Election ’09 – Hopefully, candidates will run positive campaigns

The calendar may say summer is still with us, but the election season began this week with the announcement by lifelong Winthrop resident Barbara Survilas that she will be seeking the office of Town Council President in the November election.

Barbara said she plans on running a positive campaign and is preparing a public statement in which she will announce the standards in which she will conduct her bid for office. Survilas indicated that she will not criticize any candidate who runs for office, but will rely on getting her own message and ideas out to the voters.

It is not known at this time whether any other candidates will seek the office that has been held by Council President Thomas Reilly since our new form of town government began.

But the entry of Barbara Survilas into the election is a signal that this will be an active election cycle and that the candidates will be seeking to ask residents to join in their campaigns.

Winthrop has always been a politically active town and it is expected the Council and School Committee races will draw a good number of candidates and volunteers.

Although there are many significant issues about which reasonable persons may differ, we urge all of the candidates to run their campaigns in a such a way that they unite us, rather than divide us, as a community. Hopefully, each and every candidate will conduct himself and herself in a manner that will be a positive reflection upon themselves, their families, their supporters, and our town.