John Cronin vs. Nick Pirro
A purple State Senate seat that has switched parties has another spirited election.
Voters in the Worcester and Middlesex State Senate district will have a rare privilege on election day: an actual choice for a State Senate race.
We have the least competitive elections in the country in Massachusetts with an embarrassing lack of any real competition to the majority party which controls 90% of our State Senate seats. Voters here are fortunate to have two very qualified candidates to choose from.
Both John Cronin and Nick Pirro were born in Leominster and I had two main questions for them that I think are at the top of voters’ minds:
Do you support the efforts of our Auditor Diana DiZoglio (D-Methuen) to audit the legislature?
Do you support the Safe Communities Act which would make Massachusetts a sanctuary state?
Pirro returned a phone call personally and did not hesitate to say he absolutely supports Question 1 and if it passes he would vote to support the will of the voters. He does not support the Safe Communities act and would not vote for it.
Cronin did not return phone calls or emails.
A little digging shows that both have excellent resumes with Cronin’s State House biography showing he served as an Infantry Officer and is a combat veteran of the war in Afghanistan. Pirro’s background shows an impressive background in several small businesses including real estate and construction which is very much needed on Beacon Hill.
A little more digging shows that Cronin is taking in a lot more money and donations, which is not surprising. But also not surprising is that he’s also getting a lot of “help” from sources like the SEIU PAC, Democrats for Education Reform Independent Expenditure PAC, and Massachusetts Realtors PAC. This clearly shows voters where his loyalties will lie, and frankly there’s too much money forming too much influence in this insider’s club on Beacon Hill, as a Boston Globe story has pointed out.
Even more alarming is how the Cronin campaign is using so much of its money to attack opponents with negative campaigning. They keep publicizing how Pirro was arrested three times over two decades but never mention how all charges were dropped, the guy has never been convicted of anything. Why not use that money to tell voters what Cronin will do to help voters rather than use it to smear an opponent? There’s too much of this and it makes the campaign look desperate.
But if there’s one big reason that voters should consider Pirro it’s this:
Corrupt one party rule always leads to a bad place and Massachusetts is a prime example. That doesn’t mean that voters should accept just any challenger to an incumbent, but Pirro provides a smart choice with a lot of private sector experience in small business which is dearly lacking in the legislature. This is in stark contrast to Cronin who has little if any real experience outside of government service and where all indications point to him being just another sheep in the flock for party leaders. If voters want change they have a choice.