Why Have Victoria Sullivan & Barbara Shaw Failed to Criticize Joe Kelly Levasseur For His Attacks on Mayor Joyce Craig?

Republican Mayoral Candidate & Ward 9 Alderman Mum on Alderman’s Misogyny — OPINION

Jon Hopwood
3 min readOct 26, 2021
A portrait of the late Bill Cashin looks down on fellow West Siders Norm Gamache (l.) and Bill Barry (r.)

Manchester, NH — Another day, another attack by Alderman-at-Large Joe Kelly Levasseur on Mayor Joyce Craig, unanswered by members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

Levasseur’s behavior would have been curbed long ago if the Board of Mayor and Aldermen had been chaired by someone as strong and straight-shooting as the late Bill Cashin, whose portrait graces the aldermanic chamber. Cashin served a record 16 straight terms as alderman, his first term as alderman for Ward 11 (now represented by Norm Gamache) and 15 for Ward 10 (now represented by Bill Barry, who was a close friend of Cashin).

An Irish-American Democrat, Bill Cashin served as chairman of the board of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. He then was named “Dean” of the Board after the position passed to Dave Wihby, who was a Republican

Bill Cashin told me that he and Wihby and Mayor Ray Wieczorek would fight tooth and nail inside the aldermanic chamber for what they believed, but once inside the inner sanctum and outside City Hall, they were friends.

Bill and Dave and “The Wiz” remained friends until the day Cashin died, a generation after he had retired from elective politics.

He simply could not understand the toleration of Joe Kelly Levasseur shown by the Board. It was an institution that he revered.

Joe Kelly Levasseur’s Behavior Deserves Censure

From what I have seen over the past eight years, a time span that included my having close dealings with the junior alderman at large, Joe Kelly Levasseur has violated every canon of aldermanic ethics while continuing his assault of the principles simple human decency.

In my opinion, he should have been subjected to a Conduct Board investigation. I believe such an investigation would have recommended that Levasseur being censured (which he was back in 2014) or expelled from the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

In my opinion, Joe Kelly Levasseur continues to engage in the most egregious, outrageous and transgressive behavior ever tolerated from a New Hampshire politician as the Board of Mayor and Alderman licenses him to do so.

Never one to shy away from viciously attacking school teachers or meter maids, Joe Levasseur — who worked his way up the ladder of success from a hashslinger to a shyster —ranks as Manchester’s #3 misogynist, after Rich “The Sexting Fool” Girard and Ted “Hush ’Em Up” Gatsas.

Victoria Sullivan and Ward Nine Alderman Barbara Shaw like to frequent Levasseur’s Facebook page. Both women will post their own thoughts on threads in which Levasseur expresses his misogyny and hatred for Joyce Craig, without calling him out.

I’m not a psychologist, but one can see the animus Levasseur and Sullivan have for Joyce Craig as being driven by jealousy.

Sources say that Shaw has long resented Joyce Craig, for being a younger and more attractive woman, and for being a force in the Board of Aldermen since she represented Ward 1.

Chalk another one up for jealousy.

It is dismaying to see the likable and dedicated Barbara Shaw play court to Levasseur. (It is even more dismaying to she Barbara Shaw kissing Joe Kelly Levasseur’s ass, metaphorically speaking.

When former Fire Chief James Burkush gave Shaw a scare when he ran for alderman, Shaw reportedly turned to Victoria Sullivan, who lives in Shaw’s Ward 9. Word has it that Sullivan mobilized her supporters to vote for Shaw.

In a bit of karmic retribution, Karma repaid Shaw by having one of Victoria Sullivan’s acolytes run against her this year.

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