By Kyle Alspach
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
Posted Nov 05, 2009 @ 02:08 AM
Last update Nov 05, 2009 @ 06:41 AM
BROCKTON —
Though she prides herself on having run
a “clean race” for mayor, Linda Balzotti
repeatedly brought up two controversies in
her successful campaign against incumbent
Mayor James E. Harrington: the city’s
redevelopment group and the search for a new
superintendent.
“I think the Building a Better Brockton
issue is very much a concern that’s still on
people’s minds,” Balzotti said in an
interview Wednesday. “In terms of the
superintendent search, I think residents
were concerned about how that process went.”
Building a Better Brockton, Inc., which
was created by Harrington last year to
handle city redevelopment efforts, came
under fire after being heavily criticized in
a federal audit just weeks before the
election.
And the superintendent search during the
summer sparked controversy that ensnared
Harrington, who appointed the search
committee that was investigated by the
district attorney’s office for possible Open
Meeting Law violations.
Harrington also declined to vote when
given the chance on the superintendent
choice, leading to the only non-Brockton
finalist being chosen for the job.
Some observers say they believe the
flaps over Building a Better Brockton and
the superintendent search may have helped
Balzotti carry the election with 56 percent
of the vote to 43 percent for Harrington — a
two-decade Brockton politician who won the
last two mayoral races with relative ease.
“I think the superintendent search
contributed to it, I think (Building a
Better Brockton) contributed to it,” said
Ward 2 School Committee member Richard Bath.
The superintendent search, in
particular, may have affected the voting in
Ward 1, where ousted candidate Kathleen
Smith, a longtime Brockton school
administrator, lives, said Ward 1 School
Committee member Thomas Minichiello.
Smith, who has worked in the district
since 1977 and serves as director of
Community Schools, was initially rejected as
a finalist for superintendent by the search
committee appointed by Harrington.
She was later reinstated as a finalist
after the Plymouth County district
attorney’s office signaled that she may have
been eliminated amid violations of the Open
Meeting Law.
But she lost out to Swampscott
Superintendent Matthew Malone after
Harrington declined to vote to break a 3-3
tie, and one committee member, who had voted
for Brockton school administrator John
Jerome, changed his vote to Malone.
In the final mayoral debate, Harrington
said his first choice was to vote for
Jerome, and his second choice was Malone, so
he would not have voted for Smith anyway.
Election results show that Harrington
easily won Ward 1 in the last two mayoral
elections, by about 400 votes in 2005 and
350 votes in 2007.
But on Tuesday, 1,311 voters in Ward 1
supported Balzotti, compared to 1,049 for
Harrington.
“Kathy Smith is a local person who has
been a strong part of the community for over
20 years,” said Minichiello, who voted for
Smith for superintendent. “She knows a lot
of people in this city, and a lot of people
spoke up for her at the hearings.
“I’m sure Kathy Smith is very well liked
in her neighborhood,” he said. “I have to
think that (the superintendent search) must
have had some impact in Ward 1.”
Smith could not be reached for comment
Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Balzotti said she doesn’t
know whether the controversy over the
superintendent search affected the vote for
mayor.
“I don’t know that it hurt (Harrington),
but I think it is an issue that people did
look at in making their decision,” she said.
Harrington could not be reached for
comment Wednesday.
On Tuesday, he attributed his loss to
anti-incumbent sentiments among voters,
which have flared, he said, as a result of
people’s unhappiness over the troubled
economy.
“The mayors have been out there
delivering all the bad news,” Harrington
said in the interview Tuesday.
Incumbent mayors in Worcester, Lynn,
Woburn and North Adams were also voted down
in Tuesday’s election.