A union (IBEW), generously supportive of Congressman Tierney, continues to protest in Market Square in Newburyport months after losing on a bidded job at Anna Jaques Hospital.
Dear Congressman John Tierney,
Congressman John Tierney
I have two “paying attention” questions for you:
(1) Am I to believe that you weren’t paying attention when your wife Patrice managed a $10 million bank account of laundered gambling money for seven years from your home?
(2) Are you paying attention to the representatives of the IBEW who are still protesting daily in Market Square in Newburyport?
John, regarding the first question, you’ve been married nearly fifteen years. You learned early on that Patrice’s family was in trouble with the law.
Don’t tell me that the indictment of her two brothers on 442 counts, including racketeering and money laundering, didn’t stir some concern.
Don’t tell me that her management for seven years of a $10 million account for them wasn’t worthy of additional concern.
You claim that you paid no attention to what your wife did. How many husbands out there would have done the same thing? Maybe for seven days but not seven years!
I say you were paying attention to what your wife was doing. I also say that you chose, for political reasons, not to pay the type of attention almost every other husband would have paid to a wife of 14+ years. You could have insisted she stop. Certainly as a lawyer, you knew the possible criminal implications of her activities.
My second paying-attention question for you relates to those protesters persisting in Market Square here in Newburyport. They have a right to be there but what is their point, months later, beyond trying to disparage Anna Jaques Hospital endlessly for turning them down.
When I see those protesters, I know that they represent the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). That union is very powerful and politically involved. They are 9th nationally in campaign donations ($34,445,372.00) from 1989-2011. 97% of their donations have gone to Democrat candidates. You know the last part, John, because they’ve been funding you generously since 1996.
Support for Anna Jaques Hospital is seen all over Newburyport.
The IBEW doesn’t have one supporter in Newburyport willing to step up and admit it. Visual support for AJH is everywhere. Many stores, lawns, and cars display evidence that the good guys are the hospital while indirectly revealing with the signs their dislike for the IBEW union.
A rally was held this summer in Newburyport to support AJH. I’m told that you were invited but chose not to come. How did you make that choice?
You receive significant financing from the IBEW, and might have been someone that union might listen to on our behalf. Is their money keeping you from having an active role in opposition to their Newburyport activities?
There still are many potential voters who have not yet made the connection between you and the IBEW. If they do, I guarantee that they will support AJH before you. The two are incompatible to anyone paying attention.
I suspect that you are fully informed of what the IBEW has been doing in Newburyport. I am sure that many residents have attempted to contact you to get you to do something.
These potential voters want you to step up against the IBEW in word and deed. They want you to tell the union that you disapprove of their continued presence and are willing to accept the consequences because you represent us rather than the IBEW.
I doubt you’ll do this because I think that you’re paying more attention to the potential disaster it would be for you to stand up to the IBEW. That union didn’t get their way with AJH and look at the nuisance they’ve become. What would happen to you, and the heavy support they usually give you, if you got on their wrong side?
My conclusion is that your attention span is politically-motivated. It certainly should cost you votes in Newburyport if enough folks make the connection between your support from the IBEW and your refusal to speak/act against them in their feud with AJH.
McClelland Miscellanea 
