PHOTO BY PAULA MULLER
Sandy Tennant.
BY THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — Sandy Tennant, the longtime Republican operative and former candidate for Lynn mayor and Congress, will be The Daily Item’s and Itemlive.com’s eyes and ears at the GOP convention.
“I will bring a local flavor to what’s going on in the convention,” he said.
Tennant, a Swampscott resident, will be in Cleveland this week where he will tweet, blog and provide video updates on what’s happening on the convention floor.
While he initially supported former governors Jeb Bush and George Pataki for the oval office, Tennant jumped aboard the Trump train.
“I think Donald Trump has a very good shot of getting elected because people in the country are tired of the same old thing going on,” he said.
Tennant tried his hand at elected office. He ran for mayor in Lynn in 1985 and 1987 but was defeated by Albert DiVirgilio both times. He also tried his hand at Congress, but failed in his bid.
“After that we helped elect Weld-Cellucci and Treasurer Joe Malone,” he said.
In 1999, Tennant faced an embarrassing incident that would have destroyed most political operatives. As CommonWealth magazine reported in a recent historical piece, “It was a story that was tailor-made for a tabloid: A booze cruise on Boston Harbor skippered by the head of Massport; a fun-loving crew of hangers-on, including lobbyists and a woman named Gidget, who struck a “Girls Gone Wild” pose for a photographer as the boat pulled into dock.”
At the end of the harbor tour, a female passenger lifted her shirt, eliciting whoops and hollers from other passengers, the Boston Herald wrote. They published a photo of the woman with her shirt raised, blacking out the section of the photo showing her breasts. The incident caused a headache for Tennant and led Blute to resign.
“At that point, I dropped out of local politics and got involved in races in other parts of the world like El Salvador, and Sierra Leone,” he said.
Today, his favorite pet projects include educating parents on making their kids play sports smarter and safer to avoid concussions. He has also focused on how to reduce homelessness and the suicide rate among veterans. Tennant hopes to convince Trump to take on the causes.
“Nearly 25 percent of the homeless people in America are men and women who served in the military,” he said. “How is it possible that people who served our country … can be exposed to this kind of issue.”
For live updates from the convention, follow @Stennant55 and @itemlive.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected]