Editorial: Dirty politics in Franklin? Is it possible?

With the appearance of the ad with no attribution in the Franklin Town News, this election could get really interesting. Dirty politics in a town election? In Franklin? Is it possible?

photo of the full page ad with typo on top

What do we know?

1. The photos were taken from the Town Council page on the official Town of Franklin website. 
2. Town Council Chair Robert Vallee has been touting his leadership of the Council and its accomplishments taking time to read from the listing during a Town Council meeting and at the Candidates Night. The text could have been rewritten from the broadcast.
3. The ad was submitted by the middle of October. I know as I had contributed to the paper when it first started and the cut off for the printing of the paper and set up for mailing to the individual Franklin households was usually the middle of the month.

Who would gain from such an ad?

Let’s attempt to “follow the money” and see. Maybe we’ll find out who paid for the ad. That can take time, so it is not likely to be resolved before the polls open on Tuesday.

What do you do in the meantime?

You, the Franklin voters have enough information to make your decisions based upon what has been shared about the individual candidates here and by the Milford Daily News.

With my three questions, I wanted to provide some depth to the candidate. Many of the issues are not easy yes/no answers. The issues are usually more nuanced. Hence I think we should know more about where the candidates are coming from rather than their answer on a specific issue. The answer on the issue today is not an indicator of their answer on a different issue tomorrow. Knowing more about the candidate as a person, their life here in Franklin, etc. I believe is important.

For example, that a Board of Health candidate actually has either a public health certification or nursing degree should provide some insights over someone who does not have that background.

That some candidates tout their openness and yet say definitively they’ll do something tells me that are not really that ‘open’ minded as they claim to be.
So in preparation for Tuesday, review the interviews that have been shared. 

Make up your mind, and get out to vote. All voters (no matter what precinct you are in) are served by the one location at Franklin High School.

You get to cast seven votes for the School Committee and nine votes for the Town Council. You have a small choice for School Committee (one is left standing in this round of musical chairs). You have a bigger choice for the Town Council where 5 are left standing.

I have heard many claim that they will only vote for 3 or 4 but given the information that has been shared you should be able to vote for a full slate for both the School Committee and Town Council. Doing anything less than casting your full set of votes will allow someone else to get in that you may come to regret.


Stephen Sherlock

Community Information Director (volunteer) for FranklinMAtters.org/ 

http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephensherlock

The Election Collection can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/08/election-collection-nov-3-2015.html


You can also view the one page ad in the PDF online at Franklin Town News (page 34)
http://www.localtownpages.com/sites/default/files/newspaperpdf/2015_11_franklin.pdf

The link is broken, the Archives only cover the past 17 issues. not nearly enough to go back to 2015

https://www.franklintownnews.com/archives  (updated 10/05/21)