METHUEN — Growing up in Revere in the 1970s, Al DiNuccio took horse racing programs from men leaving Suffolk Downs and then sold them for half price — 25 cents — to people getting off the train and heading into the track.
"As a kid, I used to always brag that I could make 10 bucks anywhere," DiNuccio reminisced while sitting at his kitchen table recently.
The 50-year-old Republican, who has lived in Methuen for the last 26 years, is running for mayor against two-term incumbent William Manzi. The economy has dominated all other issues this campaign season, and DiNuccio has touted his 30 years of experience in the corporate world, saying he knows where to find cost savings.
But before he ever took the reins of a company, he learned he had a knack for making money as a 10-year-old hawking used racing booklets to gamblers.
"I would make $10, $12 doing that," he said.
That spirit of thrift has served DiNuccio well over the years. He has owned five furniture companies. The largest, Adden Furniture in Lowell, employed 250 people. It was a multimillion dollar corporation that he sold to the Stevens family of North Andover in 2005, he said.
He currently owns East Coast Cabinet in Lawrence with his brother, Fran, who said the men come from a close-knit family with "old Italian values."
Reached on his cell phone while at his workplace last week, the candidate took note of the loud buzz of a router in the background.
"That's the sound of money," he said.
A real 'nice guy'
DiNuccio is juggling his job with campaigning for mayor. He declined The Eagle-Tribune's request to have a reporter and a photographer spend a few hours with him on the campaign trail, saying he didn't have the time.
He has never held political office, but he's not a complete newcomer to the political process. He said he worked on Dennis DiZoglio's and Sharon Pollard's mayoral campaigns, ran unsuccessfully for West District City Councilor in the mid-1990s, and he served on the Community Development Board for six years.
"Al was helpful in visibility efforts, holding signs and talking to people about my candidacy," said DiZoglio, who has known DiNuccio since 1993.
The men remained friends over the years. DiZoglio attended DiNuccio's 40th birthday party and tried to recruit him to serve on the board of directors at the local YMCA, but DiNuccio was busy at the time following his son AJ's Methuen High School hockey games, DiZoglio said.
DiZoglio has endorsed Manzi in this race, but called DiNuccio a friend and noted the challenger's "nice guy" persona.
"He does have that friendly demeanor. He's very, obviously, approachable, energetic," DiZoglio said.
Education isn't everything
DiNuccio served as a lieutenant on the city's Auxiliary Police Department from 1987 to 1995, and as an intermittent police officer from 1997 until this year, when he took a leave of absence to run for mayor.
If DiNuccio becomes mayor, he said he will leave East Coast Cabinet and his brother will take over the eight-person operation.
DiNuccio completed the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training Council police academy and a dental laboratory technology program. He worked as a dental technician for a short period before entering the furniture business, he said.
The hardest job he has ever worked, DiNuccio said, was manning the grill at McDonald's in Revere as a teenager, when he worked every second of his eight-hour shifts with no breaks.
"It was the most demanding physically," he said.
DiNuccio did not attend college, a point Manzi has hinted at while touting his own bachelor's and master's degrees.
"Bill Gates of Microsoft, Michael Dell of Dell Computers, Steve Jobs of Apple, Walt Disney — no need to say where he's from — and Mary Kay of Mary Kay cosmetics, none of them have a college education," DiNuccio said. "I would be glad to have any of them as mayor. I guess I'm in good company."
