Opinion: By Electing John McNamara, Ward 4 Can Have a Truly Good Person Representing Them
Dear Friends,
I feel very comfortable in saying that there are many people, across party and political divides, who would agree with me that Mr. John McNamara is decent and good-hearted human being. He genuine, caring, honorable and devoted.
John has among the strongest of convictions of people I know, I yet I do not think I have ever heard him raise his voice. He has such truly good qualities as a person in so many ways that are rare in this world. In this way, he is like another person I could say much the same about, the late, and great, Steve Horowitz.
John has been active in many areas of life, not just politics, but in the field of higher education, from which he just retired, church and little league baseball. He is a devoted husband, father and grandfather, who so evidently cares so deeply about his family.
Now John McNamara is running for City Council to represent Ward 4. Given his lifetime of work building community in the city and tirelessly working to do good, not just locally, but on state and global issues, he is overwhelmingly well qualified to do a good job for the people of Ward 4.
He has already shown that, working as an advocate for the neighborhood between Roxbury Road and Allen Street in order to win support for funding for storm water renovations that the city had been pushing down the public construction agenda. It may not be flashy, but storm water improvements are the kind of common sense thing that John’s principled and sensible style brings to the table in advocating for everyday people against the privileged interests that would otherwise get the taxpayers’ dollars.
As New Britain’s longest serving Democratic Party Chair, John has been a leader in moving good policies by working to get good elected officials into public office. He has served on city commissions and even was, as party chair, the obligatory candidate for mayor in 2015, when no other Democrat stepped forward to run. He was also on the state Democratic Party’s Central Committee.
John has also been involved in the New Britain Progressive and, until he ran for Council, served on the Board of the New Britain Progressive‘s not-for-profit parent organization, the New Britain Independent Newspaper, Inc., and worked in an editorial role on the newspaper. John does not serve in those roles, now, because the New Britain Progressive and New Britain Independent Newspaper, Inc. have a longstanding journalistic and editorial ethic that people who are candidates for office, or who hold elected office, should not be Board members or editors.
If John wins election to represent Ward 4 on the City Council, it will certainly be a loss for the New Britain Progressive, since he was a great editor, but it will also certainly be a gain for the people of Ward 4 and, indeed, the whole city.
John is a good friend. For that reason, alone, I would encourage people to support his candidacy. But I truly believe that his qualities make him just the kind of person that we should all want to be elected to public office.
Good luck, John!
Sincerely,
Tim O’Brien
Tim O’Brien is Treasurer of the New Britain Independent Newspaper, Inc. and is Deputy Editor for the New Britain Progressive. His views, as expressed in this letter, are his own, and do not necessarily represent those of the New Britain Independent Newspaper, Inc., the New Britain Progressive or any of its Board members, editors or other volunteers.
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