“A Committee for a Better Newburyport” is meeting Tuesday, May 29, 2007, 6:30 PM at the Newburyport Library.

I’m actually very concerned about this meeting, because I don’t think it’s going to help the “progressive” cause. Just my opinion.

The subject is the upcoming mayoral election. “Moak is a dangerous person…” “The potential for long-term, damage has not been greater since the 1950s, when the whole downtown could have been obliterated.”

This is a little over the top for me.

The whole tone of the initial email had me shaking my head and going, “no, no, no, no.” Way too angry, way too strident to be effective for a progressive agenda (or, for that matter, any agenda).

Sigh.

“The latest straw, in case you haven’t heard, is the mayor’s rumored plan to campaign against the CPA (Community Preservation Act), i.e. to terminate this program.”

I actually called the mayor’s office up and asked if this could be true. I got Mayor Moak’s interim assistant, who said she couldn’t imagine it could be, and that she had never heard that possibility ever discussed. And I got an email from the mayor himself later that day and I quote, “Am I campaigning against a CPA tax? No.”

I also asked a conservative friend and politician if they thought there could be any merit to this concern and the response was, “Taking money from the CPA would not be a good way to win friends.”

I’m hoping to take that one to the bank.

“It is time to unite and select a candidate.” The proposal is “the equivalent of holding a mini-convention, or caucus, to hammer out a SHORT and SWEET platform, and to do so in the next two weeks. I propose, after settling on a platform, to a) inform the press via an open letter; b) arrange a photo op, that both city newspapers will run, promoting same; c) invite people interested in running to contact us, and/or soliciting an individual whom we think would run, and could win; d) endorsing same. I think these steps will garner publicity, hopefully generate a candidate, and stir up the city a little bit. It will also produce the core of a machine for the fall. The bottom line for me is simple: Moak must go.”

George Cushing, of Frog Pond at the Bartlet Mall, the political consultant to the Newburyport Blog says, “Oy Vey.”

“And PLEASE, forward this e-mail to whomever you like!”

Am I going Tuesday night? No. And neither is George.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport