minimum wage job (when the minimum wage was actually worth much more than it is today). She worked 40 hours for regular pay and 20 under the table. BRUTAL. For her and us kids. We never had a car. We never went on vacations. We just all worked, ate, studied hard at school and prayed for better days. A tough way to live. Keefe gets that. She will work to make sure that if you work full time in Massachusetts you will earn a paycheck that will allow you to survive – pay your bills – and maybe then some.

We must stop punishing poor people. Mary knows this.

We also like wahat Keefe has done as director of the Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center. She has run a youth jobs program (which she wrote about in InCity Times several years ago). She helped women get together and create the Winslow Peace Park after a neighborhood youth was gunned down and died. The neighborhood women were welcomed by Mary Keefe into the neighborhood center, where they mourned the death of the youth but moved beyond the pain and created a lovely park in the middle of the innercity – in his honor. A symbol of hope.

We see Keefe as a symbol of hope for all the folks who need some lifting up! We know she will represent District 15 – all its people – with honor and grace!

Vote for Mary Keefe, District 15, state representative.

Go, Mary, GO!!!!

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

Oh, Brother! (or: Mayor Joe O’Brien sighting in Holden!)

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By Rosalie Tirella

How demoralizing. How weird … .

A week ago I tried to make an appointment with Worcester Mayor Joseph O’Brien. Nothing controversial – just an issue near and dear to my heart. I told this to his appointment people – Ms. Gonzalez and Ms. Berthiaume. I told them both I was approaching the meeting as a citizen – this wasn’t an interview for InCity Times or anything like that.

Well, the ladies told me our mayor was soooo busy! He had no time for walk-ins (a la former Worcester Mayor Konnie Lukes)! He really had no time for day appointments either – as he had so many appointments! In fact, O’Brien was booking weeks in advance. And if I did make an appointment for 3 or 4 weeks down the line, I could be dumped for something bigger and better. Everything was so tentative!

The mayor’s staffers were really pushing for me to see Mayor O’Brien during a 15-minute span of time an hour or so before the city council meeting every Tuesday – his open office hours for the citizens of Worcester, the people who voted him into office. Just like his professor dad probably does at his college. You know the drill: professors always have office hours a few hours right before class – to save them the hassle of doing two jobs at two separate times. Continue reading Oh, Brother! (or: Mayor Joe O’Brien sighting in Holden!) →

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

InCity Times candidate endorsements

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By Rosalie Tirella

Don’t forget to vote TODAY! We urge you to vote for:

1. Congressman Jim McGovern.

This election cycle incumbent Jim McGovern has a bevy of Republican challengers nipping at his heels, a la little chihuahuas in doggie day care. They think they can ride the nutty/racist/cynical Tea Bagger wave to Washington. They think they can spew the same crap as Rand Paul and expect it to work here. They will not prevail, if we all do what we have been dong for years – vote for Jim McGovern!

McGovern is one of the most well liked politicians in the region. Why? Because Jim McGovern is a genuinely nice, modest and effective Congressman. Because he not only brings in millions of federal dollars for all sorts of Worcester/Worcester County projects but because he always votes his conscience.

Let’s get past the millions of federal dollars McGovern has brought to Worcester/Worcester County for our streets, highways and byways, schools and parks. Let’s get beyond the fact that if reelected, McGovern will be one of the most powerful figures in Congress. Let’s put aside the political folks lore that under his political tutelege Tim Murray, Joe O’Brien, Jim Augustus and every other local Democratic bright boy blossomed and bloomed to become … political heavy weights in city and state politics. Which translates to more jobs, dough and projects for Worcester. We have never been a Tim Murray fan, but we have always loved McGovern, his political mentor.

Why? Because for years McGovern has advocated for the hungry and believes that in America no one – absolutley no one – should go hungry. Continue reading InCity Times candidate endorsements →

Green Island Grrrl, InCity Feature, InCity Letters, InCity Voices, Paul Giorgio trial, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

The soul-less, two-faced Joff Smith!

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By Rosalie Tirella

What a joke to watch the state rep debate a few nights ago and see the programed Joff Smith LIE about how accessible he will be. Absolute bull shit. At the city council office he never ever had a personal cell available or even a home phone # – just work (where he never could be found).

This weasel doesn’t even like people – he is in love with himself. Which is why he is the political protege of alleged pedophile and voting fraud creep Paul Giorgio, a long time Worcester County Democrative operative whom the Dems should drop like a piece of shit.

But I digress … .

At the debate Joff Smith just screamed his canned answers – no thought behind them – and definitely no soul. We likes John Mahoney, Margot Barnet and even Don Sharry. Much nicer folks – and most likely anyone of them could do a better job than Smith.

Let us hope this savvy district doesn’t go the Reality TV route and just vote for Smith because he looks like every other buffed hunk on some low-life/low-talent reality TV show. Let’s hope they use their heads – and hearts.

