HOLYOKE — Endorsements, last-minute campaign pitches and cash are flying around in Holyoke, where two candidates are campaigning to become the city’s first new mayor in nearly a decade.
At stake in the contest is who will lead Holyoke for the next four years: Blandford Town Administrator Joshua Garcia or At-large City Councilor Michael Sullivan. Acting Mayor Terence Murphy has been occupying City Hall’s corner office ever since Alex Morse, who was first elected to mayor in 2012, took a job as Provincetown’s town manager in March.
With just days left until Election Day on Nov. 2, the candidates and their supporters have been campaigning across the city, spending money on advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts, and trading barbs in community forums and online.
Endorsements have been trickling in as Election Day nears. Sullivan touted the endorsement of former city mayor Daniel Szostkiewicz on Friday, which came several days after Garcia campaigned with former U.S. representative Joe Kennedy III, who came to town to endorse Garcia.
Two political action committees, or PACs, have endorsed a slate of candidates with the competing mayoral candidates at the top of their lists of candidates.
The more conservative A Better Holyoke for All PAC has backed Sullivan. The more liberal Holyoke Forward, or Holyoke Pa’lante in Spanish, has endorsed Garcia, who also has announced endorsements from five labor unions and the Western Massachusetts Area Labor Federation, Holyoke’s Democratic state Rep. Patricia Duffy, former mayoral candidates Gloria Caballero-Roca and William Glidden, environmental groups, and several School Committee and City Council members.
Both candidates have attempted in recent weeks to draw contrasts with the other on issues of experience and leadership.
Garcia has highlighted his work as town administrator of Blandford, saying that managerial experience makes him the only candidate who can “hit the ground running” without learning curves. He has said Sullivan’s background as a businessman and his “volunteering” on the City Council for six years does not qualify him to be mayor.
Sullivan, in turn, has said his decades running a business and dealing with the city budget as a councilor will make him a strong mayor. He has said Garcia’s experience in Blandford, a town of around 1,240 residents, does not compare to being mayor of Holyoke, whose population is over 38,000 and whose budget is roughly 28 times larger than Blandford’s.
On Friday, Sullivan sent a lengthy press release to media outlets, lashing out what he called a “mud slinging” article by Western Mass Politics and Insight editor Matt Szafranski, who Sullivan’s campaign called an “avowed Left Wing Liberal Blogger.” The article, published shortly after the campaign’s email, reviewed court records, corporate documents and other public filings to detail the liquidation of Sullivan’s first company, Berkshire-Westwood Graphics Group, as well as tax liens and Occupational Safety and Health Administration fines that took place when Sullivan ran his second business, Max Salvage & Maintenance.
Sullivan described the tax liens as “several small employment tax issues” related to efforts to employ young graduates from the Dean Tech Vocational School that were settled and paid in full.
Green energy and climate change have also been an area where the two candidates have differed during mayoral forums.
During a debate on 22News, Sullivan explained that the city needs to “capitalize on our green-energy footprint” while also repeating his desire to end Holyoke Gas & Electric’s moratorium on new gas hookups amid a lack of capacity that can only be rectified by expanding a pipeline. Sullivan said the moratorium is bad for businesses as well as the environment, given the fact that many have turned to propane as an alternative to natural gas.
During that debate, Garcia disagreed with Sullivan over his desire to immediately end the gas moratorium. He said that the city has to do what it can to transition to renewable energy and that suddenly ending the moratorium would be “irresponsible and a threat to public safety.”
Reacting to a Gazette review of overtime in the Holyoke Police Department, Sullivan was the first to call for an audit of the department and how it handles state and federal grant money. Garcia said that he too was in favor of an audit, but said overtime is a systemic issue in many departments. He also said he would consider merit pay for police and other first responders, using federal coronavirus relief funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
State campaign finance data show that Sullivan raised far more money than Garcia. As of Oct. 29, Sullivan had raised $95,103, of which $20,000 came from his previous campaign account. Garcia, by comparison, had raised $55,572 through Oct. 26.
Business owners, “partners” and “principals” are the most common occupations of those who have given to Sullivan, spending a total of $23,750 on his campaign. Those identifying themselves in campaign finance filings as retired gave $13,490. Office managers gave $2,500, attorneys and lawyers gave $2,250 and developers gave $2,200.
One of those developers is Glenn Shealey, who has given Sullivan the maximum $1,000. Marilyn Shealey, whose home address is the same as Glenn Shealey’s, also gave $1,000. So too did Karen Lynch, Shealey’s partner in the real estate and development firm Quantum Properties, and Patrick Lynch, whose address is the same as Karen Lynch’s. Quantum Properties owns seven properties on Water Street — between the Connecticut River and canal — including several mill buildings.
Sullivan has also received large contributions from employees of companies who have contracts with the city. For example, employees of the South Hadley company Quality Fleet Service have given the most to Sullivan of any company, donating a total of $5,500 collectively, including maximum contributions from the company’s owner, Nicholas Moynihan, and other company employees. The city’s Department of Public Works purchased a 2021 Hyundai loader from the company, according to Chief Procurement Officer Lori Belanger.
Michael Filomino and Michael Marcotte, the owners of Marcotte Ford, have each given maximum contributions to Sullivan. Marcotte Ford does a lot of business with the city, according to Belanger, including purchasing police cars and doing service repairs for city vehicles. And employees of Dowd Insurance, which is the city’s insurance broker, gave Sullivan $1,250.
Despite Sullivan’s clear money lead, Garcia received far more donations than Sullivan, though in much smaller amounts. His 382 donations were more than the 234 that Sullivan received.
Garcia also received more of his money from smaller contributors.
Out of a total of 234 donations to Sullivan, 181 were made in amounts of $100 or more or 77%, including 30 contributions of $1,000 and 46 contributions of $500.
Meanwhile, 281 of Garcia’s 382 total donations, or 74%, came from contributions of $100 or less.
The occupations of people donating to Garcia the most included $7,236 from retirees and $4,528 from business owners, operators and founders. Managers gave $2,150, and he also received $500 from the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters’ PAC.
Employees of MJ Norton Security donated the most to Garcia with $3,000. Garcia, who has vowed to pay first responders merit pay using federal coronavirus relief funds, has received $599 from Holyoke Police Department supervisors and $150 from Holyoke Fire Department employees.
Maximum $1,000 donors to Garcia include Connecticut-based Key Foods owner Anthony Diaz and Wanda Diaz, who shares the same home address; Golden Years Home Care Services founder and CEO Cesar Ruiz; Springfield Pallet Co. plant manager Fook Choy Lee; Connecticut school teacher Beatriz Bedoya; and C&C Auto Solution manager Ralph Strom of Agawam.
Of the $55,572 Garcia has raised, 52% of that money has come from Holyoke residents. Sullivan has raised $28,635 of his $95,103 from Holyoke residents, or 30%.
Since July, Sullivan has spent $21,000 on commercials produced by the firm Horgan Associates, $5,000 on Facebook advertising, $3,586 on print and mailing services, $2,402 on yard signs and $2,000 on digital billboard advertising.
Garcia has spent more money on mailings and other campaign literature, dropping $10,107 with the Springfield firm Get Set Marketing. He spent another $3,228 on lawn signs, banners and other materials with the Holyoke firm G Street Vinyl, $4,183 on video production and Facebook ad help from the firm LGR Production, $1,313 on a campaign website with Holyoke’s Samuel Mateo Jr. and $447 on Facebook advertising.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.