A small but significant example of the contemptuous conduct of the local Dems, especially when it comes to state and federal laws:

"Melrosee Dems Rack Up Campaign Finance Violations"
Letters from the Office of Campaign Finance reveal illegal fundraising of Melrose Democratic City Committee on eve of local election.
By Alice Shattuck (Patch Poster) - Updated Nov 6, 2017 12:20 pm ET

The following information was provided to both of the local Melrose newspapers in time for the election-related deadline for the weekly paper two weeks ago. Both papers chose not to print or further report on this information before the local election on November 7th.

(Melrose) – The Melrose Democrats have been keeping busy under their new leadership team, made up of Samantha Hammar, Manisha Gadia Bewtra, Peter Navarra and Peter Mortimer. Unfortunately, in addition to ordinary local activism, they have also been busy racking up campaign finance law violations. Letters from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance addressed to Treasurer Peter Mortimer over the last 12 months reveal at least three infractions, one of which was serious enough to incur a $300 penalty for illegal fundraising activity.

This troubling pattern of disregard for legal campaign finance requirements raises serious questions about the officers of the committee, three of whom are running for local office in the November 7th municipal election. Treasurer Mortimer is running for re-election to the Ward 6 seat on the Melrose Board of Aldermen, where he serves as Chairman of the city's Appropriations Committee. Co-Vice Chairmen Manisha Gadia Bewtra and Peter Navarra are running for Alderman-at-Large and School Committee respectively.

"The fact that these infractions are occurring so frequently is definitely a concern," stated Alice Shattuck, Vice Chairman of the Melrose Republican City Committee. "These laws are written to ensure transparency and fairness in our elections process, and for a group that is so active in local politics to be repeatedly violating them shows a lack of respect for the public trust."

The first letter, dated December 8, 2016, states that Mortimer failed to file an accurate 2015 year-end report for the committee, reporting over $1,500 in reimbursements directly to members of the committee without disclosing the purpose for the political spending. In addition, the letter states, Mortimer omitted an in-kind donation to the committee from his reporting. Further review indicates this was a donation made by Congresswoman Katherine Clark that remained unknown to the public until the OCPF required Mortimer to re-file a corrected report last year.

The second letter, dated June 21, 2017, details how the Melrose Democratic City Committee posted fundraising solicitations for their political activities inside of Melrose public buildings, a violation of Massachusetts law, which prohibits public resources from being used in political fundraising. This activity, which the letter states "clearly did not comply with the campaign finance law," resulted in the committee paying a penalty of $300 to the Commonwealth.

With the Committee currently using their funds to plaster the city with fliers for their chosen candidates in the local election tomorrow, voters deserve to know the fundraising habits of the Democratic City Committee. The candidates aided by these activities include those mentioned above as well as Kate Lipper-Garabedian, Michael Zwirko, Frank Wright, Robert Boisselle, Jennifer McAndrew, John Obremski and Jennifer Razi-Thomas."

https://patch.com/massachusetts/melrose/melrose-dems-rack-campaign-finance-violations

So I read the letters from the state that author is talking about. Why does she say "on the eve of local election" when the letters are dated from last December and June. Is she talking about another election? That seems intentionally misleading. Also, the issues discussed are very minor and the letters even end with a statement that the issues were resolved to the satisfaction of the Office of Campaign Finance. The author must be pretty nervous about Nancy Lewis' chances if she needs to pull this spin doctor stuff literally on the eve of local election!

Then I looked at the name of the author. This was posted by Alice Shattuck, and she admits that all the local papers refused to publish it. I can see why. She is the Vice chair of the Melrose republican committee, and lost her recent run to be a rep from this district on the State Republican party. She was just looking for free advertising for Nancy Lewis and to smear Mortimer. The papers recognized it for what it was! So instead she posted it herself online in the Community Board of the Patch on her own, and shared it on the Uncensored Melrose facebook page, and here I bet. Or one of her cronies did. It tries to make something of really pretty minor stuff. The spin is inflammatory and inaccurate. The whole thing comes across as petty and desperate, especially when you figure out who the author is. This dishonesty and transparent posturing is disgusting. What's even more crazy is that Nancy Lewis is too afraid to even call herself a republican and reveal anything about where she stands on the issues, but she's got the local Republican leader trying to sling mud at her opponent. SAD. This why people lose faith in our election system. If you can't win fair and square, nothing is off limits. It seems like she is the one who is contemptuous of the election system and Melrose voters.

The local Dem party behaves like Trump and his crooked cabinet. Shattuck is right to bring this forward (even if her other half is a malignant fascist who should be shut down for his paid Hate speech). And it's the local Dems who have no compunction to do truly illegal things just before an election--like what Thorp et al did to Andy White just before an election (totally against the actual election laws, to say nothing of against all ethics, morals, etc.). Shattuck was absolutely within her rights to call this out. It's also totally legal to submit papers right up until the last minute (as many of the Dems have done over the years); that is the meaning of the word deadline, after all.

Monica will top the ticket again, as she has multiple times before and as she so richly deserves. Don will slide in again, also deserved. The other candidates for at-large aren't even worth the effort to type their names. Write in someone worthy!

Hi, it is election eve and guess what? Not one thing is going to change in Melrose. The schools and scores are getting worse. This administration is not changing.The SC will be surprised this time around to see how the voters elect candidates. [USA]