Last nite was our yearly "Meet the Candidate's nite"! For those who haven't heard, Leon Artist dropped out of the selectman race, due to a civil lawsuit against the town and himself. Conflict of interest, and so, Bill Bennett is the only candidate running for selectman on the ballot. But last nite, Valerie Tobin launched a "Write-In" campaign so the people of Atkinson can have a choice. Valerie reported to have received phone calls from local citizen's asking her to run for selectman. Last year Valerie lost the selectman's race by less than 30 votes to Bill Friel.
Both of the candidates are very qualified, but there is one problem with Bill Bennett that has my concern. From what i have heard, our Police Chief contacted Bill to run for selectman. Now we all know from prior history, who the chief supports, ends up (if elected) not doing anything to stand in the chiefs way. In my opinion, after all we have been subject to , our town can't afford to elect anyone who stands with the chief.
So that leaves us with Valerie as the only independent candidate with no ties to the Chief, and will do the best job for the town of Atkinson. Write-in campaigns are difficult to win, but with growing support for change, this write-in candidate has a great chance to win.
2 comments:
[Dear Mr. Moderator: please publish this as you see fit, in the manner most likely to reach the most readers of your blog. Thank you.]
Hello everyone. I am Bill Bennett, and I'm running for Selectman in Atkinson. I apologize; I don't normally visit this blog. But I've been told that I should let all of you know where I stand.
I've been very busy, without time to read postings here in detail, but I see that some of you think I am too closely aligned with Phil Consentino, Atkinson's Chief of Police, and that I am running as Phil's "guy" in this race. Phil did approach me and ask me to run for the open seat on the Board of Selectman, but Phil was neither the first, nor the last to do so. The first ones to ask me to run, and perhaps the most influential of those who have urged me to run, are, in fact, contributors to this blog. I haven't contacted them to get their permission to release their names, so I won't. Time is too short anyway.
But let me say this about Phil Consentino: I've known Phil for more than thirty years, and I like him. I have never seen Phil abuse his office, but I have seen him bend over backwards on numerous occassions to AVOID using his authority, in the interest of a more gentle and peaceful resolution of a situation. Nevertheless, should accusations of misconduct by the Chief arise on my watch, I would investigate them thouroughly and impartially. My concern, in ALL matters that might come before me in any capacity in which I might be serving, is the best interest of the Town of Atkinson and all of its citizens. That has always been and will always be the case. My goal has always been, and will always be, a just and fair resolution of any issue. I will not play favorites and I will not throw anyone under the bus.
For those of you who want to know more about me, I offer this very brief biography: I'm a retired engineer; I put myself through MIT and graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 1968. I married my wife, Pat, in 1969; she has a degree in Physics from Northeastern, and we met while she was working a co-op quarter in the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT, where I was working. (I worked for the legendary Marvin Minsky in the AI Lab for several years. It was truly a great experience.) My career was in design and R&D. I am foremost an engineer, and a "political animal" not at all.
Pat and I moved to Atkinson in 1975, started our family, and raised our three children here. Pat now owns and operates Pat Bennett Realty in Plaistow.
I am a Justice of the Peace. I took an oath to uphold the laws and the Consititution of the State of New Hampshire, and I take that very seriously. I was the Police Department's District Prosecutor for a bit over ten years in the 1980's into he early 90's; I took that responsibility as an Officer of the Court seriously as well.
I regret that time will not allow me to return here to have discussions or debates with blog contributors, but I welcome phone calls at 362-4285 and emails to Bill_Bennett@Bennett-Group.com.
Thank you for your time in reading this.
Sincerely,
William M. Bennett
Yeah Bill you letter's all about you and Phil. But why should we vote for you?
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