LETTER: 'Principal Factors In My Decision To Vote For John'

FRAMINGHAM, MA—The following was submitted by Eric Cigan. Want to get in on the conversation? Email charlene.arsenault@patch.com your letters and news.

I’ve lived in Framingham since July 2015, after moving here from Boston. I bought a home in Precinct 8, and set to learning how to get involved with the town. I spoke with Rob Case, our precinct chair for town meeting, and with his encouragement I became a town meeting member just months after moving here.

As such, my views are shaped by my experience living here and serving as a TMM for a relatively brief period. I’ve enjoyed getting the perspective of so many Framingham residents who have lived here for decades, and your views certainly carry a lot of weight with me. That said, I wanted to put in my two cents’ worth as someone whose time in Framingham has been brief.

Unlike some others, I believe that both Yvonne Spicer and John Stefanini have the capacity to serve as mayor. From what I’ve seen, they are both intelligent, highly educated and articulate, and have each worked hard to earn the votes of Framingham citizens. Both show the willingness to work with others and to lead the journey from town to city government that we have all embarked upon.

In my view, though, John Stefanini is the stronger candidate, and he’s earned my vote.

There have been a lot of negative statements about the candidates, and I admit to making some myself over the last few months. Therefore, I think it’s essential that here I should rely on positive observations about John rather than negative ones about his opponent.

These are the principal factors in my decision to vote for John.

1. By any measure, John has demonstrated long-term commitment to the Framingham community. His experience here is well-documented on his campaign site and elsewhere, so I won't repeat all of it here, but there have been many personal accounts of how he has nurtured long-term relationships throughout the community, attends Framingham sports events regularly and so forth. This is how one builds community in a place like Framingham.

2. His connection to Framingham’s Brazilian community is impressive. The size and strength of this community is one of Framingham’s most distinctive features. It means a lot to me that as mayor, John wouldn’t need to build a relationship with the Brazilian community: he’s invested in that for many years.

3. John knows Framingham’s issues like the back of his hand. He has demonstrated through all his Facebook Live videos that he can field any impromptu question adroitly without sounding like a slick politician. He’s certainly ready to work with others and learn, but he would be starting from a very strong knowledge base when it comes to the state of our city.

4. He is quite possibly the most accessible candidate I’ve seen for any elected office. He rattles off his mobile phone number and personal email address at every opportunity. He’s been out on the street doing retail campaigning – in fact, I met him waving his own campaign sign at the intersection of Concord Street and School Street.

5. He possesses that quality so rare in politics: humility. For good reason, many Framingham residents – including myself – have expressed to John our disappointment with the library incident. Many other candidates would grow impatient or snap after apologizing for the N-hundredth time, but John plugs away at it. Each time he does, his face bears the shame of someone who knows he did the wrong thing, and that he let many people down.
Many people have said that the library incident was revealing of character: in my book, the humility he has shown in his repeated apologies has revealed even more.

One final note: one of the most-often-repeated knocks on John’s campaign has been the amount of money donated by businesses and out of towners. Some people have argued that these donations indicate his administration would be beholden to these interests. That is singularly unfair. It is the nature of politics that businesses will donate to the campaigns of candidates whom they know and in whom they have confidence. John has a track record that has been well known long before this campaign: there’s no guesswork as to whether he can do the job well.

My hope for Tuesday is that we will have a fantastic turnout, and that regardless of the outcome, we can all support the new mayor, council and school committee. I hope that we’ve all learned from this campaign, and that next time around we’ll all do a better job of contributing to a positive conversation about the candidates.

Now let's all get out there and vote for the sake of the new City of Framingham!

Eric Cigan
District 5
Framingham