But today I need to write about the CREEPY and MISLEADING mailer Smith sent to people who will be voting in the primary Sept. 14. Continue reading The soul-less, two-faced Joff Smith! →

Green Island Grrrl, Paul Giorgio trial, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

Morons and Whores, Part 2: Worcester City Councilor Joff Smith and Paul Giorgio

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By Rosalie Tirella

Wow! We had wanted to mention Joff Smith in our blog about moron’s (see below) because he embodies everything that is creepy about America: Joff Smith thinks he is a TV/movie star! Smith, who is in his late 20s, actually has an agent! Someone who tries to get him into the movies! Someone who actually makes calls on the behalf of Smith’s acting career.

Smith is ambitious beyond belief, but his ambition far outstrips his intelligence and ability. But hey, he looks good in a suit and smiles real nice. Why not vote for him? Why not send him to Beacon Hill? To Washington!

When Joff Smith isn’t trying to break into show biz, he is a Worcester City councilor – a job he doesn’t do at all. He has demagogued the Asian Beetle issue – bad beetles! Bad feds! Evil feds! But other than that, he has done pretty much nothing as Worcester City Councilor. He is lousy at constituent services. When constituent Jeff Richardson asked Smith to have the sidewalk in front of his house repaired 3 years ago, nothing got done. For 3 years! Just last week did he get results – probably because Joff really needs his vote. He also placed a Joff Smith lawn sign on Richardon’s lawn without asking; apparently Joff has been doing this all over the district! I saw him a month ago, wearing of all things white gloves as he gingerly placed a Joff Smith sign in someone’s lawn. Yes, wear those little white gloves, Joffy! We don’t want your precious little movie star hands scarred!

People in Smith’s city council district complain that he doesn’t return calls. When I tried to reach him a few years ago, the phone number City Hall provided me was Smith’s work number (most councilors list their homes as well). He never returned my call – I had to stay on him – and pry another number out of the City Council secretary. Continue reading Morons and Whores, Part 2: Worcester City Councilor Joff Smith and Paul Giorgio →

InCity Letters, InCity Voices

State Representative John Fresolo announces his re-election campaign

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Six-term State Representative John P. Fresolo has formally announced his re-election campaign for the 16th Worcester District seat.

As a life-long resident of the 16th Worcester District, Representative Fresolo shares the same priorities and values as his constituents: public safety, education, affordable housing, transportation and the protection of our children and elderly citizens.

In Fresolo’s tenure in the Legislature he has taken great pride in securing an additional $1 Million in community policing funds for the Union Hill, Vernon Hill, Grafton Hill, Quinsigamond Village and Green Island neighborhoods of Worcester. With this funding, the Worcester Police Department has been able to add much needed neighborhood foot patrols that have reduced illegal drug use, violent crimes and gang formation in the 16th Worcester District.

Representative Fresolo has continually fought for education funding reform and affordable childcare. Continue reading State Representative John Fresolo announces his re-election campaign →

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

State Rep. Bob Spellane spills out …

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By Rosalie Tirella

… of himself again! Like the perfect idiot that he is! Like someone who should have been arrested (and would have been, if he were black and poor and this face-off occured in Main South’s Crystal Park).

If John Fresolo had just done what prima donna State Rep. Bob Spellane had done – thrown a hissy fit at a Worcester Little League game, attacked his ex-brother in law, come within a hair’s breath of mixing it up with his ex-wife … demanding the $19 bucks he said she owed him for a new pair of sneakers for their son (I predict four score and seven years of psychotherapy for the Spellane kiddies!) –  the rotund Telegram & Gazette columnist Dianne Williamson (she got that way from eating all that red meat and smoking!) would have written a delicious column on him. We would have read all the kooky details: like Spellane went ballistic over half the cost of a pair of kid sneakers! That Spellane went postal AFTER last year’s mess, the one is which he used his political position and his father in law’s good name to pay ZERO mortgage payements on a country house he bought. AFTER his wife’s family gave him (for which they are now suing him) $150,000. After Spellane had to pay the state a fine for coming within spitting distance of breaking state ethics laws. After Spellane and his wife graced the cover of a Worcester glossy magazine as one of the main characters in a cover story about Worcester’s illustrious – and happily married! – political couples. After Spellane cheated on his wife with a girl reporter from a local cable TV news station.

How big a crumb bum can this crumb bum get?

Much bigger, we suspect! During the recent (now infamous) Little League game, supposedly to cheer his son on, Spellane acted like the kind of kid coaches “bench” every game: a stupid and selfish bully. Spellane shoved his smarmy face into the face of his ex-brother-in-law. They chased each other around a picnic table, for Gawd’s sake! REAL grown ups had to pull him off the other guy.

But, hey, this is Worcester. Spellane is “connected,” and  Dianne Williamson swims in the same fetid sludge in which Spellane and his political bros doggy paddle. Of course, Williamson is going to protect him!

But Worcester knows a hypocritical Telegram  & Gazette columnist when she sees one. And she also knows a fool pol when she sees one – a fool pol who apparently knows no bounds when it comes to making a perfect ass of himself.