PaulPallazola
October 31,1983 Gloucester, Massachusetts
My campaign for City Council was not going well. I had no budget, no signs posted, and was working 2 jobs, both out of Gloucester. Kathryn Hollett, my campaign manager was unavailable most of the last six weeks prior to election day; she was attending Tufts Medical School.The son of a prominent liberal in my ward had decided to support the incumbent Bill Holmes- I later learned he was angry about my support for LGBT rights…his wife had come out as a lesbian & he was still bitter. I had missed all of the debates and was running a temperature of 103 degrees on the night of the last candidates forum. In between a few hallucinations about dragons I decided I should push myself to show up. Not sure how I made it there without crashing my 1976 Dodge Aspen and not sure how the Gloucester Police didn’t notice the cannabis sativa plants growing in the carpeting behind the driver’s seat. I was given 5 minutes like each of the other candidates and used that 5 minutes to speak in support of nurses unionizing at the Addison Gibert Hospital, to call for a citywide response to domestic violence, and support affirmative action in city hiring. I also responded to Holmes’ contention that Socialism was ant-i democratic, contending that expanding the voice of the working class meant more participatory democracy. Holmes made a jingoistic appeal to support the U.S. Marines who had invaded Grenada, which he mispronounced as “Granada”. Holmes spent the rest of his time talking up plans for a bridge restoration in Annisquam. The Gloucester Times reporter responded very positively to my speech (Not enough to stop his paper from endorsing Holmes for reelection. Overall, it was a pretty good night.
Kudos to you for pushing onward! You ROCK!
Thank you Windy. In retrospect I guess I was tilting at Windmills but as a kid I loved listening to my big sister’s record of The Man Of La Mancha., dreaming the Impossible Dream and fighting against the odds seemed the way to go.
Agreed! That’s pretty much the only way to go when you have a dream well worth living <3
So did you win? The suspense is killing me…
I got 327 votes, 15% of the total cast. Mr. Holmes got the rest, about 1800. Considering I had no experience at running for anything and no budget, I guess 327 votes was pretty good…and I lived in the one cheap apartment in one of the more affluent wards in Gloucester.
Not bad at all. You need someone with an eye for talent to take up your cause…
Thank you for sharing this most interesting story.
Thank you for reading LaJenna 🙂
No but stay tuned my next pending post “Sailing” has a photo of Kathryn and her daughter Carla taken @1982.
This is one more of your fascinating struggle story, my friend. Has she involved and contributed to the story of this struggle too?
Yes, she helped to get the signatures in the Annisquam neighborhood to put my name on the ballot, brainstormed about the issues we would present. The last few weeks of the campaign her studies at Tufts University School of Medicine took her away from Gloucester and the campaign. My then housemate Jeanine ( a member of the Nurse’s Union) helped keep it going during the remaining weeks.
So the woman in the photo is Kathryn Hollett, right?
I guess I replied to the wrong comment. That is not Kathryn in this fairly recent photo. Watch for my next post “Sailing” for a photo of her with her daughter Carla.
Hahaha… That’s okay, Paul.