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– Quincy Election News from Quincy Quarry News
Quincy final public campaign debates and pre-election recap.
While Quincy Quarry’s growing exponentially legions of loyal readers can expect see a follow up story shortly sharing its betting strategies for tomorrow’s election, following is an overview of last week’s final open to the public candidates debate forum at Quincy High School
Overall, last week’s forum was ultimately a compromised event.
The key reason is that it its lead sponsors were the Quincy Democratic Committee and the Quincy Republican Committee; as such the questions asked tended to smack of political compromises that satisfied few – and most especially not the Quincy Quarry News team covering this event.
Even so, following is a scorecard of the undercards as well as the main event.

School Committee race
The only male incumbent in this race mostly talked up the importance sports and so lost the interest of those more interested in academic education.
The current Vice Chair of School Committee acquitted herself as well as one would expect of a Vice Chair.
The first time candidate for office and recent Quincy High School graduate who is now attending college continued to show his enthusiasm and one can only hope that as a college student he will prove himself able to learn if he is elected.
What he learns, however, will be greatly influenced by who is the School Committee Chair come the first of the current.  If current Chair, who is the chair as part of his role as mayor, lessons learned will likely be how to go along to get along or get knuckled under.  If, however, the School Committee Chair changes, he will likely have a chance to perhaps learn other lessons.
Finally, a former School Committee member who has launched a late write in campaign was allowed on the debate dais.  While she acquitted herself well enough, success for her write-in campaign would be the first such write-in victory for any local office in a long time, if ever.
Ward One City Council race

The incumbent Number One local ward heeler was talking so rapidly, if not also so rabidly talking, that it was next to follow what she was saying.
While one can only assume that she was trying to convey what all that she feels that she has accomplished during her time as a ward heeler, such is – is in fact – readily open to easy challenge.
Plus, there are lingering questions about her ethics that she has failed to duly put to rest in spite of the fact that she claims to have exculpatory document that she has failed to share with public and so put perhaps extinguish this particular problem of hers among others.
Further problematic for her were her frequent and often bizarre face makings when she did not have the mic.
If the goal of her face making was to take attention away from her opponent when had the mic, it failed as it only made her look – well – at the very least off kilter.
Her opponent, on the other hand, spoke clearly as well as steadily about a few key issues and his promise to take care of ward continents’ issues.
In other words, he promised to endeavor the traditional work of a ward councillor but which only certain among Facebook friends Ward One residents have enjoyed in recent years.

Ward Two City Council race
While the incumbent’s speaking style reminded one of the oxymoronic mix of a Quincy-accent inflected Southern Senator, he did solidly present his stolid efforts while in office, love of Quincy and desire to do the best he could.
His opponent, on the other hand – and while clearly well-meaning as well as passionate was nowhere near as effective.
At the same, kudos are still in order for stepping up to the plate against a generally liked as well as yet to be stigmatized incumbent and relatively new father.
Ward Three City Council race

As the only campaign debate between the only two known Masters of Business Administration degree holders going opposite each other in a local race, one would have expected that both got down to business.
As it turned out, the one who obtained his degree from Duke and currently works in Cambridge instead continued to do worse at each successive debate whereas his now high school business teacher opponent continues to be better prepared at each successive debate as well as perhaps better spoken than any other of the candidates for City Council seats.
The Quarry would assume that decline of the Duke graduate during the debates is not a reflection on Duke so much as it is the result of advice from campaign advisor and local self-assumed raconteur Vinnie Veritas.
As for the other MBA running in this race, Quincy Quarry suspects his constantly improving debate performance at least partially stems from the fact that is his third run for public office – including his first one run wherein Quincy Quarry’s statistical expertise has long suspected that he looks to have perhaps been jobbed in a recount after winning the general election as well as all but assuredly determined exactly how he appears to have been jobbed – and thus he has learned the hard way.
Time will shortly tell if his third time will be the charm.
Ward Four City Council race
The incumbent is not facing a challenger on the ballot nor is there an announced write-in candidate other than perennially longtime loser Mickey Mouse.

