Challenger John Michitson/Photo by Noah R. Bombard

Haverhill politics runs in Michitson's blood

HAVERHILL — For mayoral hopeful John Michitson, politics runs in the family.

His late aunt, Theresa Baumann, was the first female vice president of the City Council and the first woman to run for mayor of Haverhill. Her nephew is following in her footsteps, facing off in Tuesday's election against three-term incumbent James Fiorentini.

Michitson's campaign strategy is being formulated and directed from the same place that Baumann launched her many successful election bids — his cousin Sandra O'Dea's home at 4 Central Ave. O'Dea is Baumann's daughter.

"I remember laying awake in bed upstairs listening to all the commotion as the results came in on election night," O'Dea said on a recent afternoon at her home. "The adults would be downstairs yelling and banging on this same table."

Meanwhile, nearby in the city's Riverside section, Michitson would be awake at his home until 2 or 3 in the morning listening to election results come in over the radio.

"I remember they announced the results in blocks of 50 (voters) at a time," Michitson said. "I must have been 7 or 10 years old."

Like Baumann, Michitson, 50, served 10 years on the council before giving it up six years ago to focus on his career and young family. With his children a little older now, Michitson decided this was the time to go for the top political job that eluded his aunt.

The Michitson clan got its start in Haverhill in the 1920s, first in the Swasey Field neighborhood and eventually settling into a home at 89 Broadway shortly after World War II. George and Sophia Michitson had six children, including Baumann and John's late father, Arthur. All six served overseas in World War II and all six returned to Haverhill after the war, Michitson said.

"When I go campaigning down Broadway or on Washington Street in that part of the city, whoever's door I knock on always remembers one of the six," Michitson said. "I never know which one it will be, but the person always has a story about one of them."

Arthur Michitson also was well-known in local politics, though he never sought elected office. Arthur Michitson, who died in 2006, founded the Haverhill Taxpayers Association. He often attended City Council meetings when his son John was president, usually to oppose some proposal or idea that threatened to increase taxes, even if his son supported it.

At John Michitson's fourth and final debate Wednesday with Fiorentini, he pledged that if he is elected, honesty and integrity will be the foundation of his administration — characteristics he said he learned from his father.

"The characteristics I showed for 10 years on the City Council were honesty and integrity," Michitson said. "And that's rooted in the history of my family, starting with my father."

Michitson said he father was cautious about his interest in running for mayor.

"He was conservative and he was concerned about me giving up my job (at Mitre Corp.)," Michitson said. "But once he accepted it, I think he would have been proud. I know he would have gone all out to help me win."

Michitson said his late uncle Paul was more encouraging.

"He told me, 'You never know how long you'll be able to do it, so you better go for it while you can,'" Michitson said.

Paul died Oct. 19 at the age of 82.

Michitson's brother James is a chemist in the city's Water Department. Until a few years ago, he also was Haverhill's emergency management director.

Michitson and his brother grew up in Riverside and attended Crowell and Nettle schools. John graduated from Haverhill High School in 1977. He has an electrical engineering degree from Merrimack College.

In 1994, Michitson founded Danny's Mentoring and Tutoring program, which served Haverhill children for almost 15 years. He has said expanding mentor and tutoring opportunities in the schools will be part of his education agenda if elected. Michitson also is chairman of the board of directors of the public Hill View Montessori Charter School, which is part of the Haverhill district.

Michitson met his wife, Heidi, in 1993 at an election victory party for then-Mayor James Rurak. They grew up in the same neighborhood, but their paths had not crossed since high school, he said.

"After the party I got her address from (former Mayor) John Guerin," Michitson said. "I showed up at her door that night with a rose."

The couple married in 1997. They have two children, Grace, 8, and John, 10. They attend Golden Hill and Nettle schools, respectively.

"This election has been good for all of us," Heidi Michitson said. "The kids are very excited about it. They were very young when John was on the City Council. (Their son) John introduced himself to his school principal by saying, 'Hi. My name is John Michitson. My father is running for mayor,'" she said with a laugh.

On a recent afternoon, Michitson and his wife, O'Dea and Michitson's cousin/campaign manager Gayle Eames and her husband, Morgan, sat around the kitchen table at O'Dea's home talking about elections new and old. They passed around old campaign postcards from Baumann's runs for City Council and mayor. A photograph on one of the cards was taken in the backyard of her home, O'Dea said.

Michitson called Baumann his inspiration — in politics and in life.

