“There are no strings on me…” -Holyoke councilors-elect, essentially.  (WMP&I)

HOLYOKE—On the precipice of the municipal election, the Facebook page Keep Holyoke Affordable took out the knives. It posted a darkened screengrab from a virtual Planning Board meeting centered on at-large Council candidate Mimi Panitch. The Facebook post included text that blasted her record on the Board and noted the menacing, eight-armed undulating cephalopod in her background.

Ultimately, those knives could not cut butter, let alone octopus. Panitch, who had run several times before without success, scored an at-large seat. She placed ahead of two incumbents and squeezed out a longtime councilor, Kevin Jourdain.

“I think it is part of a much broader picture, and it’s about what’s going on in the city and the world,” she said on Election night. “It isn’t really about me, and of course, I’m very happy, and I think we’re going to be able to do great work together.”

Jourdain was not even the only incumbent to fall in last month’s elections, with huge implications for the coming term. Panitch was part of an effort to remake the Council that Mayor Joshua Garcia had supported. Garcia was up for reelection but faced no opposition on the ballot.

Ward 3 Councilor David Bartley, son of the late like-named state Speaker of the House, lost to Anne Thalheimer, who had tried several times to defeat him. Garcia’s preferred candidates won in other races, too, including Ward 1 Councilor Jenny Rivera and Richard Purcell in Ward 4. The latter was open following the retirement of incumbent Kocayne Givner.

“It was critical for me to make sure that in this local election, although no race for me as mayor, that I do what I can to support those that were running for these council seats, to make sure that the voters know where their values land and what direction we want to go as a city,” Garcia.

The defeat of Bartley and Jourdain hobbles a trinity of opponents on the Council—the third leg of which is Ward 5 Councilor Linda Vacon. These three had rallied support from other councilors, sometimes enough to block measures outright, such as the financial reforms.

That opposition had no obvious ideological dimension on its own. However, the same group was also behind legislative measures that spoke directly to national, not local, political debates.

Garcia, essentially: This year, Han did not shoot first when it comes to bringing national politics to a Holyoke election. (WMP&I)

Speaking to WMP&I on Election night, Garcia said the constant attempts to force debates on issues like immigration was quite afield from the local issues that dominated his election 2021. It was no secret that people from both parties had been successful in municipal elections. However, they largely did so without raising partisan interests and focusing on municipal issues.

This year, the same councilors resisting the reforms put forward measures that would seemingly authorize Holyoke officials to cooperate with the US Immigration & Customs Enforcement or other federal immigration agents. Jourdain and Vacon, the lead sponsors, argued it was to preserve federal funding. Courts have consistently rejected the feds’ attempts to coerce states and cities to assist with immigration enforcement. State law bars police from following ICE’s non-judicial detainers.

“Where I saw councilor alignment with party politics at the national level clearly showed me what was at stake here in a micro level,” he said. “A lot of what we see happening at the national level with the government shut, in a micro level, we had to study a Holyoke.”

The municipal analog to the federal government shutdown, which has since ended, was the city’s financial reforms. The state has been insisting Holyoke update its 19^th century financial management structure. Garcia, a municipal manager by profession, had corrected some issues. Other elements of city government need charter changes or ordinance revisions. Both require Council approval.

Garcia said he and opponents would debate the reorganization. They would seem to reach an understanding, only for it to fall apart, with opponents repeating the same talking points as before.

“No matter how many times I shared factual information of our circumstances, it was like very Trumpy. They wanted to ignore that and stay on their narrative,” he said.

It wasn’t lost on him that the same councilors opposing reforms were pressing positions that were likely not popular in a city Kamala Harris won by 30 points. She won even the city’s most conservative wards.

Jourdain seems to not agree with Garcia who fired off the national politics first. (via City of Holyoke)

Enter Holyoke Forward/Palante, the PAC that supported Garcia and his Council allies in the 2021 election.

The group has yet to file expenditure paperwork with the Office of Campaign & Political Finance or the City Clerk. The Ad Library for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, shows the PAC spent at least a few hundred dollars on Facebook ads.

Two Instagram ads rather bluntly called for Holyoke residents to vote MAGA off the Council. Another ad recalled Bartley’s civility resolution. Then it played a tape of Bartley at a hearing where he told at-large Councilor Israel Rivera, who was chairing, to “Go jump in a fucking lake.”

Thalheimer, who will succeed Bartley in January, said shedding light on Bartley’s record made a difference. It helped her break through after several unsuccessful bids against him.

