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DA finds no violations in Lynn campaign flap

E-mail|Link|Comments () November 3, 2009 06:09 PM

By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff

LYNN -- The Essex district attorney's office has found that Lynn Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. and his campaign committee did not violate state election law when they attached a copy of challenger Judith Flanagan Kennedy's signature to one of his campaign fliers, along with a questionnaire response by her indicating she would support hiking property taxes to raise revenues.

Kennedy, a five-term city councilor who won the September preliminary election, had asked Lynn police last week to investigate if the use of her signature next to the response violated the state election law governing false statements.

Lynn police investigators spent one week examining the flier and conducting interviews. The information was passed onto the district attorney's office for further review. Senior lawyers there determined today that the flier did not contain any false statements, and therefore did not violate state election law, said Steve O'Connell, a spokesman for District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett.

The flier, which was mailed to Lynn residents on Oct. 24, included an excerpt from a candidate questionnaire issued by the North Shore Labor Council. Candidates were asked to rank which taxes they would raise for revenues. Kennedy said she would consider raising property taxes.

The Clancy campaign copied Kennedy's signature from the top sheet of the questionnaire and placed it at the bottom of the property tax answer. Kennedy, a Republican, did not contest the validity of the signature or the validity of her answer, just the placement of the two of them together.

The rancorous campaign has featured repeated clashes between Kennedy and Clancy, an eight-year incumbent is a Democrat who is a former state senator and representative from Lynn.