Barbara, I know I'm not alone when I say that I cannot wait until you crawl back into the hole you came from. Your unabashed willingness to distort facts in order to try and win over a district that ALREADY made it crystal clear that you are not wanted- is pathetic to say the least. Take a hint, take a hike.

Barbara,
What cuts would you make to reverse the fiscal insanity found in 100k plus pensions and healthcare costs for retired state and municipal employees ? Do you think that municipal and state employees should have better retirerment benefits and healthcare plans than 95% of those in the private sector who support these bloated benefits with their tax dollars ? If not, what are you going to do about it ?

So she voted for Richard Voke instead of Finneran for Speaker? Voke, of the Keverian-Dukakis largest tax hike in Massachusetts history? The Ways and Means Chair under Keverian who approved the income tax hike to 5.85% "Temporarily" That we are still paying today 23 years later? So she is a tax and spender?
That choice is why we need more Republican's in the State House and Senate! One party rule doesn't work!

Fiscal conservatives like Jim Lyons are the adult telling the child, in this case Ms. L'Italien and her ilk, that "we (Democrats and Republicans) would all like to spend money to make everyone's life better" but you have to live within a budget, realize that you have a limited amount of money to spend and spend that money wisely. Ms. L'Italien and her Democrat colleagues DO NOT spend money wisely for one simple reason: It is NOT THEIR money. I can guarantee you that if L'Italien ran her household budget as she and her fellow Democrats run the state budget, she and her family would soon be filing for bankruptcy. All Jim Lyons is asking is that the legislature spend the taxpayer's money like they would spend their OWN money. Btw, in typical L'Italien fashion (as she did in the last election), she waits until days before the election to launch attacks that misrepresent and out-and-out lie about Lyons' record and the true intent of the bills he files. This comes as no surprise though because this is the Democrat "game plan" nationally, having its genesis in the Oval Office which has, from Day 1, had a "scorched earth" policy which includes leveling demonstrably untrue charges against Republicans. The sad fact is that, given their unrealistic policies, resorting to lying, voter fraud and dirty tricks is the ONLY way Democrats can win elections.

Ms. L'Italien, I just wanted to say that I will proudly vote for Jim Lyons as will many others. Don't go away mad. Just go away.

She cannot even get a hack job when she lost the last time....that says alot about her right there.

In addition to pushing a meager ideology that's limited to harsh partisanship, Barbara L'Italien shows an inexplicable forgetfulness about her own checkered political past. Let's fill in a few omissions. L'Italien is a strong supporter of Speaker Sal DiMasi; she voted for DiMasi as House Speaker, and he rewarded her with a plumb patronage post in the Ways and Means Committee. L'Italien then used her patronage promotion to impose the Beacon Hill power brokers' agenda of hiking taxes and cutting local aid. In order to help herself, L'Italien hurt the people of her own district and the entire Merrimack Valley. L'Italien curried favor with the Beacon Hill bosses. She "threw her constituents under the bus" by pushing for the whopping 25% L'Italien Sales Tax hike.

Every time we buy something, we are forced to pay that extra 25% L'Italien Sales Tax penalty. I suppose when your sourly negative campaign is based on stridently attacking others, you become forgetful about your own checkered political past.

It's also symbolic of the negative partisan tone of Barbara L'Italien's desperate political re-emergence that she wastes her final campaign message using old-fashioned attack politics. L'Italien is so completely caught up in her own negativity that she employs seven paragraphs to attack Representative Jim Lyons, but only a single one to present her own cramped and extreme ideology. What does it say about a failing politician and her flailing campaign, when L'Italien uses Jim Lyons' name an incredible 10 times in her brief remarks? That's the definition of an extreme negative partisan politician.

"Between 1995 and 2003, at least 14 federal, state and local tax liens amounting to more than $180,000 had been issued against Lyons and the business, according to records at the Northern Essex County Registry of Deeds." Lyons continued to have unpaid tax through 2009, http://www.eagletribune.com/local/x1744211440/Tax-woes-come-back-to-haunt-candidate-for-state-rep/print . Is this the kind of unethical behavior we should tolerate in our representatives? Shouldn’t we hold our political leaders to a higher standard? Paying taxes is a duty we Americans understand. Lyons screams about non-residents and illegals costing our state, but what about tax cheats like Lyons? If Lyons and other like him had paid his taxes perhaps we wouldn’t have had to raise the MA tax rate to balance our budget. His unethical behavior, his reckless attempt at getting rid of school nurses, abortion clinic buffer zones, and voting against the state budget and then disingenuously taking credit for local aid coming back to the district, is more than enough reasons to vote against Jim Lyons. Lyons dishonors the position of state representative, we deserve a lot better. Barbara L'Italien is honest, hard working, ethical, cares about our children, seniors, and doing what's right for our district. She brings people together, Lyons tears them apart.

After reading these comments... why do I seem to be the only one who remembers how negative Jim Lyons' campaign has been? I think it's hypocritical to sit there talking about a "negative partisan tone" after what we've all seen recently, but if you guys are having fun, I guess that's one way to spend a Saturday.

The real question is why Mr. Lyons can't defend his own record and needs his e-army to slam Mrs. L'Italien's character. To be fair, his record is hard to defend

Judging from Barbara L'Italien's pathetic closing arguments, and the nonsensical lies spun by her dilusional supporters on this blog and in other papers, her campaign must be sinking quickly. Otherwise, how can one explain her bitterly negative goodbye?

One wonders if at this very moment she is frantically phoning her Beacon Hill cronies? Is L'Italien calling Lawrence Mayor Willy Lantigua, who has always lavished favoritism upon her political maneuvers? Is Mrs. L'Italien phoning her former Beacon Hill bosses, contriving to hike the Sales Tax again in return for their last-ditch intervention? Is L'Italien e-mailing the Patrick Bureaucracy, scheming to obey their directives to cut Local Aid once again?

Is Mrs. L'Italien calling the first political boss she supported for Speaker of the House? Is she phoning her original Beacon Hill mentor, Speaker Sal DiMasi? Sorry Barbara, but Sal can't take your call right now. He's busy doing hard time in federal prison.

In fact, Mrs. L'Italien is probably busy shopping her political resume around the shadowy corridors of the Beacon Hill bureaucracy. After election day, Mrs. L'Italien will surely be seeking another $100,000.00 patronage paycheck at the taxpayers' expense. That's what she did the last time, isn't it?

The Lyons campaigners are a bunch of bullies, thugs, and liars. Mr Lyons is not far behind in my opinion.

What about Lyon's voting record is not correct in L'Italien's statement above. He can't run from his record. All he can do is try to distort and smear hers.