Estevez To Hold Press Conference Monday At State House

A Wakefield Republican running for the state representative seat representing Melrose and four Wakefield precincts will hold a press conference on Monday, June 7 at the State House to address reports that his campaign misled voters about him speaking at rally, an endorsement from an organization of Massachusetts police officers and his own background and experience.

Melrose Patch contacted Eric Estevez on Friday seeking his response to coverage this week about his alleged missteps and received in response an e-mailed press release with the headline,  "State Representative candidate Eric Estevez addresses situation." The one-sentence press release read, "The Eric Estevez for State Representative campaign will be holding a press conference on the Massachusetts state house front steps in Boston on Monday, June 7 at 10 a.m."

Estevez called Melrose Patch shortly thereafter and when asked if the "situation" referred to recent reports about him potentially misleading voters, he said, "We're going to have a number of important announcements concerning a number of different things."

The Melrose Free Press, which first reported about the inconsistencies in the Estevez campaign, ran an editorial on Thursday calling for Estevez to exit the state representative race.

Asked for his reaction to the editorial, Estevez said, "Not right now — we're going to discuss everything on Monday."

The problems began when the Estevez campaign sent out a photograph that purported to show the candidate speaking at a rally for gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker — something that in fact did not happen, Estevez admitted this week to the Free Press, who first reported about the incident on Monday. The paper also reported about inconsistencies regarding Estevez stating he was president of the student body at Barry University; calling himself a professor of political science and international affairs at Northeastern University, where Estevez worked as a part-time lecturer; and on Tuesday, about a March 7 press release in which Estevez claimed he received an endorsement from the Massachusetts Association of Italian American Police Officers (MAIAPO), which the MAIAPO president subsequently denied.