FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Evan Lips, communications director
617-523-5005 ext. 245

WOBURN — Massachusetts Democrats are at again, using the COVID-19 pandemic politically in an effort to unseat Georgetown Republican state Rep. Lenny Mirra. 

This time, however, they got caught.

The scheme, first hinted at in a scheduling announcement published by the Newburyport Daily News, involved a planned Zoom broadcast hosted by Boxford Democrat candidate Christina Eckert. The presentation was billed as a school reopening discussion, featuring Pentucket Regional School District Superintendent Justin Bartholomew. Bartholomew, however, said he was unaware that he’d be participating in a de facto political event.

State law bars candidates from using state employees in political campaigns.

“This was pretty brazen, even for the Democrats,” Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons said Thursday. “To try and deceive a public school superintendent into participating in a campaign event, under the guise of responding to the current pandemic, is outrageous.”