A Superior Court decide dominated MassGOP Chairman Jim Lyons should reinstate Lindsay Valanzola, a fellow committee member he tried to take away in November, and permit her to take part in Tuesday’s election for chair.
Justice John P. Pappas issued a ruling Friday to grant “injunctive relief” to Valanzola, who filed a proper criticism in January stating that Lyons’ transfer to declare a emptiness in her state committee seat two months prior was “baseless and politically motivated.”
Valanzola mentioned Lyons was making an attempt to show she lived in Nashville, Tenn., the place she travels usually for work. She mentioned Lyons declared her seat vacant primarily based on these allegations, regardless of his lack of success in making an attempt to disprove her Massachusetts residency by means of the city clerk’s workplace in Wales, the place she lives, and the secretary of state’s workplace.
“Honestly, I’m thrilled,” Valanzola mentioned. “I’m so grateful for my legal professional, George King, and for the decide ruling in my favor on this. It’s been a protracted two-plus years of combating with the chairman, making an attempt to reprove one thing that’s public file and documented very clearly all over the place.
“I’m really glad that the judge was able to see through the political mess that this really was,” she added, saying that she was blissful the matter was settled in time for her to vote within the MassGOP chair election on Tuesday.
Valanzola mentioned she is not going to be voting for Lyons, and believes she was focused after talking towards the social gathering chair throughout a gathering held in July 2020.
A month later, she mentioned Lyons launched an investigation into her residency, which concerned hiring non-public investigators to comply with her on enterprise journeys to Tennessee.
Last week, MassGOP Treasurer Patrick Crowley knowledgeable committee members that Lyons had spent $800 in 2021, utilizing social gathering sources, to rent a agency to conduct “opposition research” into Valanzola.
“I go back and forth between Massachusetts and Tennessee quite a bit,” she mentioned. “The chairman was basically trying to prove that because I have a social life outside of the state of Massachusetts, I was no longer a resident.”
In his ruling, issued after a Tuesday listening to, Pappas wrote that MassGOP committee bylaws dictate that the chair “shall take appropriate steps to verify the existence of a member vacancy,” together with a member who’s now not a resident of her district.
A MassGOP committee legal professional despatched Valanzola a letter on Nov. 9, stating {that a} emptiness in her seat was being declared “based on verified, corroborated evidence” that she was not a resident of the MassGOP district she represents.
“The bylaws do not define what these ‘appropriate steps’ are,” Pappas wrote. “However, the court may reasonably conclude that they require some amount of due process to be provided to the member, such as by way of a statutory voter residency challenge, which requires a hearing.”
Pappas wrote that Valanzola stays a registered voter in Wales, and a committee legal professional’s problem to her residency, by means of the Wales registrar of voters, was denied by the city clerk, who mentioned challenges have to be made by city residents.
“For these reasons, Valanzola’s motion for injunctive relief is allowed,” Pappas wrote.
The decide added, “The committee, Lyons, and those associated with them are enjoined from interfering with Valanzola’s exercise of her duties as a member of the committee, her right to vote in the committee’s election for chairman on Jan. 31, 2023, or recognizing a replacement for her seat while she remains an elected committee member and registered voter and resident of the town of Wales.”
Lyons didn’t reply to a request for remark. A committee spokesperson didn’t return an e-mail in search of remark.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”