Romero hints at run for mayor
Russell Contreras
Boston.com
Aug 28, 2008
Will he run for mayor?
Police Chief John J. Romero is no shrinking violet when it comes to saying what's on his mind. In this instance, though, he is not really working overtime to kill rumors that he is looking for the top job in this majority Latino city of some 70,000.
Last week Romero said a local news report saying he will announce he is running for mayor in 2009 is false. But he also pointed out that the city election is more than a year away and that anything can happen between now and then. In other words, check with him later.
In the Aug. 15 edition of Rumbo, a bilingual newspaper in the Merrimack Valley, editor Dalia Diaz wrote in her "Desde Mi Esquina" column that Romero was preparing to make the announcement next week after he talked to likely supporters.
"The rumor has been around for quite a while, but Romero has been meeting with potential backers and now he has made up his mind to run," Diaz wrote.
The commentary created a buzz on Spanish talk radio, where callers debated Romero's chances against some of the candidates expected to try to replace Mayor Michael J. Sullivan.
Sullivan, who has been mayor since 2001, can't run again because of term limits.
Former city councilor Israel Reyes has announced he is running for mayor. City Council president Patrick Blanchette, Councilor Nilka Alvarez-Rodriguez, former councilor Carlos Matos, and Lawrence High School teacher Pedro Payano have also suggested that they will run.
State Representative William Lantigua, a Lawrence Democrat, has said he is contemplating running, but he is locked in a tough reelection fight for his 16th Essex District seat against Marcos Devers, a former city councilor.
In an interview last week, Romero said he was flattered that his name was being tossed around with the others. However, he said he has no immediate plans to jump into the race and is happy being police chief.
"I'm glad some people are thinking of me, but I don't know where that [rumor] came from," he said. "I like the job I have now, and I'm focused on helping reduce crime further in the city."
But he added: "That said, the election is 15 months away. Who knows what could happen?"
Romero has led the 161-member police force in Lawrence since 1998 and has overseen one of the most dramatic reductions in crime in city history. Lawrence was on pace this year to see a 37-year low in major crime rates.
Last year, the city reported fewer than 1,600 felonies. The year Romero took over, more than 4,000 were recorded.
But while Romero has earned praise for the reduction in crime, his department has also faced complaints of police brutality, specifically in at least two cases involving former officer Kyle Wilcox. Romero fired Wilcox in connection with a case in which two brothers said he had used excessive force.
Romero also came under fire during a public protest at an American Civil Liberties Union forum last year. During the forum, citizens spoke about cases of alleged police abuse and displayed photos of bruised faces and bodies.
Romero said all allegations of abuse are investigated and punished, if substantiated. He denied that the department had a systematic problem.
More recently, Romero was locked in a public dispute with School Superintendent Wilfredo T. Laboy over crime statistics at the high school. The two recently met, agreed they were using different methods to record crimes, and promised to meet more often during the coming school year.
Richard Padova, a government professor at Northern Essex Community College, said that police or fire chiefs rarely leave their posts to run for mayor.
"They are identified with specialized work," he said. "The normal route to the mayor's office is from the council or from the business community."
Also, the mayor's salary is typically lower than that of a police or fire chief, Padova said. Sullivan's salary is $100,000.16, while Romero's is $122,999.76.
Still, Padova said that if Romero decides to take a chance, he will be a formidable candidate because he is a well-known public figure. "He'd get a portion of the Hispanic vote and would get the law-and-order vote, which tends to be Anglo," Padova said.
The election is expected to be watched closely by political observers because the city could become the first in the state to elect a Latino mayor. According to the city's latest voter registration numbers, Latinos now form the majority of the city's 34,000 registered voters.
But Latino voters in Lawrence don't necessarily vote for Latino candidates. For example, Sullivan, a white Republican, defeated Latina activist Isabel Melendez in 2001, largely by capturing a sizable portion of the Latino vote. In 2005, he also won a piece of the Latino vote to defeat Devers, who was born in the Dominican Republic.
Romero, 58, a native of New York, is the son of Puerto Rican and Dominican parents. He has four years left on his contract as police chief.
