A Newton at-large city councilor who’s challenging the local Democratic state representative will formally apologize after saying during a debate last week that Nonantum residents don’t want housing or immigrants.
During a debate against and Middlesex 10th incumbent state Rep. John Lawn, Alison Leary directly discussed her constituents in Nonantum.
“The people that you are serving in Nonantum, I know all those people I work with — all those people. They don’t want housing, they don’t want immigrants. Many of them are Republicans, they don’t share my values,” Leary said in the debate.
Those comments immediately outraged her opponent.
“You owe the Nonantum people an apology,” said Lawn.
“I do not,” Leary snapped back.
In the days since, Leary has changed her mind, telling GBH News that she was wrong and shouldn’t have painted her constituents with such a broad brush.
She’s drafted a letter of apology, shared in part with GBH News: “I made a mistake at last week’s debate. I referred to some of my constituents—the people I’m asking to trust me with their vote—as anti-immigrant and anti-housing. That was wrong, disrespectful, and I own it fully.”
She said that she got caught up in the politics in the midst of the debate, and she hopes that the community members that she considers her friends can forgive her.
“Reducing any of my neighbors to a label is exactly the kind of politics I’ve said I don’t want to practice. I failed that standard in last week’s forum, and I’m sorry,” said Leary.
Some community members turned to social media in their frustration — like Terry Gentile Sauro, who’s lived in Nonantum for years and was horrified by the comments.
“To publicly declare that the people in Nonantum don’t want immigrants is a lie, an outrageous smear against everyone. We welcome everybody,” said Gentile Sauro.
Leary says that Gentile Sauro is one of the many neighbors she plans to reach out to and apologize.