“I think people finally took real initiative in looking at his voting record and decided it did not match their values,” she said.  “And I think that’s what moved the needle.”

Like Garcia, Thalheimer said his opposition to several initiatives important to the city were not popular.

Councilor Jourdain had a different image. Although he almost revels in his critics’ portrayal of him as a municipal supervillain, Jourdain also wraps himself up in the image of a fiscal watchdog. Yet, Jourdain is a Republican and a largely unrepentant supporter of Donald Trump. The latter was the focus of two ads Holyoke Forward put on Instagram.

On Election night, Jourdain conceded on Facebook but called the campaign waged against him “vile and deeply personal.”

“Not only was it personally demonizing, but more importantly I consider it poor precedent for our city and its future,” he wrote.

How vile the ads are is in the eye of the beholder. Over 30 years, Jourdain has fired off his own share of low blows at rivals. Indeed, during this election, he derided candidates Garcia supported as “puppets.”

Still, these ads did go after Jourdain directly. Both feature video of Jourdain saying he was standing up for the 50% of Massachusetts voters who backed Trump. (He is ostensibly referring to the 2016 primary. Trump never got remotely close to 50% in a general election in Massachusetts.)

Another version of the ad begins with a montage of clips about the government shutdown this year. Among the impacts it shows was the Trump administration’s withholding of food stamp benefits. It concludes with clip of Jourdain supporting Trump.

Garcia defended the campaign against his opponents on the Council.

“We clearly just showed them where people stood, and the people came out and voted against that and said, ‘We don’t want that in our community,’ which is very refreshing for me,” the mayor said.

Be afraid? Be very afraid? Or just laugh? Panitch chose door number 3 when she saw Keep Holyoke Affordable’s attack post aimed at her. (via Facebook/Keep Holyoke Affordable for All)

The group behind the sniping at Panitch and other candidates made some effort to counterfire. Keep Holyoke Affordable is also not new. Its Facebook group dates to 2019. An associated PAC, A Better Holyoke for All, formed in 2020. Its OCPF filings indicate it spending was largely on mailings. It did not pay for any ads on Meta properties according to the Ad Library.

With Bartley and Garcia out, the Council will hardly become a 13-person lovefest for Garcia. Vacon, the Ward 5 Councilor, won her race unopposed. At-large Councilor Howard Greaney often aligned with the Bartley-Jourdain-Vacon trifecta. Yet, Holyoke Forward did not consider him a priority. Moreover, most if not all councilors derided as “puppets,” in fact, have no problem opposing Garcia when they disagree.

The change could allow for debates to be more substantive, especially on tricky but policy-heavy items on the municipal agenda. Garcia pointed to the municipal financial reorganization and other initiatives with seemingly unlimited rides on the review merry-go-round in Council chambers. Finalizing the capital plan, restructuring Public Works and supporting the schools now after receivership are top priorities.

The councilors-elect are also looking ahead. Thalheimer said she was interested in community building and nuts and bolts work. She cited a poorly lit crosswalk near a school she wants to improve.

Despite the foreboding Zoom screenshot, Panitch’s agenda is hardly sinister either. Long a wonk willing to dive into the particulars of municipal governance on social media, she said passing the financial reorganization was front of mind. However, she is also eyeing economic development, zoning and mitigating the impact federal chaos.

“The first thing, of course, is just the local work, because a lot of stuff has been tied up for a very long time,” she said.

“The former city council was basically controlled at a root level by people who were fundamentally anti -majority rule, and that got written into our ordinances,” Panitch continued referring to an ordinance that purports to require larger majorities than the City Charter allows.

“Look upon my tentacles, ye Mighty, and despair!” -Holyoke style icon. (via wikipedia)

As for the octopus, it is neither a harbinger of doom nor a pal of Cthulhu’s. It’s a bronze fixture above a door at the Institut océanographique de Paris.

“I do not believe that the businesses of the Pioneer Valley and the emerging businesses in Holyoke are nearly as afraid of the bronze octopus an ocean away as our conservatives appear today,” she said dryly.

In fact, it has become a mascot for Panitch since its campaign cameo. When it was her background during COVID, she said people would message her asking where it was from and where she found it.

“But yes, I am putting the octopus on everything. I love the octopus,” Panitch said. “And if you are listening, Keep Holyoke Affordable for All. Seriously, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. That is the best attack ad ever.”