Joe Kelly Levasseur For Mayor: It’s Now or Never
Does the Whirligig of the Queen City Political Scene Have the Intestinal Fortitude to Realize His Dream? — OPINION
“Everybody wants to be mayor,” Joe Kelly Levasseur told this reporter in the confines of his old law office some years ago. With that statement, Levasseur likely was sharing his deepest yearning, aside from personal concerns such as his family: He wanted to be the Chief Executive of the Queen City.
Joe tried once before.
In 2001, JKL sat his ass down on a cockhorse bolted to the Manchester-Merry Go-Round of municipal politics — the proverbial roulette wheel of electoral providence — trying to hook his index finger through the Big Brass Ring stamped MAYOR…. But the centrifugal force proved too much for the man born Joseph Lawrence Levasseur.
The Whirligig of the Q.C. Political Carnival was unassed from the carousel, ride over.
Questing Joe Kelly never made it out of the primary. The incumbent, Mayor Robert Baines, topped the charts with 8,032 votes. Runner-up Richard H. Girard polled nearly 2,000 more votes than did Joe Kelly Levasseur, receiving 4,817 votes to the restaurateur’s 2,950.
That November, Rich Girard was swamped by Bob Baines, who racked up 12,321 votes (57.3%) to the 9,187 (42.7) garnered by Ray Wieczorek’s Fart Catcher.
It was a thorough ass whuppin’ Mayor Bob Baines gave The Wiz’s ex-chief of staff.
Joe Levasseur went on to become the “nemesis” of “Stinky” Girard, according to former Union Leader City Hall columnist Ted Sifer.
And now, Rich Girard is running for mayor again. (And why not? The $78k annual salary plus benefits Manchester’s Mayor pulls down — plus free parking — likely beats the ex-radio talk show host’s remuneration as a truck loader on UPS’s “Sunshine Shift”.)
Republican Landslides
And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
Well, the landslide bring it down
Oh-ohh, the landslide bring it down.
If the electoral gods should miracle Stinky Girard’s ass into the final against Mayor Joyce Craig, it is unlikely that he will duplicate fellow challenger Victoria Sullivan’s lugubrious 2019 loss. Was it only two years ago when she was defeated, Stinkyesque style, 57% to 43%, a mirror of Girard’s 2001 loss.
Both Girard and Sullivan are certified losers. By landslides! Talk about a dead heat on a merry-go-round!
And with Ted Gatsas (finally) eschewing a third go-round with Joyce Craig (despite his appetite for being the Big Man on the Queen City Camps once again — and a fire in the belly to match The Wiz’s modern record of five wins as mayor) the strongest candidate the Grand Old Party of Landslide Losses is the man known colloquially as JKL.
Joe Kelly Levasseur’s 9.261 votes in the 2019 municipal election made him the second most successful vote magnet, his prowess at fruitfully shaking the Vote Tree surpassed only by the incumbent.
Joyce Craig racked up a lusty 11,051 votes last time around. That was off a bit from her Gatsas-banishing 12,068 tally two years earlier, but her 2019 numbers beat Teddy Gasbag’s 10,570 administration-cancelling ’17 total.
JOYCE CRAIG IS A WINNER. She likely would be in her third term had not her native turf — Ward 1 — been outfitted with not one but TWO (count ’em 2!) malfunctioning voting machines in her 2015 matchup with Landslide Theodore, who just barely barely eked out his win after a recount.
Some New Hampshire power brokers derisively called Gatsas “Mayor 64” in honor of his LBJ-like “Landslide” triumph.
It was the opinion of many pundits and Inside Queen City Politics aficionados, that had those voting machines not malfunctioned, had not the Ward 1 vote been suppressed by the Penates of the Polling Place, Joyce would certainly have won. (O! Flying Fickle Finger of Fate!)
Which brings is back to Joe Kelly Levasseur and his observation, “Everybody wants to be mayor.”
Levasseur is a savvy handicapper of political horse racers. In his heart, he not only knows he’s right — but he knows neither Stinky Girard, the man who bested him in the 2001 primary, or Victoria Sullivan can beat Joyce Craig.
JKL could avenge himself on his 2001 humiliation, let alone banish Victoria Sullivan back to the political provinces that is state rep, by putting himself on the ballot. He would blow both the Republican pretenders away.
Now or Never
This is it for JKL — It’s now or never.
In two years time, former Fire Chief Dan Goonan should be well established as a front-runner to succeed whomever served as a caretaker mayor if Joyce Craig conquers the governor‘s office up there in Concord.
If she’s still occupying the mayor’s office, Joyce likely will be even more powerful and popular than she is now. She could match and even exceed The Wiz’s modern day record of five wins.
Joe Kelly Levasseur is the only heavyweight candidate for mayor the Queen City GOP has left. The question is: Does JKL have the guts to go for it and realize his dream to be MAYOR of Manchester, New Hampshire?
Time will tell…. Very soon.
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The filing period for municipal office runs from July 12th through July 23rd.
