* A friend suggests that Beverly Mayor Bill Scanlon and challenger John Burke be the featured guests at the annual “Bridging the Gap” ceremony on the Veterans Memorial Bridge later this month.
The event brings ancient rivals — the Salem and Beverly football teams — together to shake hands before the big Thanksgiving Day game.
Mayor Scanlon
Noted Scanlon during his victory speech: “I’m working on getting a personality. It will take a while.”
* The Democratic victory in New York’s 23rd congressional district may be a defeat in disguise for the president’s party. At least that’s New York Times columnist Frank Rich’s theory.
Republican Dede Scozzafava withdrew from the race after party conservatives abandoned her for Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. As a result, Democrat Bill Owens emerged the winner in this traditionally Republican district. (The former incumbent, a Republican, was tapped by President Obama to become Secretary of the Army.)
Rich speculated that a Hoffman win would further embolden the GOP’s conservative wing and result in similar electoral disasters for the party nationwide.
* Salem District Court first justice Robert Cornetta and Mayor Kim Driscoll have been an effective team advocating for the new courthouse downtown. So it was no surprise Cornetta’s first order of business was to congratulate Driscoll on her “come-from-behind victory” when the two shared the stage at the North Shore Chamber of Commerce meeting Wednesday morning.
* The vote totals in local councilor-at-large races make Ted Bettencourt and Mike Cahill the natural frontrunners in the mayoral sweepstakes in Peabody and Beverly respectively. You can bet Salem Councilor at large Joan Lovely hopes the same logic applies to her, though she will likely have to wait a couple of years longer than the other two for her shot at the corner office.
