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Originally Posted by RPD931 @ Thu 16 Sep, 2004 |
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I need some McCarthy campaign Posters...
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http://www.mccarthyforsheriff.com/
Phone (508) 595-0381
Posted Sat 18 Sep, 2004:
Taking aim at sheriff seat
BY WALTER BIRD JR.
STONEBRIDGE PRESS STAFF WRITER
REGION — In his bid to unseat 14-year Worcester County Sheriff John “Mike”Flynn, Bill McCarthy is touting himself as the consummate non-political candidate. If any office should be free of the political posturing and goings on that frustrate many voters, the sheriff’s is it, McCarthy recently said. “I am not a career politician,” the affable McCarthy, a former Connecticut State Trooper, said. “I am a problem solver and a criminal justice professional.”
McCarthy, the lone Republican challenger to the incumbent Democrat’s seat, will face either the veteran overseer of the Worcester County House of Correction or his challenger, state Sen. Guy W. Glodis, D-Auburn, in the November election.
McCarthy might view it as ironic that one day after he stressed to a reporter that politics has no place in the sheriff’s office, Flynn and an unnamed state representative were quoted in the papers blasting Glodis for uttering false claims about the sheriff, and for touting the support of politicians Flynn said have already pledged their loyalty to him.
And while Glodis and Flynn are headed to a showdown in the September primary, the 38-year-old McCarthy, the son of an Irish immigrant, is hoofing it around all 60 communities the sheriff’s department serves. “The reception has been wonderful,” he said of a grassroots campaign being aided by media liaison John Dipietro. “People are happy I’m running and looking for a change.” McCarthy is well aware of the daunting challenge of toppling Flynn, should the 40-plus year sheriff’s department veteran beat Glodis in the primary. He is also cognizant of the fact that this is a heavily democratic state. But then, overcoming odds is something McCarthy, an assistant professor and criminal justice coordinator at Quinsigamond Community College, says runs in his family. His father, Cornelius McCarthy came from County Kerry, Ireland in December 1953 at the age of 7. His father had recently died, and his mother died giving birth to him.
He was shipped to New York, where relatives were expected to look after him.
“But they were expecting an 18- or 19-year-old,” said Bill McCarthy, “not a 7-year-old kid.” Not that they found out right away. Cornelius McCarthy actually waited alone in New York for two weeks before his relatives came to get him. When they did, and saw how young he was, they arranged for him to go live with another set of relatives.
Cornelius McCarthy attended Worcester Public Schools and, in September 1960, got a job with the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. It is a story Bill McCarthy obviously revels in telling. “He was hired on the nightshift,” he said. “His supervisor said, ‘Bill, don’t worry. You’ll be on days within a month.’” Two weeks later, said McCarthy, that supervisor suffered a fatal heart attack. His father remained on the nightshift for 32 years.
In all, Cornelius McCarthy worked 42 years at the T&G. Bill McCarthy’s father, said Dipietro, “instilled in him the beliefs he has, of trying to be a helper of people.”
“This guy,” Dipietro continued, “is not a politician.” While he never ran for political office, McCarthy did work on the campaigns of governors in Connecticut and Louisiana.
McCarthy himself grew up in Worcester, in the Main South area. He played sports and became an Eagle Scout. The oldest of three siblings, he started working at St. Peter’s
Church in Worcester when he was 14. He had his sights set on a higher education at a young age. “My father always told me, ‘You have to go to college,’” McCarthy said. And so he did, becoming the first person in his family to do so. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Anna Maria College in Paxton.
In 1986, he took the test to be a state policeman. He graduated the state police academy in 1987, and took a job with the Conn. State Police. Eventually, he longed for additional challenges. “I missed Central Mass., too,” McCarthy said. So he went back to school at Clark University to study for his master’s in public administration, continuing to work the night shift as a trooper. In 1989, he met his wife, Debora Melton, to whom he was introduced by the roommate of his ex-girlfriend. Six months later, McCarthy proposed, and the couple married in 1990. They live in Worcester, off Burncoat Street, with their three children.
In 1993, McCarthy finished his master’s, and started looking for that next challenge. It would come in the form of studying for his PhD at Louisiana State University.
Before he left for Louisiana, however, McCarthy worked as a corrections officer for the Franklin County sheriff. He went to Louisiana in 1995, and did his dissertation on, ironically enough, terrorism preparedness. He chose that topic, he said, “because I saw it as an issue for law enforcement.” He is expected to receive his PhD later this year.
At Quinsigamond, where he teaches, McCarthy developed a program that gave the college Quinn Bill approval, allowing law enforcement personnel that attend the school to be eligible for benefits under the bill. All of his experience, said McCarthy, helped hone his skills as a “problem solver.” That approach, he said, is what he would bring with him to the sheriff’s department. “I had always followed the things going on there,” he said. “I saw issues with management, recidivism and crime within the local communities.” “I saw the sheriff’s department,” he continued, “as a place that could use a person with my education and experience to come in and make change. Specifically, McCarthy said he wants to implement objective testing for hiring employees. He is most passionate about having the sheriff’s department play a huge role in tracking sex offenders. “We have the law,” he said. “Why don’t we apply it? The sheriff’s office has people in its jail, then they are released. Why not follow up on them?” There are federal grants available to help fund a sex offender tracking system, he said, noting he has previously written grant proposals. He would work to establish a tracking center in the house currently inhabited by Flynn. Glodis has proposed converting the building to a halfway house.
McCarthy wants to implement the national Aftercare model that helps place certain inmates in “better situations,” and works with them to provide training and education.
“It’s used in juvenile boot camps,” said McCarthy. “It works.” He also wants to work with labor unions, “which have programs in place to help place these people in jobs.” “It is all part of community corrections,” McCarthy said. “It’s a new model.” And, unlike Flynn, he said, “If a program isn’t successful, we’ll get rid of it. You have to take a business approach.” It is, said McCarthy, “a new world. You need someone with new ideas and a new way of thinking. [Flynn] did his job, but his time has passed. The way
you did things years ago is not how you do them today. It’s time for a change.” Walter Bird Jr. is editor of the Blackstone Valley Tribune.
Posted Sat 18 Sep, 2004:
McCarthy is by far the most qualified candidate to become the next Worcester County Sheriff.
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