Election Report Card: Who’s Up, Who’s Down

The Townie is an opinion website. The views expressed in this piece belong solely to the author, do not represent those held by The Townie, and should not be interpreted as objective or reported fact.

Let’s face it, all this rhetoric about “Thank God it’s all over” is bunk. Political groupies love this stuff: standing out in cold weather holding signs and eating stale donuts, plodding around town hyping  the tired old rhetoric that “I love Newburyport,” telling people how your candidate will make the city affordable again (without having any idea how to do it) – come on now, let’s face it, a lot of people won’t know what to do with themselves.

Turnout was pretty respectable, 43.5% of registered voters filled in their ballots. What does this indicate? In the opinion of this observer, it had more to do with the national scene than any local angst here in town about any particular issue. People are upset these days, and going to the polls is one way of making yourself feel better, that your voice counts. The mid-terms in 2026 will see landslide numbers, and incumbents better look out.

OK, report card time.

On the Top

Sean Reardon

He had considerable negativities to shoulder, but one huge Victory, the Rec Center, which endeared him to parents with kids and encouraged them to vote. Among people of this ilk, it seemed to be the only issue that mattered or, put another way, the only issue they knew anything about. Dave Rogers, the editor of The Daily News, was widely ridiculed when he wrote recently that only 8% of Newburyporters are really engaged in the day-to-day minutiae of city governance. I think he has a point.

Reardon’s Agenda

Reardon not only won the election (albeit that it was close, only approx. 300 votes between the candidates out of approx. 6,800 cast), he also saw a pretty clean sweep in the city council of members whom he might call “supporters.” Two fiscal irritants, McCauley and Wright, are now gone, and while newcomer Niketic is a bean counter, who knows about the rest? The key here might be Hall, whose recent article in The Townie about the library scandal gives some clue as to what her mayoral attitudes might be. As for the others, they give the mayor a pretty tight grip on how things might play out in the future. Depending on your point of view, this is either ominous or falls into the “I don ‘t care” category that Dave Rogers espoused.

Afroz Khan

When it comes to the City Council, she’s the clear winner. Wow, Ms. Personality clearly has a lot of fans in Newburyport, probably because she has a winning disposition and is impossible not to like. She’s been on the council for several terms now, but in order for her to go further up the food chain, she has to develop a more serious record of accomplishments to point to.

Heather Shand is also looking like a keeper, the problem being she knows it. She could probably use an advisor to construct a more positive, people-friendly image of herself, but then again maybe she doesn’t and could care less anyhow. People are talking about her as the next council president. Sarah Hall did herself proud. Hopefully she will be a presence to deal with on the council. Ben Harman did well, switching to at-large. He should be careful, however, not to be seen as the mayor’s acolyte. One thing is certainly clear: the city council is now a women-friendly place, with 7 members out of 11. Overall, that’s a good thing.

Personality Politics

Local issues took a back seat. Matters that should have counted – the library mess, discord at city hall, the lawsuits Newburyport is facing, water & sewer problems, developments at Kmart and the waterfront – none of these were really hot burners with voters I talked to. Personality ruled. Reardon is a popular guy with a positive spin on everything. He also probably has 100,000 family members in Newburyport, a built-in cheerleading squad. McCauley, by contrast, seemed dour. Next time he runs for something he should wear a Newburyport High School sports jacket or its maroon equivalent.

Heading South

The McCauley Campaign

This must be a bitter pill for McCauley. He was a serious candidate and had plenty of ammunition at hand with which to attack Reardon, the problem being he didn’t really use any of it. Most people I talked to thought this election would be tight, as it turned out to be. McCauley’s refusal to get down in the ditch and really start flinging stuff, with specifics, was his undoing in the opinion of this observer. People say they are sick of down and dirty politics, and I agree. But just speaking in generalities about the issues at City Hall, the Library, Human Resource failures, etc., etc., just wasn’t going to do it. A credit to his decent character, for sure, but not a recipe for political success.

Donna Holaday

Not a great day for former mayor, either. The two candidates she really plugged for, McCauley and Shawn Fenn, both went down to defeat. One has to wonder if her days as an influencer in town politics has waned. Ditto for departing Ward 2 Councilor Jennie Donahue. Her gushy endorsements in both The Daily News and The Townie for Shawn Fenn did nothing for him. Stephanie Niketic, Donahue’s bête noir, crushed Fenn at the polls, though hopefully he’ll run for something again since he came across as a decent, caring guy.

Newburyport Dem’s “Machine”

There was a lot of chit chat going on before the election that the Dem “Machine” was going to be a factor getting out the vote, pushing certain candidates, so on and so forth. This observer saw no evidence of that.

The Daily News

I am overjoyed that we have a daily newspaper in Newburyport, but I think a local paper has the civic duty to endorse candidates for public office. The News is our paper of record. It covers just about everything at City Hall (though sketchily in many cases), publishes opinion pieces by its editor and reporters, and is supposedly on top of things politically that we should know about. Not to express a preference for one candidate over another, based on facts as much as possible, not only is an abdication of responsibility, but an admission of sorts as to its own irrelevance. This year, for some reason, the News explicitly stated it would not endorse anyone (other than Ben Harman. Why this exception?). And yet Editor Dave Rogers spent 300 words in the same piece dumping on McCauley, essentially clearing the editorial road for Reardon. What gobbledygook this turned out to be. I would revisit this topic, if I ran the News, in future.

James Charles Roy
Newburyport residet

Passionate about a local issue? We want to hear from you. Check out our submission guidelines.