— News via Quincy Quarry News – News, Opinion and Commentary
This week’s primary elections results are in and all Quincy challengers lost in their bids to move up the political food chain.
Lost big time.
While Quincy-based statehouse and US House of Representative incumbents all coasted as they were typically absent opposition, Quincy candidates already dining at the public trough who were hoping to score a county, state or federal office were all slammed in their bids to move up the political food chain.
Slammed hard.
First up for going down at the polls, City of Quincy at large City Councillor Noel DiBona was hoping to primary the long incumbent Norfolk County Registrar of Deeds.
There was an arguable payback angle in this race. DiBona had been hired by the victorious incumbent registrar a few years ago to a middling post at the Registry of Deeds in the wake of DiBona’s losing in his 2020 bid to become the Norfolk County Registrar of Probate, only to end up cut loose from this all but assuredly hack hire gig for reasons unknown.
Not publicly anyway.
In any event, despite campaign yard signing Quincy to a fair thee well perhaps only short of a Koch Machine yard sign littering, DiBona lost given his seeing only 30% of the vote in a two-horse countywide race.
In turn, one has to wonder if Noel’s City Council seat is vulnerable come the 2025 City Council elections, especially given his widely assumed plans to use the Registrar of Deeds post as a springboard to run for mayor of Quincy when Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch inevitably leaves office or at least score himself a less well-paying public gig and so score himself a nice pension pop.
Why vulnerable?
Word heard on the street was that a number of local voters voted against DiBona over his support of a massive 89% pay raise on a pension calculation basis for Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch as well as a 50% raise for himself and other city council members, if not also seen similarly by others elsewhere in Norfolk County.
And as for Quincy candidates next worse loser, Ronald Iacobucci, head of the South Shore state unemployment office in Quincy, went down even harder in his bid to score the Democratic nomination for the Fourth Distinct Governor’s Council seat.
In a three candidate race including an over thirty year incumbent, challenger Iacobucci received only a paltry 11.1% of the vote per an unofficial tally and so finished last in this race.
And even further creamed at the polls was Quincy City Council President Ian Cain.
Creamed big time.
Cain was running for the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent US Senator Elizabeth Warren come November’s elections.
Instead, Cain finished a distant third in a three man race with but 8.1% if the vote and thus is Quincy’s biggest loser in the recent primary elections.
A very distant third statewide.
Even more embarrassing for Ian Cain, he only barely scored more votes in his hometown of Quincy — the only community where Cain received the most votes — than the winner who is only a somewhat longer resident of Massachusetts than Cain has been a Republican of late.
Among any number of viable reasons, one can only assume that Cain’s not going against last June’s City Council approval of a massive 89% pay raise on a pension calculation basis for Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch and a 50% raise for him and his fellow council members did not sit well with fiscally conservative registered Republicans.
In short, an only in Quincy losing trifecta …
Noel has reached his pinnacle and will never go any further. His legacy as an elected official has nothing to show with the exception of being the Mayor’s water boy. He has not once voted to cut the budget that would give local tax payers a break.
The ironic side of this past Tuesday’s vote is DiBona had more signs littering the city then his vote total in his hometown. Next year’s city election could be his last if the movement that was out on Tuesday continues to gain the momentum of the past few months.
Quincy candidates, taking “go big or go home” to new heights—except they skipped the “go big” part and went straight to “go home.” Losing a primary is one thing, but losing badly? That’s a special kind of political face-plant. It’s almost impressive in its own tragic way.
You have to wonder: was it the platform, the campaign strategy, or just that Quincy’s voters collectively said, “Yeah, hard pass”? It’s like they showed up to the party with store-brand soda while everyone else was sipping champagne. Not exactly a winning vibe.
But hey, it’s all about learning, right? Maybe next time, they’ll crack the code on how not to get trounced at the polls. Or, you know, they could just stick to offering unsolicited opinions from the comfort of their living rooms, like the rest of us.