If you were in a local GOP primary for a state rep’s seat in Worcester County next week, who would you rather be endorsed by?
Candidate John Marsi is supported by the popular Republican sheriff, Lew Evangelides, as well as by State Sen. Peter Durant and another local GOP legislator, Rep. Donnie Berthlaume.
Marsi is running against Dave Adams, who has the support of two disgraced Democrat hack ex-state reps, Paul Kujawski and Mark Carron, who between them have been arrested five times for drunk driving.
Five times!
What made Milwaukee famous made a loser out of Adams’ most notorious supporters. Both of them are in the State House Alcohol of Fame.
Like so many other Massachusetts politicians from Ted Kennedy on down, Kujawski and Carron apparently never listened to the lyrics of another classic country tune:
“Drinkin’ doubles don’t make a party.”
And now the two dissipated Democrats are fighting to make sure that Marsi, the candidate endorsed by elected Republicans in the district, loses to their boy, who’s been desperately trying to get Democrats to re-register as unenrolled to try to pick off the seat.
This GOP primary is Tuesday, in the Sixth Worcester District, which includes the communities of Southbridge, Spencer, Charlton and Dudley. It’s an unusual election, and not just because of the crew of reprobates supporting Adams.
Until last year, the district was represented by Durant, the Marsi supporter who won an easy victory last November to become the new state senator. The general election to replace Durant as state rep will be held next month, on Super Tuesday.
But what really makes this primary campaign different is that there are no Democrat candidates. The winner of the GOP election next week will be unopposed on Super Tuesday.
So the dipso Dems are rallying behind Adams – after all, he’s named after a beer himself. If you can’t back Sam, I guess Dave is the next best thing. Kujo even reportedly told someone that he and Carron are in Adams’ campaign “up to our eyeballs.”
Their bloodshot eyeballs? I called Kujo to ask him about his odd support of Adams.
“How did you get my number?” he began yelling. “Did one of your little bleeping rats give it to you?”
Unlike Carron, Kujo never went to the can for DUI. He’s not a jailbird. But when he was lugged, in 2004, Kujo was not only charged with impersonating a Kennedy, he was hit with one count of open and gross lewdness.
The story was, Kujo urinated on one of the arresting officer’s boots.
“I never pissed on that state trooper’s boot,” he said, despite the charge. “Leave me the bleep alone!”
That lewdness rap is why people remember Kujo more than Carron, even though Carron’s been arrested three more times, and did a six-month stretch in 2012. The story is so memorable that in a later campaign there was a mailing against Kujo that featured a drawing of a red fire hydrant.
The caption next to the hydrant read, “Even dogs know where it’s appropriate to relieve themselves. But State Rep. Paul Kujawski, well….”
According to Kujawski’s arrest report, the troopers also asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital.
“I may have,” he replied, according to the official report.
“I’ve been sober for 20 bleepin’ years!” he yelled at me this week. “Dave Adams is a great guy.”
In his extinguished career, Kujo was also fined $17,000 by the State Ethics Commission for using his campaign account for his, uh, trips. To get by, he borrowed $5000 from his Worcester colleague, State Rep. John Fresolo.
Perhaps you remember Fresolo. He beat a wife-beating rap back in 1996. Later there was an odd incident in which Fresolo found himself locked inside a cemetery after dark after visiting a grave of someone he refused to name.
In 2013, Fresolo finally resigned from the legislature after an Ethics Committee investigation into charges against him that involved, among other things, a young female aide, a copying machine and what were described as “Anthony Weiner-like allegations.”
Perhaps if Auditor Diana DiZoglio wins her referendum question this fall and opens up all the NDA’s involving legislators and their aides, we’ll finally get to the bottom, so to speak, of what Fresolo was accused of.
Anyway, Fresolo eventually had to put a lien on Kujo’s house when he didn’t repay the loan. Kujo finally discharged the lien, probably after he doubled his hack state pension by getting “credit” for his years as an unpaid member of the local school committee.
“So how much am I getting now?” he snarled at me. Of course I’d already looked it up — $37,899 a year, or $3,158 a month.
“Is that too much?” Kujo yelled.
Hey, it’s twice what you should be getting, you greedy hack, if you hadn’t grabbed the extra cash for a “job” that you weren’t even paid for.
Did I mention that, on Beacon Hill Kujo was on the Policy & Steering Committee? I don’t know about policy, but he did have a problem with… steering, as the state troopers found out that night.
As for Adams’ other big supporter, Carron, his last arrest came in 2012 in Auburn at 2 a.m. He was taking what he called a nap in his car. His car was in gear and he had his foot on the brake, according to news reports. The cops had to pound on his window to “wake” the statesman.
According to Auburn police, before stopping Carron had careened across a lawn in the neighborhood. Carron said an open container of brown liquid that smelled like alcohol was an “iced latte.” He told the local paper he was “tired, not drunk.”
The judge said, six months.
I called Carron twice, to get his explanation why a Democrat would be involved in a GOP primary.
I also wanted to ask him if when he was doing his stretch in Worcester, he’d been placed in the John “Spuds” Binienda Memorial Jail Cell, named in honor of the late “dean” of the Worcester delegation. Spuds was once charged with trying to wrap an electric cord around his wife’s neck after a Bud Light-fueled late-night dispute about the remote control.
The final time I phoned Caron and got voicemail, I told him it was “last call.” Not even those ominous words got his attention.
Seriously, is any Republican or independent in the district crazy enough to take the recommendations of either of these crapulous comrades?
Maybe Adams can still defeat John Marsi. Is it too late for Adams to grab the endorsement of the most recent member of the Worcester DUI caucus, Rep. David “Sleepy” LeBouef, D-Dr. McGillicuddy’s.
Could LaBouef get an Uber to Adams’ final campaign rally this weekend? Nah, probably not – Sleepy’s probation officer would probably frown on his consorting with, well, you know.