Today we all wake up to see the same city council that we started with. As the saying goes “hate the game not the player.” Hopefully over time more folks will come to understand why a slate is not good for the city but for another time. Let us not look any deeper. Yes there will be questions. Again, those are for another time. Today, lets focus on the good. Congratulations to Milva McDonald and Ron Giovino, your hard work paid off and the charter passed!

Some of us started the day at the McGlynn school where we met some wonderful people and despite the cold, we were out there. Special thanks to Paul Donato Jr who swung by and provided coffee, tea, breakfast sandwiches which came from Jim’s Market in the heights. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Nate Merritt, pictured above even took the time to repair Nicole Branley’s sign. Nate was the swingman, among the many who stopped by each polling place to make sure folks had what they needed. All the independent candidates rotated in shifts doing the same things. They checked in to the polling places and made sure things ran smoothly.

It must be noted that what was not at these polling places, members of the our revolution group. It was an unusual dynamic to be running for office yet have no visibility at the polling sites. Throughout the election process Medford Happenings has tried to provide facts and information to its residents through media interviews of which none of the our revolution members took us up on our offer. However, it also made it easy to cast our platform as right leaning. It was misleading and untrue. As a result there is a viewer base out there that missed out in the information we made available. Which makes us pivot to Gotta Know Medford. We have supported them from the start. These ladies, all former employees of the Medford Transcript have slowly put together a site that Medford residents can refer to as their source of news. They too, have been unfairly maligned as being right leaning. Its a mistake. They cover such a wide array of items important to the city of Medford, rather than taking pot shots at them, maybe help? You can do this by subscribing to their newsletter, you can help in other ways too, just email them.

Finally the condolences. Every election cycle has its casualties and this one was no different. We lost out on having several people that were not only bright but they are simply good people. Their loss only underscores the fact that many Medford voters never took the time to do their homework properly and by doing that you needed to meet and talk with these folks. Among them, Milva McDonald, she is a wonderful human being, thoughtful, engaging and smart. Her work on the charter was a well deserved win! Lisa Kingsley, one had hoped that with such a strong campaign, gold standard qualifications, and a strong presence, she would have prevailed. However, it is not to be and as a result, the school committee and the education of our students will continue to circle the drain. The same can also be said of the other women who brought their strong will and skills to the table lost out as well – Nicole Branley, Page Buldini and Trish Schipelli. The statement they lost should be turned around to Medford’s loss. It should not come as a total surprise, these ladies ran independently and chose not to be a part of the slate.

As they say, the ball is now in the court of o.r. lets hope the weight of the issues that await them won’t crush them. It will also be their responsibility to repair the damage that they did during their campaign. You not only have a city to repair but you have a large segment of the voter base you need to reach out to and fix.