Tom Hodgson has been a great sheriff of Bristol County and deserves to be reelected next week.
But the best reason for voting for Hodgson is to stop his goofy, ultra-woke Democrat opponent, Paul Heroux, the mayor of Attleboro, from getting his sticky fingers on the county jails and a multi-million-dollar budget.
In a televised debate with Hodgson Friday, Heroux tried to deflect away from his clownish career by claiming, “We don’t have scandals going on in Attleboro.”
Well, up to a point. Because in politics there can be a thin line between scandal and slapstick, and there’s no question which side of that line Heroux comes down on.
Still, on the very same day Heroux was proclaiming that he’s presided over no scandals at City Hall, his hometown daily was running a scandal-like headline:
“State says Attleboro mayor violated law in dispute with firefighters’ union.”
The Department of Labor Relations just ruled that the would-be sheriff in fact broke state law by making “disparaging comments” about a municipal union boss. The state also found that he “made coercive comments” towards a jake’s wife.
You can get a good idea of Heroux’s “public service” from some headlines down through the years:
“Attleboro mayoral candidate discloses 2010 arrest.”
“Heroux slams rumors about military service.”
“Attleboro mayor blasts councilor for helping suicidal man.”
“Mayor gags police chief following pot comments.”
“Emotions Run High Over Attleboro Sex Offender Ban.”
Let’s start with that sex-offender-ban story from 2011. Private citizen Heroux appeared at a City Council hearing to denounce a proposal to ban sex offenders from public places like libraries and swimming pools.
According to newspaper accounts, the future statesman was “vocal” in saying that diddlers have a very low rate of recidivism. The childless Heroux said that parents should instead teach their toddlers the difference between “good touch vs. bad touch.”
I called Heroux’s campaign and asked for comment about his impassioned defense of sexual predators, among other issues. When the phone didn’t ring, I knew it was the mayor.
At City Hall in 2011, Heroux just kept talking about pedophiles, saying “They are not waiting in the book stacks or waiting in the park to jump out of the bush and kidnap a kid and doing horrible things to that child. They are meeting the kids on-line.”
Finally, the then-vice president of the City Council, Walter Thibodeau, had heard enough. He interrupted to ask Heroux if he were a sex offender himself or just an advocate for pedophiles.
Heroux was soon elected state rep. The only highlight of his lackluster legislative career was running afoul of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF), which busted Heroux for improper transfers of $1,725 in campaign funds to his personal bank account.
According to the settlement, “OCPF noted that on multiple occasions, the transfer of funds occurred when the Candidate’s personal bank balance was minimal.”
Bristol County voters, is this is the sort of deadbeat that you want controlling millions of dollars in public funds? In case you’ve forgotten, Massachusetts sheriffs sometimes end up in their own lock-ups.
Just ask the former High Sheriff of Middlesex, “Honest” John McGonigle. His federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) number is 20951-038. Then there’s Charles “Chuckles” Reardon of Essex County, BOP# 20050-038.
Like Heroux, both jailbird ex-sheriffs are proud Democrats.
By the way, in agreeing to repay the funds he had pocketed, Heroux issued his own eloquent explanation to OCPF, quoted here verbatim:
“Because of some inconsistent reporting between me and campaign volunteers, I thought I had a balance, or I should say campaign liabilities, that I was able to reimburse myself for. I withdrew funds and later redepositing them; put another way, my thinking was that I had still had a balance of loaned campaign funds, when in fact I did not. The consequence of this was that I was borrowing from my campaign account, which was unintentional, but not permitted nonetheless.”
May we quote you on that, Your Honor?
Then there was his assault arrest in Attleboro in 2010. According to the statement he gave to the Sun-Chronicle, he was 32 years, squatting in his dad’s house with his sister and her boyfriend.
“The story apparently begins with a dirty pizza box,” the paper reported. Later, the dispute escalated over “the boyfriend’s dog relieving himself in the house.”
So Heroux did what any mature adult would do in such a situation. He called 911.
“When the police came, Heroux said, officers arrested him for assault. Heroux said he was arrested because he had gotten ‘up in the face’ of the former boyfriend.”
The charges were eventually dropped. Obviously, this is just the sort of person you would want in law enforcement. Which is exactly why assorted far-left dark-money groups connected to billionaire Michael Bloomberg and other dodgy Democrats with names like “Working Families of Massachusetts” have funneled big money into anti-Hodgson buys.
First San Francisco, now Bristol County. What could possibly go wrong?
By the way, Heroux went to Harvard. How do we know this? Because on Friday, in his Zoom debate (he claims he came down with the virus and couldn’t appear in person), he had behind him a pennant that said, “Kennedy School of Government.”
Not a diploma, which would be absurd enough, but a pennant… for Camelot High.
I’m sure Heroux is almost as proud of his time at Camelot High as he is of his extinguished service in the Navy, which, like his arrest, he tried to get out in front of during an earlier campaign.
According to Navy records, Rear Admiral Heroux was in basic training at Great Lakes from Sept. 11 to Oct. 20, 1995 – 39 days.
“He said he was given an ‘Entry Level Separation,’ or ELS, which is neither an honorable nor dishonorable discharge.”
At first he’d told the newspaper he’d never served, then copped to the fact that he had, well, washed out.
But he proudly added that “he has turned his life around since leaving the Navy.”
Are you sure about that, mayor?
It’s a serious job, being sheriff of a big county. Does Paul Heroux strike you as a serious guy?
You have a choice, Bristol County voters — good touch vs. bad touch.