"Theresa had three young kids and was pregnant with Sandy when her husband, Harold, died at the age of 40," Michitson said. "She raised four kids on her own, served in World War II, was a registered nurse, and served 10 years on the City Council, while being the council's first female vice president and the first woman to run for mayor. How can you not be inspired by that?"

Mayor James Fiorentini/Photo by Noah R. Bombard

Fiorentini says wife brings ideas to his job

HAVERHILL — James Fiorentini, who is seeking a record-tying fourth term as mayor, said he loves his job.

"I haven't really thought much about retiring or the future after being mayor," Fiorentini, 62, said recently from the home on Macon Avenue where he and his wife, Martha, raised three children. "They're going to have to pry my cold fingers off my desk at City Hall."

Martha Fiorentini, a library aide at Northern Essex Community College who also volunteers at the city library, said she can't imagine the couple ever permanently leaving Haverhill.

The mayor was born and raised here. But he said he didn't expect to return to his hometown after graduating from Northeastern Law School in 1973. He started his law practice in Lynn, but soon added an office in Haverhill. He began his law career handling mostly criminal cases but eventually specialized in personal injury and workers' compensation law.

Before his career turned to politics, Fiorentini concentrated on his family and building his law practice between 1971 and 1994.

Fiorentini was bitten by the political bug not long after high school. As a 24-year-old law school student in 1971, he ran for the City Council for the first time and lost.

He would not run for office again until 1994, when he lost a run for state Senate. A year later in 1995, then an established personal injury lawyer with a wife and three school-age children, he was elected to the first of four terms he would serve on the City Council. In 2004, he was elected mayor — what he calls "the best job of my life."

When the Fiorentinis aren't home in Haverhill, they can usually be found at their second home near the ocean in Seabrook, N.H. Martha Fiorentini also owns a home in Vero Beach, Fla., where the couple retreats whenever possible.

The mayor readily admits he has stolen many a good idea from a city or town he and Martha have visited on vacation. Others come from magazine and newspaper articles that often make their way to his desk via his wife.

"Martha's always bringing ideas to me that she reads about that some other mayor did," Fiorentini said.

Fiorentini said that soon after he took office six years ago, his wife signed him up for a course she read about called, "Brownfields for Dummies." It was about how to obtain federal and state grants to clean polluted property for redevelopment.

"That led to us getting $2 million to clean several downtown properties and eventually the Beacon and Forest City housing developments that were the start of the downtown renaissance," Fiorentini said, noting the city is cleaning land for a parking deck near the Washington Street train station with $700,000 in so-called Brownfields money.

Fiorentini said his wife recently told him about a program started by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to allow artists to paint "those big ugly electricity boxes at traffic lights" that are often vandalized with graffiti.

"Sometimes it's an article about a bike path," the mayor said of some recent stories his wife has recommended he read. "Another time it's about bond ratings. She often calls me in the middle of the day and says, 'Menino is meeting with a big neighborhood group. What are you doing?"'

Fiorentini said he got the idea for "coffee with the mayor" public office hours from the mayor of Vero Beach.

Fiorentini said that nearby Fort Pierce showcases its popular farmers market along the waterfront. He said he hopes to emulate that idea locally next summer along the downtown stretch of the Merrimack River.

"I also got the idea from Fort Pierce to do the The Mayor's Golden Hammer award,'' Fiorentini said.

Fort Pierce Mayor Bob Benton gives that award annually to the resident who does the best job sprucing up their home. The winner gets a gift card from a sponsor company like Target or Lowe's, Fiorentini said.

The Fiorentinis married in 1977 and have three children — Regina, 30, Chrissy, 28, and Jay, 25. Jay Fiorentini was hired two years ago as a Latin teacher at Haverhill High School. He also teaches a course called The History of Haverhill.

Regina Fiorentini works for the League of Conservation Voters, a political advocacy group in Washington, D.C. She has worked on political campaigns for Sen. John Kerry and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was a field director for President Barack Obama for the state of Indiana, her father said.

"I've asked her to help with my campaigns, but she says she doesn't do low-level candidates," Fiorentini said. "But she gives me advice from time to time."

Chrissy Fiorentini is in graduate school at Georgetown University.

The mayor's father, 37-year Haverhill teacher John Fiorentini, died two years ago at age 83. John Fiorentini, along with the mayor's grandfather Augusto "Gus" Fiorentini, ran Gus' Market on Washington Street from the early 1920s to about 1960. The mayor's mother, Lucy, lives in Haverhill.