^ our home District ; the “9th”

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^ loads of endorsements for 9th Congress District hopeful John Chapman

9th Congress District : there’s a four-way Republican Primary in this, Here and Sphere’s home District, to decide who will face Congressman Bill Keating in November. Of the four — Daniel Shores, Vincent Cogliano Jr., Mark W. Allegro, and John Chapman — there has been much activity from GOP realists to support John Chapman. This is understandable, as Chapman — whom this writer knows personally and has worked with — was Dan Winslow’;s right-hand man in Winslow’s 2013 US Senate campaign. Clearly Chapman learned much during that effort about current Federal issues. His bio also indicates Federal experience prior : working as an SEC lawyer prosecuting securities fraud.

Chapman’s positions on current House GOp priorities do give us pause. How realistic is it for him to call for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, a move that would grievously weaken the Federal government’s ability to alleviate economic down-turns ? Chapman wants to repeal the affordable Care Act, a GOP mantra and quite unlikely, instead leaving it up to the states to decide. In other words, health care isn’t a basic right, just a matter of local opinion. With this, we strongly disagree. Chapman would also have voted or the “Border Bill,’ Congress’s fortunately failed over-reaction to the 57,000 refugee children that came to our nation recently, by which bill the national guard (!)( would be sent to ‘guard the Border,’ which of course it could never effectively do.

Nonetheless, Chapman is stalwart GOP on civil rights matters. he supports marriage equality (as did Winslow in that senate campaign) and women’s right to control their own bodies.  it appears that he is the only candidate of the four to embrace full personal identity civil rights.

If Chapman sounds unrealistic on the big House GOP issues, the views of “gun rights” Mark W. Allegro verge on delusional. We are told that he has called, publicly, for impeaching President Obama. And his defense of the NRA’s arm-everyone objectives endangers the nation’s public peace.

Vincent Cogliano, Jr. says much the same thing as Allegro and adds that he’d like to “dismantle’ the IRS and institute a flat tax. He also poo-poo’s the South Coast rail line that our home region so badly needs.

Daniel Shores, a patent attorney from Sandwich, wants Congress to help small businesses and to reduce the national debt — an indebtedness which he, like all opponents of Federal borrowing, fails to see the strength of. Shores appears to have the support on some Tea Party people, which alarms us; Chapman’s spokesperson says that Shores, like Allegro, has called for impeaching the President (though unclear as to why). Shores’ work as a patent attorney actually gives him direct experience of the Federal government, which could be a boon to the district were he to embrace Federal governance rather than view it as a burden.

Thus it is that JOHN CHAPMAN wins our GOP Primary endorsement, if only because of his full commitment to personal identity civil rights and women’s right to control their own bodies. In the current national GOP issues context, a no-holds-barred commitment to civil rights makes one almost a progressive. It also helps that this writer knows Chapman personally and up close from the 2013 Winslow campaign. He’s a man of discretion, integrity, tireless energy, and shrewd smarts.

^ 6th District : Congressman John Tierney meeting & greeting at Brothers in Lynn two days ago

6th Congressional District (North Shore plus many towns along Route 128 in Middlesex County) : There’s a big Democratic Primary here, as three challengers sense weakness in nine-term incumbent John Tierney. and weakness there is : voters appear not to have forgotten or forgiven him for his wife’s well-publicized involvement in her family’s criminal gambling businesses.

We fail to ind any merit in holding Congressman tierney at faiult because he is married to a woman (and very likeable woman, by the way) whose family is filled with bad guys. It happens to many people whose own integrity is never questioned. Why should Tierney be held to a different standard ? If anything, Tierney has shown great strength in obviously refusing to be pressured by his wife’s bad-ass brothers, for which they have tossed mud all over him.

Of the challengers, much has been made of Seth Moulton, an eloquent speaker on the generalities, but among the missing when it comes to particulars. we don’t share the Moulton enthusiasm. if anything, we like feisty immigration attorney Marisa DeFranco better. At least she is connected to a specific issue of great importance to the cities in this District. But her passionate advocacy for immigrant rights can’t match Tierney’s dedication on a wide variety of important matters, from fishing industry rights to equal pay legislataion and unemployment support. DeFranco would match better with a disttict whose immigratipon po;pulation is much bigger than the 6th’s.

Tierney has shown himself, at debates and Forums, to be much more conversant on a broad list of legislation than Moulton and DeFranco combined. We endorse JOHN TIERNEY^ to face Republican Rich Tisei in November.

Congress matters. Please vote responsibly for this office when you pick your promary ballot on Tuesday.

—- Mike Freedberg / Here and Sphere