Moving on in District 7
By Boston Herald Editorial Staff | Tuesday, February 8, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Editorials
Two things are certain — the egomaniacal Chuck Turner will do some time in a federal prison and the people of Boston’s 7th City Council District will move on and we trust be represented by someone with more integrity. Yesterday U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf cleared the way for a preliminary election next week to fill the vacancy, created when his colleagues voted to remove him from office. Of course, Turner refused to go quietly and so filed suit challenging the Council’s right to remove him.
Wolf referred that part of the case to the state Supreme Judicial Court. But, he wrote, “It is important that the citizens of District 7 be represented on the council” and that allowing next week’s election to proceed will impose “no hardship on Turner.”
That’s because the Council’s action aside, state law requires that Turner be automatically removed from office on the day he was sentenced — Jan. 25. So what was at stake here at the most was about eight weeks of back pay. In Turner’s world that was more than enough to disenfranchise the people of District 7 for another couple of months.
But the good news is that in Grove Hall resident Tito Jackson the people of this much abused district have a real chance to elect someone who will listen and act in their best interests. Making his second bid for Council, Jackson, 35, also earned high marks as political director for Gov. Deval Patrick’s re-election campaign.
He’s smart, earnest and he’s all about job creation. The Boston Herald is pleased to endorse his candidacy.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view.bg?articleid=1315107