Ward Five City Council race
This was an interesting debate to watch if only for its atmospherics as given its lack of much in the way of substance.
The incumbent is the current Chair of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee during the day and should thus have the chops to be a shoo in for reelection against her part time yoga instructor opponent; however, the relatively longer lived yoga instructor keeps leaving the younger incumbent tied up in knots and which are often of incumbent’s own initiation.
Ward Six City Council race
The incumbent manatee continues to ape his boss of the beach shtick.

How well his continuing to hammer away on his long as well as problematic opposition to the now in an long extended legal dispute to open up a small ethnic supermarket in largely as well as appropriately ethnically changed neighborhood is continuing to not exactly play well even with an increasing number of non-ethnic Quincy residents.
The self-assumed beach master is also rumored to not exactly be finding succor among his district’s island residents and where his opponent resides.
On the other hand, his opponent’s performance at this debate fluctuated from adequate at times to not at all and as it has tended to go at other debates.
Conversely, Quincy Quarry suspects that a great deal of hot air left the incumbent after his longtime sparring partner former and way too long Ward Two City Councillor Dan “Spanky” Raymondi was hacked up to the pension fattening position of Commissar of the Department of Public Works and thus the incumbent manatee was left without a foil to help keep his own foil at the ready.
at Large Council seats race
The current Council President yet again laid out a honest presentation of the council’s role as well as showed his core integrity, obvious experience and considerable intelligence.  As such, one can only hope that he is reelected to another term.
The only other at Large incumbent as well as also large Councillor continued to have trouble speaking, much less articulating much of anything that resonated.  Whether – or not – his touting of his history of incumbency and other local government experiences was selling sufficiently to secure his reelection to yet another term was unclear.
The only female in the race continued to speak up as well as well was again spoken in her articulately presenting both the frustrations that motivated her to run as well as her goals to see the changes she sees as necessary accomplished. Most in the audience seemed to at least generally concur with her statements.
While her first run for office, she was more polished on the dais than more than just a few of the various incumbents up for reelection this year.
The much admired and long time member of the School Committee yet again conveyed his desire to do the right thing and his 12 years on the School Committee show that he has done and does do the right thing.
Finally, the newcomer to the School Committee who is hoping to step up to the City Council midway through his first term on the School Committee continues to be well-received, but also appears to be more likely liked than likely to win a seat on the council this time around.  Simply put, Quincy is changing and he is more old Quincy pol than new a new one.

The Heavyweight Main Event
All of many admitted prejudices aside as well as duly endeavored to perhaps be set aside when writing up this summary, it is still only fair to note that embattled incumbent Mayor Thomas P. Koch only barely kicked things up a notch from his typically less than well-prepared and more than just occasionally showing signs of having ironically thin skin performances during previous debate forums.
While his dulcet voice usually sounded – well – dulcet, much of what was said was often just more of the same old same old: increasingly transparent presentations of fractional facts as the whole truth, dubious statements and various other of the usual Koch and mirrors.

The audience was particularly not warmly receiving his repeated assertions of how he was not accountable for all manner of things that have happened on his watch.
No argument, he was not – for example – RESPONSIBLE for last winter’s just barely record setting snowfall, but as mayor he is still ACCOUNTABLE for how his maladministration mismanaged things and so ran up a huge snow removal bill that local taxpayers will be paying off over the next three years.
As for his opponent, he keep talking up the importance of sound as well as proactive planning, prudent fiduciary practices with dealing with taxpayers money, proper hiring practices and wanting to build a brighter future for all residents and businesses in the Q.
Granted, such also entailed less than subtle digs against the incumbent’s readily argued to be problematic practices; however, if the shoes fits.
The atmospherics of this title bout round were also fascinating.

For example, when the incumbent did not have the mike, his eyes were often wandering about every which way, less than photogenic faces were made and he often fiddled with this and that – including his mic.
In short, he clearly so expressed that he wanted to get this round over with ASAP.
His challenger, on the other hand, was for the most part focused and doing the sorts of things one should be doing during a debate both while having the mic and while waiting to have it.
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