CCA declares overwhelming victory as predicted

Except it’s B.S.

By Will Collette

In past election cycles, you could expect the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) to recruit a full slate of candidates to run for town office. This year, it was different. 

The best the CCA could do was offer a partial slate of only two Town Council candidates along with their usual bunch of acolytes of Planning Commissar Ruth Platner to run for Planning Commission.

They padded their numbers by adding people to their slate who never asked to be added, including Democrat Cynthia Drummond and incumbent Republican Steve Stokes (who received the CCA’s coveted “conditional” endorsement, both running for Town Council, as well as the three-member Democratic slate for the Chariho School Committee.

I predicted that the CCA would use their sleezy ploy of awarding unsolicited endorsements so they could claim an overwhelming victory in the November 3 General Election.

After closely monitoring the way the CCA operates, it’s almost too easy. Sure enough, here’s the CCA’s “victory” statement:

“Thank you to each of the over 4000 voters who took the time to vote this year and congratulations to all the winners! The election may be over, but Charlestown Citizens Alliance will continue to engage the public to encourage Charlestown’s government to protect our environment, economy, and future….Ten out of eleven local candidates that CCA supported in the November 3 election were elected, and we are grateful to the voters. Sadly, Sasha Puchalski, who we supported for Town Council, missed being elected by just 24 votes. We hope she will continue to serve the town and be involved in Charlestown’s government. Charlestown would benefit from her continued involvement.”

Except half of those claimed CCA wins are people who did not ask to be endorsed by the CCA. They still only have Bonnie Van Slyke on the Town Council making this the third election cycle the CCA has been out of power. Their only achievement was to tighten Ruth Platner's control of the Planning Commission, though without the Council, the Planning Commission has no power except the power to obstruct. But obstruction is what Platner is all about.

Since the CCA first emerged from Charlestown’s swamps in 2008, they have never seemed to master the skill of telling the truth. This has continually gotten them into trouble and led voters to kick them out of power in 2022.