The Globe’s Matt Viser focused on Cambridge City Councilor Anthony Galluccio’s drunk driving arrest record in his survey today of Tuesday’s Middlesex, Suffolk and Essex special Senate election. This is the second significant Globe article on the race, but the first to mention Galluccio’s 23-year pattern of drinking and driving, punctuated by a four-car smash up he caused in 2005. The last Globe article, a piece by John Laidler on 16 August, was silent on the subject. Better late than never. Viser lays it out:
In December 2005, Galluccio triggered a four-car accident at a downtown Boston intersection at 2 a.m. No sobriety test was administered, but Channel 5 aired an investigation two months later where three witnesses told the station that Galluccio appeared to be drunk, which Galluccio denied. A clerk magistrate at Boston Municipal Court later ruled that he had been drinking, but said there was not enough evidence for a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol. Galluccio’s driving record includes two DUI convictions, one in 1984, when he was 17, and a second in 1997.
Additional coverage of the 2005 incident is available here on BMG, including a first-hand report by a driver of one of the cars Galluccio hit.
David, Charley and I think Tim Flaherty, a former prosecutor who helped to convict drunk drivers among other criminal cases, is the best candidate in this race. We endorsed him here last week. The Globe, GLBT periodical In Newsweekly, and the Cambridge Chronicle have also endorsed Flaherty.
because I saw all the candidates at the Cambridge forum the other night, and I did like Galluccio's answers, by and large. And he would indeed seem to have good and relevant experience.
But unfortunately, I think this stuff matters, because he hasn't shown any positive evidence that he's put the (alleged or convicted) DUI behavior behind him. Knowing that this kind of behavior tends to be habitual and repeated, it's very easy to imagine this happening again.
I really, really hate having to rule out a candidate based on this. But there it is.
in how to deal with a negative in your past, check out Jeff Drago, who is running for the 1st Suffolk state rep seat, and who had a little parking ticket problem while working for Mayor Menino:
<
p>
<
p>
You screw up, you own up to it, you move on, and then people can make up their minds. Galluccio’s refusal to deal with this issue is hurting him, regardless of whether he wins on Tuesday.
I don’t have the slightest idea who Galluccio is, or what he might have done in his DUI accident. And I don’t live in his district so I couldn’t vote for or against him anyway.
<
p>
But this story reminds me of Republican candidate for (IIRC US Senate) Jack E Robinson’s cell phone interview with WBUR a few years ago. He was driving, and talking on the cell phone with WBUR. Whomp! he got into an accident, and it was heard over the cell phone. Fortunately, it wasn’t exactly serious, but it was exactly embarrassing. IIRC, that was the year that Carla Howell, the perennial “Annie, Get Your Gun” candidate, almost out-polled the Republican Robinson.
The difference being that Robinson was rear-ended. Galluccio was driving drunk. Perhaps Robinson shouldn't have been “driving while talking” but that is a far cry from what Galluccio did… multiple times.
Galluccio has really “turned things around” as some people claim, he would have owned up to his mistake(s). I guarantee that would do a lot more for him than trying to avoid the issue.
If he is an alcoholic, the status of his public service is not going to change his driving habits. Under the “no politician ever lost an election” rule, if he isn't a state senator, he'll be clerk of a court, judge, on some commission or, well, you get the idea. Certainly, he'll be driving. I remember the phrase that was quoted when people read of the last accident: “Who does he think he is, a Kennedy?”
Come to think of it, of all the times I'd seen Tip, I never saw him sober.
to Tim Flaherty on some impressive endorsements. It speaks well of his ability to generate positive reactions in a short election window. I would be more impressed if the Globe and CNC did GOTV but it still reflects well.
As a flawed individual who has made my share of personal mistakes and lapses in judgement, I don't base my support on candidate's personal demons. Ted Kennedy fights for all the things I care about (for that matter so did Tip O'Neill). Bill Clinton had his personal demons but I tend to think we were all better off from 1922 to 2000 then we are today.
I door-knocked in Everett on Saturday for Galluccio. Not one voter mentioned the Globe story or Janet Wu's coverage. They did care about health care, jobs and crime. Galluccio will be a good, solid, progressive vote in the State Senate. I'll be phonebanking on Tuesday with that in mind.