Friday, April 4, 2008 1:18 AM EDT, The Sun Chronicle
Joseph Lazzerini made history yesterday. The 17-year-old became the youngest person ever to declare he will be a candidate for Attleboro City Council. He might also go into the record books for the earliest announcement ever of a candidacy in city politics - the election Lazzerini will be running in is 19 months away, when he will have reached the qualifying age of 18.
Don't mistake this editorial for an endorsement (The Sun Chronicle does not endorse candidates in city council races), but we're excited about Lazzerini's plans. That might strike regular visitors to this space as inconsistent, as on a couple of occasions we have expressed something other than excitement - call it peevishness, for lack of a better word - over the length of the presidential nomination process, which will exceed the 19-month range, but not by much.
But timing, according to the old saying, is everything. And the announcement from the teen comes just as we were wondering if the day is not too far off when nobody at all will care about local politics. Thirty years ago, an editorial writer was complaining when local election turnout was a tad less than 50 percent; on Monday, only 15 percent of North Attleboro's voters visited the ballot box. Four other town elections will be held Monday and the prospects for better participation are not exactly high. City elections have tended to run in the 20 percent range. Across the area, the voter turnout trend continues downward.
Against that backdrop, expression of interest by a member of the up and coming generation is most welcome. And those who might suspect a teen prank is afoot should take note that Lazzerini has a track record. He's the founder of Kids Are People Too, a service organization in South Attleboro; youth coordinator for Bill Bowles' state representative campaign and is the founder of the Young Democrats Club at Attleboro High School. And he's formed the outline of a sensible platform, targeting the needs for reconstruction at Attleboro High School, a downtown cleanup and betterments in South Attleboro. Lazzerini has shown a talent for self-promotion, a valuable attribute in politics, and we expect he will be a serious candidate.
If this is the seed for a youth movement in local politics, bring it on. The civic battery is surely in need of recharging.
Visit Joseph's website at www.joeforcitycouncil.com
