Candidates Play To Base In State Rep Debate

WILMINGTON, MA -- The three candidates who hope to represent Wilmington and most of Tewksbury in the state House of Representatives were mostly civil during a debate at Wilmington High School Thursday night. The lone moment of confrontation came when Democratic nominee Dave Robertson and Republican Pina Prinzavalli sparred over a boycott of a ice cream parlor owned by State Rep. Jim Lyons (R-Andover) that was organized by one of Robertson's supporters.

Robertson, Prinzavalli and independent candidate Patricia Meuse, who sits on the Shawsheen Technical High School Committee, are hoping to replace Jim Miceli, the Wilmington Democrat who died in April after holding the seat for more than four decades. While Prinzavalli declared her candidacy more than a year ago, Meuse, Robertson and the four candidates Roberston beat in September's primary jumped into the race in the just days after Miceli died.

Although Miceli was a Democrat, he appealed to the mostly conservative voter base of the two towns. The seat represents all of Wilmington and all but one precinct in Tewksbury. All three candidates live in Tewksbury and Robertson served as Miceli's legislative aide.

Like Miceli, all three candidates struck conservative notes at various points throughout the debate. All three, for example, oppose sanctuary cities, which provide safe harbor for undocumented immigrants, and all three gave Gov. Charlie Baker favorable marks when asked to give him a letter grade. On the opioid crisis, they offered solutions ranging from early education to more resources for law enforcement, with Robertson going as far as suggesting he would work to restore funding for D.A.R.E., a program that gave funding to police departments to run drug and alcohol abstinence education programs in schools.

The flare-up between Robertson and Prinzavalli stemmed from a Facebook post by Wilmington Democratic Committee Chair Erika Johnson, who came in last in the primary Robertson won. Last week Johnson called for a ban on Dandy-Lyons, an ice cream store with locations in Tewksbury and Reading. While Lyons owns the Tewksbury store, Johnson wrongly assumed he owned the Reading location and called for a boycott of both locations.

Johnson removed her post once her error was pointed out, but not before the Tewksbury Republican committee distributed a screenshot of her original post and condemned Robertson for not distancing himself from Johnson. Prinzavalli used the incident to portray Robertson as not being a supporter of small businesses.

"It's someone in your party, someone who is supporting you -- you should have condemned it," she said.

Watch the complete debate on WCTV's Facebook page:

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Photo and video by WCTV via Facebook.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).