Click to enlargeUPDATE: 3:35 PM. Somebody just pointed out that Ms. Awad's term expired in 09 not 2010. She couldn't even get that right!
Of course she also stated in a Letter to the Amherst Bulletin that she removed the Homestead on the new South Hadley home and filed one on the Amherst Condo (that is up for sale). Both claims are false.
8 comments:
Typical Amherst Leftist approach -- anyone who disagrees with you is a dangerous stalker who is violating your rights.
Never forget who got Awad elected, in the election where she defeated Hill Boss -- the people who like to storm into buildings and block off intersections while loudly advocating the cause of the day.
There are truly scary characters involved in Amherst politics, but I honestly don't think that Larry Kelly is one of them. Sometimes misguided and often simply wrong (as in his views of UMass Students) - absolutely - but not dangerous.
I would like to see Awad have to survive as a conservative in this town for just one day....
I fail to see how Ms. Awad can claim to be a resident of Amherst through 2010 when she's listed her Amherst condo as available for sale on the real estate market and purchased a home in South Hadley. The declaration of Homestead on the South Hadley property notwithstanding, from what address in Amherst did Ms. Awad intend to be a resident?
She could, quite easily, clear up these questions but she chooses to not clear them up, as is her right.
So we are left to deduce a narrative that makes sense... and what makes sense is that she intended to live in South Hadley, claim residency in Amherst only because no process requires her to change her voter registration, thereby keeping her elected office through 2010 by skirting the residency requirement.
Stalker or no stalker, I would have thought an elected public official, who is responsible for policy decisions in town government, would recognize the fundamental and structural problem with her position, with her rationale, with her justification. Maybe, she has recognized the problem, and maybe that is why she choose not to clear up the questions but instead lay the blame at the feet on the unnamed stalker. It is a telling parting shot, a gift to the stalker. What it sais is that Ms Awad is one to wield political club, and to bash her political enemy: Ms. Awad blames Larry Kelley for her resignation. As my mother used to say, no one can make you do what you choose not to do.
Finally, what is amusing about the parting shot is that Mr. Kelley undoubtedly is more than happy to take the "blame".
Hell yeah!
I can't prove this, but, based on my observations of Ms. Awad in Select Board meetings since the Hubley defeat, I think that she was running out of gas before the whole residency flap.
So the pressure from this blog (I thought the photography of her at home in South Hadley was over the top) and the legitimate questioning from others provided her with an easy exit strategy AND one last opportunity to lay a guilt trip on that half of the community (i.e. Charter supporters)that she never had an interest in serving in the first place.
I doubt that we will ever see anyone as good at playing power politics in Amherst behind the scenes while putting up the prim and proper front to the public. Much of her troubles would have been remedied if she had simply gone public in the winter of 2006, and admitted that she was in a dating relationship with Hubley. But reelection to Select Board at that time was too important for her, and she didn't play it straight. (I think she would have won anyway.)
I know that her political maneuvering has brought other people close to the point of tears in the past. So, unfortunately, this is one instance of rough justice: what goes around comes around.
I think that Ms. Awad's influence on the local scene has been important enough to state that her resignation marks an end to an era in town politics, an era with nastiness that was apparently justified by the "threat" of a new charter for the Town. That "threat" justified everything and anything.
Hopefully, that era, and the bitterness that marked it, is over. But we'll see.
Rich Morse
Amherst Select Board member resigning
AP, June 24, 2008
Wherein we see Anne Awad and Larry Kelley forever memorialized.
Does Anne Awad need proof to make the defamatory claim that Larry Kelley stalked her to avoid civil liability (because Larry Kelley is not a public official)? Has Anne Awad defamed Larry Kelley?
Yes, I truly believe she has. But since she is on the way out I really don't care.
Weiss, on the other hand, I may go after for saying she was "harassed at her home by Larry Kelley," in a front page Gazette article.
(Notice the AP bounced from the Republican and not the Gazette.)
harassment
n. the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands.
The purposes may vary, including racial prejudice, personal malice, an attempt to force someone to quit a job or grant sexual favors, apply illegal pressure to collect a bill, or merely gain sadistic pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious.
Such activities may be the basis for a lawsuit if due to discrimination based on race or sex, a violation on the statutory limitations on collection agencies, involve revenge by an ex-spouse, or be shown to be a form of blackmail. The victim may file a petition for a "stay away" (restraining) order, intended to prevent contact by the offensive party.
At $300 per year I don't think small town member of the illustrious Select Board qualifies as a "job".
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