Wieczorek Endorsement of Sullivan a Setback for Girard in Mayor Race
Rich Girard Served as The Wiz’s Chief of Staff — OPINION
MANCHESTER, NH — Former Manchester Mayor Ray Wieczorek’s endorsement of Victoria Sullivan represents a repudiation of her fellow Republican rival Richard H. Girard, who served as Wieczorek’s chief administrative aide.
On his Linked-In page, Girard claims to have held the title “Chief of Staff.”
Girard cites his experience as Wieczorek’s senior aide as part of his bona fides to be mayor. He was touted as The Wiz’s “budget director” in a biographical slugline accompanying a Union Leader editorial.
Yet, the mayor he worked for for over five years declined to support him in the primary.
After Ray Wieczorek was upset by Robert Baines in his bid for a fifth term, Girard was matched up against Baines in 2001. Baines scored a landslide victory over Girard that November.
Victoria Sullivan, in her 2019 bid for mayor, similarly suffered a landslide defeat at the hands of an incumbent.
The Wiz Backed Getting Rid of Rich Girard’s Job
The failure of The Wiz to endorse Rich Girard perhaps was predictable. Multiple sources have said that it was Mayor Ray Wieczorek who was behind the Board of Mayor and Aldermen’s decision to defund Girard’s staff position. That terminated Girard’s salaried involvement with the Wieczorek administration.
Getting rid of Girard’s position essentially got rid of Rich Girard, who sources say was disliked by most of the aldermen.
The late Bill Cashin, who served a record 16 straight terms on the BMA, told this reporter that Ray Wieczorek was upset when he had returned to his office after an absence and found Rich Girard sitting in his chair in the mayor’s office. Apparently, Girard had considered himself Acting Mayor in The Wiz’s absence, a function that the City Charter bestows on the Chairman of the BMA, which at the time was Dave Wihby.
Rich Girard has claimed that he offered to voluntarily leave his position in the Wieczorek administration, to move on to take advantage of business opportunities. Girard started his own marketing company in 1997.
In 2001, the year Girard was defeated by Mayor Bob Baines, he began selling investment products for Primerica.
According to the slugline bio published in the Union Leader at the end of Girard’s December 2020 op-ed piece Exploding Cigars are No Fun, “He was budget director for three years for Mayor Raymond J. Wieczorek.” That was changed in subsequent op-eds to, “Former at-large Manchester alderman, school committeeman, and charter commissioner Richard H. Girard is a candidate for mayor.”
Rich Girard’s Union Failed to Back Him, Too
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority report on Richard Henri Girard reveals that he works as a pre-loader for the United Parcel Service, a job he has held since 2019. Pre-loader is a warehouse job who moves packages and loads them on the UPS truck.
Girard’s position at UPS makes him a member of the Teamsters union, which endorsed incumbent Mayor Joyce Craig for reelection.
Neither the Union Leader or the candidate himself on his Linkedin mentions that Girard is a UPS employee. On his Girard for Mayor website, under the section “Rich’s professional work includes,” there is this entry:
Teamsters Local 633 (September 2019 — present)
Rich works the “Sunrise Shift” loading package delivery vehicles.
However, the name of his employer, United Parcel Services, is absent.
