[Richard] The NB Legislative Delegation Needs To Be Replaced

The time has come for a good old fashioned House cleaning...and a Senate cleaning too!

The members of the New Bedford Legislative Delegation have been around too long and have proven to be largely ineffective.  It's time for change.  The problem is that they have been able to avoid serious competition at the polls.  If there has ever been a time to pick them off, this is it. Anyone who has considered a run in the past should recognize this opening and seize the day.

The entire New Bedford delegation has signed onto legislation to make Massachusetts a sanctuary state.  Sanctuary states are against federal law and largely exist to provide a haven for people who have entered our country illegally, many of whom are criminals.  Representative Antonio Cabral is pushing hard to make it impossible for the Sheriffs of Bristol and Plymouth Counties to share intelligence with federal immigration officials about dangerous criminal illegals before they are released from prison.

This delegation has padded it's pockets, not once but twice with pay raises and stipends while watching programs for our neediest citizens get slashed to the bone.  It has watched while commuter rail service to New Hampshire and Rhode Island was constructed while service to our region was denied.  They were ineffective in preventing a deal that saw every other region of the state land casino gaming but ours.

Senator Mark Montigny has held his seat since 1993.  He just recently was rewarded for his loyalty to the leadership with a brand new leadership position created just for him.   It allows him to potentially increase his pay check by 89 percent.  Representative Cabral has been on Beacon Hill for 26 years and has worked his way up the ranks of power and the pay scale too.  Representative Robert Koczera has been around since 1989 and does not even chair a committee.  Paul Schmid, elected in 2011, was stripped of his chairmanship this year.

The delegation is vulnerable but there needs to be serious competition.  Here is hoping that some qualified challengers emerge in time for next year's election.