Dear Friend:

Before I explain why I’m about to ask you to write me in for mayor on November 4, I want to take a moment to recommend candidates for alderman and school board I believe will serve Manchester well, especially its taxpayers.

The Board of School Committee

It’s clear to any objective person that Manchester’s schools have hit the accelerator while headed fast in the wrong direction.  Spending has shot up by $47 million (25%!) since July 1, 2023.  Incredibly, it’s not enough as school board members decry the cuts administrators have been “forced” to make because the increases haven’t been enough.  They say they’re “short” $9 million, despite raiding emergency reserves to the tune of nearly $20 million in the last two years.  

Over $220 million has been blown to expand middle schools that have excess capacity and declining enrollment.  Add $85 million to rebuild a perfectly good Beech St. School and taxpayers are now on the hook for $20 million per year in debt payments for the next 25 years.  That’s not all!  The school board has proposed more than $2 BILLION in additional spending just on buildings!  That’s right, billion with a “B!”

Meanwhile, parents continue to pull their children from city schools.  In the last two years, enrollment has dropped by another 305 students, or 2.5%, continuing an 15+ year trend.  Student performance on statewide standardized tests continue to sink to new lows, with proficiency scores having plunged to single digits in several schools.  Overall, fewer than 1 in 3 are proficient in English, fewer than 1 in 5 are proficient in math and fewer than 1 in 6 are proficient in science.  For this, we’re now paying over $22,000 per student!

Add to this profligate spending and woeful performance policies that allow boys to use girls bathrooms and locker rooms and play on girls sports teams, enable schools to socially transition children, including those in elementary school, from one gender to the other without parental notification and with a mandate to lie to parents if they ask, DEI lessons and teacher trainings on “The Wheel of Power and Privilege,” which, 6 months later, is still “under investigation,” and the silence of the mayor and school board members as a teacher celebrated the execution of Charlie Kirk in his classrooms and at-Large School Committeeman Jim O’Connell blamed Kirk for his own murder, calling him a “right wing extremist” whose “hateful rhetoric” had a “real effect,” and it’s clear that a change on the school board is long overdue.  

With this in mind, I’m happy to recommend the school board candidacies of Kathleen Kelly Arnold and Elizabeth Ann Moreau at-Large, Phil Tuttle in Ward 1, Melodye Smith in Ward 2, Cali Rojas in Ward 3, Jason Hodgdon in Ward 4, Mark Millet in Ward 5, Chastice Cocchiarella in Ward 6, Malinda McCusker in Ward 8, and Jose Marte in Ward 9.  Carlos Gonzalez has been a disappointment in Ward 12 but he’d be better than his radical left opponent who embraces this woke lunacy and hopefully will improve with the election of those enthusiastically endorsed here.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen

City spending in the past two years has gone up by $32 million.  Taxes are up by $16 million.  Last year, taxpayers got hit with the biggest tax hike in a generation.  With what’s projected this year, it rivals the biggest two year increases in well over a decade.  (Note:  We won’t know just how big it is because the tax rate won’t be set until AFTER the election and that’s concerning as city finance officials have warned that non-tax revenues are falling short of projections, meaning taxes will be, like last year, noticeably higher than projected to offset the increased spending.)

This Board of Mayor and Aldermen green-lighted $11 million in new school spending, despite the enrollment drop and approved the boondoggle Beech St. building plan.  Meanwhile, it’s continued to funnel millions of tax dollars into government subsidized housing, while approving massive tax breaks for mostly out of state developers building giant apartment complexes around the city.  

The mayor and board are pushing zoning changes that will make us the second coming of Worcester, Lowell and Lawrence, while making pretend they’re doing something about the raging vagrant invasion of our city by mentally ill and or drug addicted homeless who continue to come to Manchester from far away places because we tolerate, if not enable, their presence on our streets and sidewalks, in our parks and wooded areas.  Many were kicked out of one or more of the more than 100 illegally operating sober living facilities that have upended neighborhoods across our city.

Is Manchester a sanctuary city?  Well, the politicians say no, but other than honoring ICE detainer requests, which the Manchester Police Department says are few and far between, MPD does not notify ICE when it’s arrested an illegal alien for committing a crime.  When the police chief said the department was “too busy” to be deputized by ICE so that it could simply hold illegal aliens it arrested until ICE comes to get them, the mayor essentially shrugged his shoulders.

I could go on but I won’t.  We all know change is needed because we didn’t get the change we voted for.  To that end, I’m happy to say there are a few feisty and brave souls who’ve stood tall and fought for the taxpayers, for sanity and for the best interests of our neighborhoods.  Aldermen Joe Kelly Levasseur at-Large, Crissy Kantor in Ward 6, Ross Terrio in Ward 7 and Ed Sapienza in Ward 8 have unquestionably earned another term and I hope you’ll vote for them.  

