Larry Giunta

I always enjoyed sparring with Larry Giunta on his former Newburyport's Voice web site. His political leanings are different than my own, but I generally found him to be a reasonable fellow. So I was intrigued when he announced his intentions to run for City Council.

I generally DON'T* take party lines into consideration when voting local. I look more at the person and their positions.

Larry definitely passes the person test, but his positions and I have irreconcilable differences.

At last week's candidate forum, Larry indicated he did not support the Local Historic District. He was one of only two candidates who declined to raise his hands. Dick Sullivan Jr. was the other, but I wasn't sure if he opposed the concept or a district or the specifics of the ones being proposed. I'm assuming the former.

That was strike one.

Strike two came this morning when a profile on Larry in the Daily News suggesed he "supports an open waterfront."

Giunta said he will pledge to work to keep the waterfront open as a park for all to enjoy.

For me, that's strike two, which is really one strike too many in this competitive at-large race. I like Larry Giunta, but not enough to give him one of my five votes.

*Capitalized for emphasis since I originally left the word out.