Carroll to represent the 4th District

The MRJs Jesse Buchanan reports:

The Republican Town Committee nominated former town councilor and party chairman Ste-phen Carroll Thursday to replace town councilor Tim White who resigned in October.

I fully expect the Council to agree with the RTCs recommendation. So I congratulate Steve and wish him well! I know that next year's operating budget won't be pretty.

Now with regard to November 2011, I presume Steve has agreed to run. So you may be wondering about his chances?

My thoughts...

He's a parishioner at St. Thomas Beckett and has lived in the south end for more than thirty years. So he's quite well known.

Furthermore, I haven't looked at the election results recently but Steve has run at-large several times. And though he's both won and lost, I'm pretty sure that each time he's run his best showing was at Norton School... which constitutes 80% of the 4th district. So if Steve works -- and I fully expect him to work -- I think he can keep the seat in the GOP column.

No word yet on Justin Adinolfi's replacement. Personally though, I'd prefer to see Patti Flynn Harris rather than Matt Altieri. I could never understand why it seemed like my former colleague wanted to be pals with the TM. And though I often disagreed with him on policy, I respected Matt in the sense that I know he'd work.

Some members offer very little to the Council. But I never felt that way about former Councilman Altieri. In his own way, he tried to have an impact. Regardless, I'd like to see Patti get a chance on the Council. My guess is that she'd be more interested in representing the voters to Town Hall, rather than representing Town Hall to the voters.

Tim White