Aldermen Norm Vincent in Ward 11 and Kelly Thomas in Ward 12 got off to good starts but seem to have been mesmerized by Ruais.  Nonetheless, they are far better than the woke alternative running in their wards and I’m hopeful that with the addition of solid conservatives, they’ll come back into the fold.

As to those impressive new faces challenging aldermen who are tools of special interests and steadfast supporters of the status quo, I urge you to vote for Will Infantine at-Large, Ben Prescott in Ward 2, Paul LaFerriere in Ward 4, Kathleen Paquette in Ward 5, Troy Micklon in Ward 9 and Robert Rivera in Ward 10.  Manchester is fortunate to have people of their caliber on the ballot.  They’ll bring a range of skills and insights desperately needed at City Hall.

Why write-in Rich Girard for Mayor?

For weeks, I’ve heard from many of you and or seen your social media posts.  I share and feel your frustration with Ruais’ performance as mayor.  (And it’s been a performance, hasn’t it?)  The “optics,” as he likes to say, are what it’s all about.  That said…

Click to enlarge to see what his own flier from the last campaign said.

What happened to the guy who said he was the “only candidate” who wouldn’t raise our taxes and would “prioritize and lower spending to finally give us a tax cut?” 

Why did he work so hard to undercut our Republican aldermen who tried to cut taxes?  Let the school board cheat the tax cap so blatantly?  Fuel the wasteful ways of the schools? 

Why did he fail to hold rogue departments accountable? Put an end to shelters and practices that actually enabled homeless vagrancy, drug use and crime?  Direct resources into our kids’ classrooms?  

Why didn’t he push the police to cooperate with ICE to remove illegal aliens who’ve committed crimes from our city?  Speak out when school administrators sent a letter home saying they would block federal law enforcement from entering our schools? Support parental rights and try to remove the policy that prevented parents from finding out about their child’s “gender non-conforming” behavior, allowing boys into girls bathrooms, locker rooms and sports?

Jay Ruais didn’t just abandon his promises to the voters in a hotly contested election two years ago.  He ignored them!  He ignored us!

I’m under no illusion that this campaign will somehow cause the biggest upset in Manchester political history.  What I do know is that there are a lot of people who are so discouraged by Ruais’ betrayal that they aren’t going to vote.  That’s a disaster all the way around as it will leave the candidates I just recommended without the critical votes they will need to win.

I can’t let that happen without trying to do something about it.  Our candidates for alderman and school board need the votes of those turned off by Ruais’ say one thing and do another performance.  If offering myself as a write-in candidate for mayor will entice them to vote, and several have told me it will, then I’ll take the political hits that will come my way for daring to upset the applecart of a Republican who hails from the Land of Make Believe to help down-ballot candidates get the votes they need to win.

There is strong evidence of voter indifference in this election.  Last week, I spoke with the city clerk who told me that absentee ballot requests were down by 35%.  If the prediction he shared with me comes to pass, we’ll see the lowest turnout in a city election, perhaps, in history. People’s disenchantment with Jay Ruais is, no doubt, a cause of this, which begs the question, what if this write-in campaign throws the election to the Democrat?  It won’t.  She’s hapless and equally failing to draw voters to the polls.  A feeling of futility among democrats will keep a lot of them home, providing us with an opportunity to send a message in this environment.

The reason why the Democrats didn’t put up a credible candidate is that they got all they wanted out of Jay Ruais.  He voted with Democrats against his party on every major issue in the past two years.  His reelection would be a win for them and that’s why they’ve all but abandoned their candidate for mayor and are heavily focused on the races for alderman and school board.  If they get their way, they’ll run the table in the election.  We must make this last ditch effort to stop them or things will go from bad to worse!

Ruais said one thing and did another, just like the same old politicians he claimed not to be.

So, if this candidacy motivates you to send a message, not just to Jay Ruais but also our down ballot candidates, then get to the polls on November 4, PLEASE!  Write me in for mayor and cast your votes for the people recommended in this letter.  They are good people who will fight hard to get the answers and make the changes Manchester needs, wants and voted for two years ago.

Believe in Better!

Thank you for your attention to this important matter, for your friendship and support over the years, your love of our our city and your willingness to fight for it.  May God bless you, your families and our city.

Very truly yours,

Rich

PS:  If you’d like to chip in to help defray the cost of this effort, which I am funding out of my own pocket, please send a check to Girard for Mayor, 283 Orange St., 03104 or Venmo me @Richard-Girard-19.  Thank you!