Team Tisei Takes Heat Over Poll

A GOP poll that showed Richard Tisei in the lead may have not been what it seemed, and Team Tierney is calling foul.

Congressional candidate Richard Tisei released polling results to the media this week that showed the Republican challenger with a 7-point lead over incumbent Congressman John Tierney. But that polling data, compiled by GOP pollster John McLaughlin, may not be accurate. As it turns out, the poll dramatically over-represents Republicans. The same poll had Sen. Scott Brown with a 24-point lead over Elizabeth Warren (in most other polls statewide those two are in a statistical tie). Blue Mass Group took to Twitter with their suspicions. Then McLaughlin himself reportedly admitted to the Salem News that his pollover-represents Republicans and under-represents Democrats and independents. Tisei’s pollster admitted in an interview published today…

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Tierney, Tisei, PAC and Forth

In a peculiar set of open letters, the congressional race opponents addressed the use of PAC money in the 2012 campaign.

  There's a little war of letters going on in the Massachusetts 6th District congressional race over the use of outside PAC money. On Monday, Congressman John Tierney, whose distirct includes Swampscott, published a letter to Republican challenger Richard Tisei challenging him to adopt the "People's Pledge." The pledge refers toan agreement between Sen. Scott Brown and frontrunner challenger Elizabeth Warren to disavow third-party ads in what has arguably become the most expensive Senate race in the nation. Super PACs -- independent advocacy groups that are allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money for ads without complete disclosure of funding -- have become increasingly scrutinized in this elections season. Earlier this year, Tisei …

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Tisei Turns in Signatures

The congressional candidate will officially be on the ballot.

  Congressional candidate Richard Tisei turned in his certified signatures to the Secretary of State's Elections Division in Boston Tuesday. Tisei was joined by a group of supporters who helped him gather the necessary signatures. Tisei, 49, announced his candidacy in November and has since outraised incumbent Congressman John Tierney in campaign donations two quarters in a row. Considered by many to be a formidable opponent for Tierney, Tisei recently led Tierney by seven points -- with Tisei at 40 percent and Tierney at 33 percent -- in a GOP poll of district voters, Roll Call is reporting. Polls at this point in the race will likely shift repeatedly (a poll in late January had Tierney ahead by 15 votes, and both polls have a margin of …

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Swampscott Lands Two Delegates in National Democratic Convention

The convention is scheduled for the week of September 3.

  A huge turnout across the state marked last Saturday's events held by Massachusetts Democrats to elect delegates to this year’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC.   Two of the Massachusetts delegates are from Swampscott, Ralph Edwards and Margaret A. Somer.   Convention delegates will cast their votes to officially nominate President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for a second term and approve the Democratic Party platform.   Massachusetts delegates to the Democratic Nation Convention are selected in three ways: At this weekend’s caucuses, registered Democrats in each congressional district elected four men, four women and one alternate delegate. On May 5th, the Democratic State Committee will elect a slate of …

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Bad Night for Incumbents

Glenn Kessler wins seat on Board of Selectmen, while Ted Delano wins term on School Committee.

It was a bad night Tuesday for incumbents as the chairs of the Board of Selectmen and School Committee were defeated and Board of Health member Nelson Kessler lost his bid for reelection. In the unofficial tally on the race for the lone Selectmen position, Glenn Kessler defeated Matthew Strauss with 1,058 votes to 981. In the School Committee race, Francis (Ted) Delano III defeated Jacqueline Kinney by 1,246 votes to 768 votes.   Kinney, who described herself as feeling “disappointed, but not bereft,” said she felt there was an anti-incumbent mood among the electorate because of a lot of controversial issues before the town. “Being the chair sort of makes you a target,” she said of her race and Strauss' unsuccessful bid for reelection. In …

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Election Central

Challengers Defeat Incumbents

Glenn Kessler, Ted Delano and Deborah Shelkan Remis all won election in their respective elections today.

    Glenn Kessler, Ted Delano and Deborah Shelkan Remis all won election in their respective elections today. Kessler defeated incumbent Matt Strauss, 1,058 to 981, to win a seat on the Board of Selectmen. Ted Delano defeated Jackie Kinney, 1246-768, to win a seat on the School Committee. Deborah Shelkan Remis defeated incumbent Nelson Kessler and challenger Olaf Faeskorn, 787-646-526. Town Clerk Susan Duplin said voter turnout was 21 percent or three percentage points higher than last year's turnout in the town election. Patch will have complete coverage with candidate comments and precinct breakdown first thing in the morning. As of late in the afternoon at least three of the town's six precincts were seeing a steady stream of voters, …

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Romney Routs Contenders in Swampscott

The voter turnout was light in Tuesday's Presidential Primary — about 16 percent.

  Around noon the only people inside the Congregational Church were the poll workers at Precincts 3 and 4. Voters filtered in and out but the turnout, up until that point, was light, said Precinct 4 Warden Theresa Grasso. A few minutes later Bob Kahn came in to vote. He said he is an Independent in state elections, a Democrat in federal contests, and came out to vote against the front-runner, Mitt Romney. A vast majority of the voters, however, supported Romney in Swampscott. He received better than eight times the votes of his nearest competitor. As far as the turnout went, about 16 percent of the 10,107 registered voters in town voted, said Town Clerk Susan Duplin, who provided these unofficial results.   DEMOCRATIC

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Swampscott Stories

(UPDATED): Swampscott's New Precincts Take Effect With Tuesday's Primary

Editor's Note: Here is a list of every residence that has a change in its precinct. The town clerk asks that anyone with questions about where they should vote to call the elections office at 781-596-8855.

  This information was provided by Town Clerk Sue Duplin. The town's new precincts take effect with the presidential primary on Tuesday and remain in effect for the state primary and the state election later this year. Below is a list of town roads and the precinct to which residents on that road belong. By law all cities and towns are required to re-precinct (if the precincts are not approximately equal) after the official federal Census numbers  are out.  The town clerk told selectmen earlier that the biggest changes were to Precinct 2. Precincts should have an approximately equal number of residents not to exceed 4,000 by law. The official population count for Swampscott is 13,787.   All voters whose precinct changed were notified by …

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Democrats Elect Delegates to State Convention

Swampscott to support Elizabeth Warren.

Swampscott Democrats elected nine delegates and three alternates to attend the June 2nd Massachusetts Democratic Party State Convention.  “A major convention activity will be endorsing a Democratic candidate for the U S Senate,” said Ralph Edwards, SDTC Chair.  “The Swampscott delegates support Elizabeth Warren.”   Organized by the Swampscott Democratic Town Committee (SDTC), the caucus elected Naomi Drebeen, Donna Taverna, Steven Iannaccone, Jeff Blonder, Catherine Esteverena,  Anita Faber-Robertson, Jim Peterson, Bill Sneierson, and Alex Esteverena as delegates and Cesar Archilla, Mary DeChillo and Vicky Pulos as alternates.  In addition, Clerk of Court Tom Driscoll, State Committee Member Jim Smith, and SDTC Chair Ralph Edwards are ex-…

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