Vargas Wins Backing from Five More Boston Legislators, Councilor, Sheriff

WHAV News Staff By |

Boston Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz. (Photograph by John Stephen Dwyer, Creative Commons.)

Five members of Boston’s State House delegation are among those adding their names to the list of endorsements Haverhill City Councilor Andy Vargas’ has received in his bid for the House seat formerly held by Brian S. Dempsey.

The two senators and three representatives join Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez, current House Ways and Means chairman, who endorsed Vargas earlier. Among them, Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz, co-hosts a fundraiser for Vargas Monday in Boston with Boston City Council President Michelle Wu.

“Andy gets it,” said Wu in her endorsement. “He knows that to keep Massachusetts moving forward, we need progressive policies that enable opportunity for all who seek it. From ensuring critical funding for schools across the Commonwealth to supporting a fair minimum wage, Andy has, and remains committed to fighting for everyday people,” she added.

Wu is the first Taiwanese-American and first Asian American woman to be elected to the Boston City Council.

Besides Chang-Díaz, the first Latina elected to the Massachusetts Senate, Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry; Reps. Byron Rushing, Evandro C. Carvalho and Russell E. Holmes; and Suffolk County Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins are backing Vargas.

The Democratic special election primary takes place Tuesday, Oct. 10.

19 thoughts on “Vargas Wins Backing from Five More Boston Legislators, Councilor, Sheriff”

  1. I don’t believe the new group of endorsers has any genuine interest in what is good for Haverhill. Their real concern is what’s good for Andy. They also want to add another radical progressive to their number. More alarming than the endorsements is the money from outside the city of Haverhill that they intend to pour into the election. Why suddenly do these politicians have an interest in Haverhill? Something here is very suspicious and Haverhill voters should reject this interference as we choose our own State Representative.

  3. I can’t wait until the special election is over and Andy mops the floor because he has the people’s support votes and he has put in the work. No other candidate is going to beat him in that district remember Bradford doesn’t count.

  4. These out of town politicians do not realize that we are laughing at them. We do not not who they are and we certainly do not care what they think. It is shameless arrogance that they think we should. Their interest is in adding another “progressive” to their roster. Don’t be fooled, “progressive” is a code word for liberal. What these endorsements have done is tell us more about Andy than Andy has.

  5. Now it has become obvious WHO Vargas really is. He is an insider who was planted here in Haverhill to change the politics here to the radical progressive policies that actually have hurt our country. Supporting hiding illegals and Black Lives Matter along with the Antifa crowd shows me this guy is dangerous. Pay attention people to what is going on here. Do you want Haverhill to turn into Dorchester or Roxbury ? Those are the policies he stands for.

  6. WHAV: What’s with the cheerleading for Andy Vargas? Your headline implies that this support is “winning”?
    Winning for who? It isn’t the people who oppose far left progressive liberals hellbent on destroying this state and country.

    Why isn’t the headline: Andy Vargas Gets Endorsements From Pro-Sanctuary City Advocates ?

    • Hmmmm Jack, I usually can’t come close to agreeing with you. I can’t even give you the benefit of the doubt most times. But, here are a few tidbits that,I think constitute benefit of the doubt.

      •Vargas is the darling of the Haverhill Democratic City Committee.

      •Bill Cox is the chairman of the and sits on the board of directors at WHAV.

      •Frank Komola is a Committee Member too and a reporter and talk show host for WHAV.

      •Recently, Cox (to his credit, he’s not hiding anything) publicly thanked Tim Coco for his support of the group.

      Whether you agree with the groups positions or not isn’t relevant to the reality that, this is not your fathers Democratic City committee. It has moved dramatically left , nearly to the point of radicalization.

      Jack, I’m not sure that any of this constitutes cheerleading . Be clear , I’m NOT alleging impropriety. The only thing that is clear is that ,I see free speech here.

      The good news is we’re not hearing about Bill Ryan’s Mini Me all the time. I’d vote for Andy ,Paul, or the woodchuck in my backyard before I’d vote for Toohey. He just seems sleazy to me.

      • Odd conspiracy theories. Pretty laughable. See my other comments. It is obvious to anyone who reads Komola’s Facebook page that he has endorsed Magliocchetti. Komola was a volunteer at WHAV–not a paid reporter as he tells everyone. As for Cox thanking Coco, Bill Ryan and the Republican City Committee also thanked Coco publicly for writing about that committee.

        Again, people read into everything.

      • I agree with Duncan that Tim Coco is fair.
        I also respect Andy. I think he’s a decent man. I’ve thrown my support to Paul Magliochetti because he appeals to my moderate nature. I will cross party lines to opposed Toohey cuz he seems to be an untrustworthy puppet of his father-in-law. Retired cop you did your homework today. I think someone was trying to yank Jack’s chain , at least that’s what I got out of it.

      • JP, I appreciate your thoughtful response.
        Free speech no doubt, but in the world of “journalism” and real “news” there is something to be said for full disclosure, don’t you think?
        While The Eagle Tribune and The Valley Patriot have both been trying to get Andy’s official statement on where he stands on the issue of making Haverhill a sanctuary city, where has WHAV been on the issue? When other news outlets report about Andy’s opponents publicly stating his stunt in February of warning about ICE in the city put lives in danger, WHAV has ignored reporting on that. Instead, WHAV ran a story about a biased pro-illegal immigration local lawyer berating ICE’s actions in the city. Bias comes not always in what and how something is reported, but also in what goes unreported. It will be worth watching heading toward the general election.

    • It’s funny how people see what they want to see. If you look at WHAV’s headlines, if they are supporting anyone, you’d think it was Paul Magliocchetti:

      https://whav.net/magliocchetti-receives-support-of-sen-oconnor-ives-in-rep-bid/
      https://whav.net/bonner-withdraws-throws-support-to-magliocchetti/
      https://whav.net/magliocchetti-first-to-formally-toss-hat-into-house-race/
      Then, you see a picture of Paul standing with the governor at Whittier Vo-Tech. It is well-known Magliochetti’s law firm is an advertiser on WHAV. I hear their ads like every hour.

      But, wait, WHAV must be supporting Toohey:

      https://whav.net/toohey-supports-sales-tax-holiday-especial-for-border-community/
      https://whav.net/toohey-to-seek-state-rep-seat-end-city-council-bid/

      Then there was a story about Lt. Gov. Karen Polito at Toohey’s event. It is well-known, Bill Ryan is a frequent guest on Open Mike.

      Maybe, WHAV is simply running the news as it comes in.

      • Tim’s been pretty fair with coverage overall, and it’s a thankless job too. With people’s political confirmation bias & ideology (INCLUDING MY OWN), he’s got a tough job to even appear as impartial.

        I don’t have a horse in this race, even though the outcome will effect us all. Even though I respect Andy as a human being, I’d never support him as a politician. We share some views, but my major list of issues are far too wide of a gap to overcome with him in order to support as Invaders/immigration are my #2 issue overall.

      • Retired cop: I’m not surprised that most people reading my comment don’t understand what happened in the headline. For a media outlet to use the word “win” in a headline isn’t even close to being objective. It’s states an undeniable subjective bias by the person writing the copy. Using the word “win” on behalf of the person writing the headline suggests an agreement that getting an endorsement from these three far left liberal hacks was a positive benefit for Vargas. That’s biased reporting. The bias is obvious compared to copy for other candidates that use words such as “receives” “throws support” and “first”. I agree that people see what they want to see. But it’s undeniable that this headline was pushing the message in a specific biased direction.