Please don't vote for the xenophobe Charlie Chisholm for Ward 6 Alderman

[ron_newman]

In this thread, I stated that I personally recalled Charlie Chisholm running racist and anti-immigrant campaigns against then-Ward 6 Alderman Jack Connolly in the early 1990s. At that time, Somerville's "Sanctuary City" resolution welcoming immigrants was a major political issue. People have (understandably) challenged me for hard evidence, so I spent a few hours today at the Somerville Central Library looking over Somerville Journal microfilm from 1991 and 1993. Here's what I found:

from editorial "Hitting a new low on the campaign trail", 11/7/91:

In Ward Six, Charlie Chisholm issued a pamphlet proclaiming "Somerville: It used to be your city; now, it's Jack Connolly's 'Sanctuary City'" interspersed with photographs of houses with "For Sale" signs.

from election coverage on 11/7/91:

Chisholm apparently gained a lot of ground between preliminary day and the final election by linking Connolly to the so-called "Sanctuary City" resolution and saying the resolution was responsible for drawing immigrants that pushed long-time residents out of the city.

from "New face in midst of Ward Six rematch", 9/2/93:

"I don't see myself as anti-immigrant", says Chisholm. "What is wrong is when we have all sorts of unrestricted illegal immigrants coming in here."

Many of those illegal aliens were drawn to Somerville because of the host of service agencies here, says Chisholm. And the city has borne too heavy a burden for its welcoming attitude in areas like education and housing, he argues.

Charles Chisholm answers questions from the Journal, 9/23/93:

... the "Sanctuary City" substitute "City of Hope" resolution, which was sponsored by Alderman Jack Connolly, should be repealed and those groups and agencies which encourage illegals to settle in Somerville should desist from targeting Somerville for a further increase in population. We cannot afford a further influx of illegal aliens. Already, plans are being developed by the School Department's Somerville 2000 Committee to meet the necessity of forced cross city busing to accommodate Chapter 636 of M.G.L. This law requires "racially imbalanced" schools to be integrated. Finally, we should support the passage of a law to report illegals for deportation who have committed crimes. It must be clear that Somerville will not tolerate becoming another crime infested Massachusetts city. Also, the movement to have illegals vote in city elections, which has begun in Cambridge, makes a mockery of citizenship and should be opposed.

In 1993, some people in Somerville circulated a local initiative petition to place repeal of the Sanctuary City resolution onto that year's general election ballot. The city's Election Commission disqualified the petition after finding that many of the signatures on it were forged and faked. The Journal's article on 10/7/93 said:

One signature that was valid was that of Charles Chisholm, a candidate for alderman in Ward Sox who signed the petition on a separate sheet of paper.

I can't support someone who chose to divide the community this way when campaigning for political office. Yes, these campaigns were 22 and 24 years ago --- but in his current campaign, he's claiming that his one term on the Board of Alderman 38-40 years ago (the last time he held public office) is relevant experience.

When you vote this Thursday, please choose one of the other three fine candidates for Ward 6 Alderman: Lance Davis, David Lieberman, or Elizabeth Weinbloom. Thank you for listening.

EDIT 9/16 8 pm: Just to make things completely clear: In this post I'm speaking solely for myself as a Ward 6 resident and voter, NOT as a co-moderator of Davis Square LiveJournal.

Comments

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

I support Mayor Curtatone's approach, outlined here: https://www.facebook.com/jcurtatone/posts/775103925949178 , which is it is not the local police's job to enforce immigration laws on behalf of the feds. Doing so would make immigrants less likely to inform police of issues and would make us and them less safe.

That may or may not mean Ron and I agree on policy. However I object to Ron's throwing around the word racist. It sounds like Ron thinks being concerned about undocumented immigration levels and the implications of that is equal to being racist and xenophobic. This is lazy inflammatory spin. Let's discuss policy on a practical matter, not label someone racist who doesn't agree with us. I can't say is Chisholm is racist or not, (many people against the mayor's policies are) but I don't see the evidence in this post, other than maybe Chisholm's bulls** comment about locals being "pushed out", which may have troubling connotations, though the rest of the context is missing, so I think the burden of proof for labeling someone racist has not been met.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I already have my mind made up on this one, Ron, but thanks for digging this up. Even if it's a local election, we get enough of that rhetoric right now in the national media.

[teko.livejournal.com]

I wasn't around here 24 years ago and don't have a firm grasp on the social and political climate, so it's very difficult to judge someone by these quotes and soundbites taken out of that context. As others pointed out in the other thread, it would be just as easy to say that Chisholm was taking a pragmatic stance in this situation. Given his work toward civil rights since then, I find it hard to dismiss him as either racist or anti-immigrant based on the Sanctuary City situation.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

Ron, thank you so much for going and doing this work. I think this information is going to be very valuable to voters trying to make up their minds.

I know Chisholm has been avoiding DSLJ, but now I really feel like he has no choice but to come here and respond. I don't really think we ought to waste time speculating why or why not he may have said the things he said when he should be speaking for himself, and I will take a lack of any form of response to be him letting his past statements speak for themselves.

[tikva.livejournal.com]

You are awesome. Thank you for doing all of this research.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Thanks for doing this research, Ron!

[lanze108.livejournal.com]

How can someone with a campaign manager that has the last name DECOSTA be xenophobic? Your unfair treatment towards Charles shows a lot about your character as a person. You take snippets from 24 years ago and cut them up to serve your own interest. Charles said multiple times that he is for SANCTUARY cities back then. He just thought Cambridge was in a better position to accommodate. That does not mean he is xenophobic.

You are probably the same person who is spreading the homophobic idea that Charles is a pedophile, because his campaign manager is younger. And to "get rid of your line of twinks". You're probably part of the same crowd that tore down Charles' literature and replaced it with Davis' in order to sabotage a campaign event. You're the same type of naysayer that told me that "There can never be an LGBT center at Bryant University". There is one now.

Maybe I'm naive as a 26 year old. I didn't expect a local campaign to be this dirty. I expected people to be fair and equal access to the candidates and their viewpoint. I guess I was wrong.

I know many of you have already made up your mind about other candidates. But if any of you want to hear the true story about Charles' background and stance on sanctuary cities, feel free to email me at jonathandecosta@gmail.com. The true story is never going to get out on a Live Journal like this that is run by a biased person like Ron Newman.

Immigrants discriminated against by City already

[markk02474.livejournal.com]

First, when I went to road project hearings on the narrowing of Broadway, the mayor showed up with his aide but no Brazilians were there and the meeting was all conducted in English. Clearly no outreach. This bike lane and landscaping project was a gentrification effort to attract high tech workers working nearby in Kendall and downtown Boston and displace immigrants.

Second, the GLX and gentrification is pricing immigrants out anyway. Last year's report here: http://www.mapc.org/managing-change-somerville-dimensions-displacement-report-released