Willie: Lawrence wants me back
JESSICA HESLAM
Willie Lantigua’s campaign headquarters has been shuttered, but the former Lawrence mayor is pounding the pavement in a determined bid to win back his old seat.
And the city’s current mayor is taking seriously the threat from the wily pol he only narrowly defeated four years ago.
“He’s out there working,” Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera told me yesterday. “Everybody should take it seriously. I take it seriously.”
Lantigua told me he’s determined to win.
“Throughout the day, I’m all over the place, having meetings, talking to the people. Most of the time, people will call me to go see their family or friends,” Lantigua said during a lengthy chat outside his apartment complex.
He had just pulled up in his big gleaming white Chevrolet Avalanche bearing the license plate “MAYOR” — and was quick to point out it’s a “2002.”
Lantigua wore a dark gray pinstripe suit and his phone rang a lot. He showed me photos of his beautiful 1-year-old daughter and his 25-year-old soon-to-be fourth wife, whom he met in the countryside of his native Dominican Republic.
His day starts early, he said, with visits to constituents at convenience stores. When the weather’s bad, he works on his campaign’s database. He knocks on doors. His run for mayor, he assured me, is going strong.
“I know I was not rejected by the people. The people got careless and so thousands did not come out to vote,” Lantigua said of his close 81-vote defeat. “We won the primary by thousands. Winning the primary by so much, the sentiment was we were going to walk through the final.”
Lantiqua’s City Hall was under near-constant investigation over political corruption allegations — though Lantigua himself was never indicted.
“Willie embarrassed us when he was mayor and he was embarrassing us when he was not mayor and now he’s embarrassing us again running for mayor for re-election,” Rivera said. “It’s all about him, not about us.”
Lantigua, in turn, blasted Rivera’s leadership, saying the city is “totally neglected.” He said he decided to run for mayor again because there was an “outcry” from people in Lawrence who want him back at City Hall.
And this time, he said, “I’m not taking it lightly.”
“I’m a person of the people,” he said. “A lot of people don’t really need much, they just want to know there’s somebody out there that not only cares, but is available to the people. I’m offering to work hard to move Lawrence forward.”
After his 2013 ouster, Lantigua traveled to the Dominican Republic for a three-week visit that turned into two years. He met his fiancee, Natalia, in the countryside and she and her family nursed him back to health when he broke his ankle. They had a daughter and the pair plan to move here after the election.
Now he’s back, looking for a new spot for his campaign headquarters.
“I’m working hard to win,” he said.
‘I’m a person of the people. A lot of people don’t really need much, they just want to know there’s somebody out there that not only cares, but is available to the people.’