My candidacy can best be described as bringing accountability and job creation to all residents who live in the Fifth Suffolk District. I am running on my own accomplishments not like my three opponents who have never been elected to a public office. I don’t have to inflate a non-existent resume.

While my three opponents talk about what they will do if they are elected, I speak in terms of what I have already done as the former state representative for the district and what I continue to do as a political activist. Having served one term in the Legislature, I will detail some of my achievements.

My first year in office, I was able to place 25 youths on employment in which they were able to earn salaries ranging from $400 per week to more than $500 per week. This saved and protected them from the street life of gangs. These youths were deserving and just wanted to work during their break from school.

As a former member of the Housing and Urban Development Committee, I delivered million and millions of dollars to nonprofit organizations such as D.S.N.I.; Nuestra Comunidad, and other housing organizations that were located in the Fifth Suffolk District. As the state representative, I had to sign off on these grants and tax incentives.

Another prized piece of legislation came when I was a member of the Commonwealth’s Election Law Committee and helped to push through mail-in voter registration. Massachusetts mail-in voter registration became law before the federal government adopted a similar law.

My top priorities:
• Jobs and job creation: I will fight for more economic activities in the Fifth Suffolk such as assisting small businesses to relocate to the district by offering incentives and fighting for jobs. I will fight to maintain jobs that are in the district.
• Public safety will be a top priority because families and businesses deserve to have a community free of drugs and crimes. I will demand that youth crimes be attacked on all fronts.
• Education: The community has a right to high-quality education for all of our children I will demand that all children who attend a Boston Public School be able to write, read, and do arithmetic before they graduate.
• Libraries: They will also be a high priority of mine because I will be fighting to keep all libraries open, which means that library funds must be restored to where things were when Senate President William Bulger was a trustee of the library.
• Property tax cut: I will fight to cut homeowners’ property taxes because they are too high and homeowners continue to be manipulated by promises.

In conclusion I believe that my experience is an asset and outweighs all of my three opponents’ experience combined. I have an associate’s degree in applied science from Newbury Junior College; a B.S. in management from Suffolk University; an M.S. in management from Lesley University; and a C.S.S. degree in administration and management from Harvard University.

Althea Garrison will listen to her constituency and will act.