Jim Walsh

When I heard that State Rep. Pete Capano would not be running for reelection, I was shocked. He seemed to enjoy his job and, while he was hardworking, he seemed to carry the work he was doing easily. But, his announcement also reminded me why I shall always remember the 2018 race that made him a state representative in the first place. 

The 11th Essex has had some great state reps. Steve Walsh brought a wonderful sense of purpose and high intelligence that stretched from health care to the arts. Tom McGee followed in his father’s footsteps to the state House of Representatives and then continued on to the state Senate, to the chairmanship of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and, finally, to his city-saving seat as the mayor of Lynn.

But at a deeper level, it is the 2018 campaign for state rep that I will never forget. In an era when political engagement is more like an angry dogfight than an expression of civic virtue, It was the cleanest, most mutually respectful race in which I have ever participated. 

There were three candidates. Drew Russo was the one I chose to support. I had come to know him as a member of the Lynn Democratic City Committee and when he worked in Congressman John Tierney’s office in Peabody. In the 2018 campaign, I went door to door with him and for him. I participated in phone banks, sent out emails, and all the other grassroots work in which political activists engage. In Nahant, our fight against the corporate expansionism of Northeastern University at East Point had just begun. When he said he’d join that fight, I knew he meant it.

But then there was Hong Net. I did not know him well, but I’d admired the quiet, disciplined work he had done on the Lynn City Council. He was a man both self-effacing and proud. And there was another thing. Twenty-five years earlier, I had done refugee work along the Thai-Cambodian border. I had seen the Cambodian refugee camps and, in the villages, the young teenagers on motorbikes, AK-47s slung across their shoulders, setting off to fight Pol Pot. I had seen men who had lost limbs in that fight and the multigenerational families that had fled the horrors of war. Hong’s family had been one of them and now he was a living example of the American dream. Not only was he a full-fledged immigrant American citizen, he sought and provided public service to his fellow Americans with special sensitivity to the Cambodian community. He was quite a guy.

Finally, there was Pete Capano. He was a Democrat and a union guy, which certainly resonated with me. That was the kind of household in which I was reared and the kind of household that has been systematically screwed by a party formed mostly to hand out tax breaks to the rich and shift the financial burdens of civilization to middle- and working-class people. Pete too served on the Lynn City Council and, when asked, he represented the council at a meeting in Congressman Seth Moulton’s office concerning East Point where we Nahanters sought a solution that would be a win-win for both Lynn and Nahant. Instead of desecrating East Point, we suggested that Northeastern invest in Lynn, and link up with North Shore Community College and Salem State University. 

“Create instead of destroy,” was our suggestion.

“We’ll do as we please because we can,” was their response.

And then, in 2018, that remarkable campaign began. 

In our town, the candidates went door to door. They engaged with small groups. They participated in a public debate at the Nahant Life Saving Station sponsored by our Democratic Town Committee. Not once did I hear a personal attack. Not once was an insult thrown. There was no shouting. No cutting remarks. No rumor-mongering. No eye-rolling. No back-stabbing. 

These three men respected one another and respected the voting public. Ultimately, they respected the very best of the American political tradition. 

I don’t know that they intentionally set out to run one of the cleanest campaigns ever, but they did just that. 

Pete Capano, Hong Net, and Drew Russo are still in public service. They do it with both seriousness and smiles. Voters feel respected and respect them in turn. They began the political contest as friends and their friendships endured. A high standard was set in 2018 and I fully expect the upcoming campaign will be on a similar level.

Jim Walsh is active in the Nahant community.