Displaces
Mainelli
By
Will Collette
According
to an organizational
amendment filed by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) with the
Board of Elections, ex-Charlestown Town Council member “Deputy” Dan Slattery is
now the Treasurer of the CCA Party.
He
replaces Leo Mainelli who recently won office as Charlestown Town Moderator and
probably needs the time to study and learn the manual covering his extensive
duties and responsibilities as Moderator.
The
CCA Party is generally secretive about its structure, membership,
decision-making process and meetings, operating more like a secret
society or a cult than the political party that has run Charlestown since
2008.
They
are at pains to note that they only reveal what they must to comply with the
Board of Elections rules for political action committees (PACs). No
announcements have been made by the CCA Party of changes to their leadership on
their official website.
Slattery
was also recently
appointed to the Charlestown Budget Commission, which will also give him
(and the CCA Party) even greater control over taxation and spending policy for
the town. The CCA Party-led town government has raised property taxes each and
every year they have been in control and with Slattery on the Budget
Commission, expect a whopper of an increase for 2015.
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| Collage art by Lin Collette. Click here for more. |
Slattery’s
recent moves since leaving the Council after deciding not to run for re-election
are hardly surprising. He could still open up the private investigation
office he seems destined to run (given his penchant for investigating people).
However,
there’s also the possibility he might team up with education entrepreneurs (and
CCA Party picks for the Chariho School Committee) Ron Areglado and Donna
Chambers to set up a Charlestown charter school for the time when Charlestown
withdraws from the Chariho system, an apparent long-term objective of the CCA
Party.
Imagine
such a school – part military academy infused with Deputy Dan’s values, part
ashram where students would learn morals and ethics from Zen Master Ron
Areglado.
But
I digress… As CCA Party Treasurer, Slattery will be in the enviable position of
sitting on a post-election
cash balance of $6,592. That’s one-third
more than the entire amount of money raised by the Charlestown Democrats during
the entire 2012 election cycle.
This
cash balance gives the CCA Party a sizeable financial lead for 2016 when it
will seek to win its fifth Charlestown election in a row. The Democrats came
out of 2014 with no elected officials whatsoever and a cash
balance of only $1,986.78.
Charlestown
Republicans are in even worse shape, having sat out the 2014 election and have
only $395.17
in the bank. The Charlestown
Moderate Party went out of business. Ironically, Slattery and fellow CCA
Party founding father John Goodman were among the dozen or so Charlestown
voters who were registered as members of the Moderate Party. Indeed, Slattery
served as state Moderate Party chair for a time.
Typically,
the CCA raises about $12-14 thousand each election cycle, usually in just one
quarter when they notify their out-of-state political supporters that it’s time
to pony up their money to keep their interests as Charlestown’s Priority One.
In the 2012 election cycle, almost all of the CCA’s campaign treasury was
raised between July and October of 2012. More than 60% of it came from out of
state.
During
the rest of past election cycles, the CCA Party’s financial disclosure reports
largely show routine expenditures to renew their mailbox rental, pay their
e-mail contract and other routine expenses.
In most non-election years, their
biggest expense is buying liability insurance to cover their officers and
board, even though they are not at all transparent about who they are. But
apparently they consider the CCA Party’s activities to be so risky that they
must insure their substantial assets from exposure.
We’ll
see if Deputy Dan Slattery brings his well-earned reputation for aggressiveness
to the office of CCA Party Treasurer. I wouldn't surprised if Slattery doesn't expand the CCA Party's fund-raising with its non-resident base of supporters to becoming a non-stop enterprise. After all, the CCA Party has turned Charlestown into a model "Pay to Play" town.
With almost $7,000 in the bank and
Slattery in charge of the check book, the CCA Party could continue to send out
scary mass mailings to Charlestown residents to warn them about all the threats
that only the CCA Party can thwart.
