Oops! Selectman Campaign Ad Lists Endorsements in Error

In an unexpected twist in an otherwise issue-focused local election, a campaign ad error in a local newspaper has set off a firestorm around town.

Selectman Tracy Watson's re-election campaign placed an ad in the Valley Patriot -- a regional monthly publication -- earlier this month. The ad noted endorsements from the North Andover Firefighters Local 2035 union as well as the North Andover Police Union Local 2. But actually, neither union has endorsed Watson in this election.

"In fact, we have not endorsed any incumbent candidate for this month’s election," Local 2035 spokesman Barry Sullivan wrote in a letter to Patch. "Nor has any incumbent candidate asked to speak with us or asked for our endorsement."

And making the situation more awkward, the firefighters union has endorsed her opponent, Don Stewart. The police union has not endorsed any candidate.

Watson has come forward and noted the mistake in the ad, saying information and the photo from her campaign ad from 2008 was used for the current ad by mistake.

"While I have been told by many firefighters and police officers that I have their support, I have not garnered nor requested the formal endorsement of their respective unions," Watson said in a letter to her supporters addressing the mistake. "And at no time during this campaign have I made such a claim."

Watson had received the two unions' endorsements when she ran for the Board of Selectmen in 2008.

"An advertisement for my 2008 campaign was mocked up for the March 2011 edition including not only wrong endorsement information but wrong contact info as well," Watson wrote. "It also showcases a family photo of my son around age 4... he is now a strapping 8-year-old."

Watson added that she never saw the current ad and had not approved it. She said that after the ad was published, she contacted the Valley Patriot as soon as she noticed the mistake.

Tom Duggan, editor of the Valley Patriot, said the mistake was all on the newspaper's end.

"The boring fact is that Tracy didn't have time to design an ad and asked me to use her old ad from three years ago, but to mark it up with her updated info," Duggan said, adding that multiple versions of the ad were made throughout the process and the one that made it into the publication was the one with the error.

"I did speak with the police union and told them the error was not Selectman Watson's ,but on our end," Duggan said. "I also put a correction online and apologized to Tracy who was very understanding."

While an online retraction is possible, a print one is not -- something not sitting well with those whose endorsements were incorrectly allocated to the wrong candidate in the publication.

"What bothers us most is that the Valley Patriot is a monthly publication, so a retraction in time for the election is not possible," Sullivan said.

Don Stewart was tight-lipped about the matter.

"I've learned to keep my mouth shut," Stewart said with humor about the endorsement mishap. "Let them fight their way out of a paper bag."