William Marvel: A Hit that Backfired

Last December, the Freedom School Board chair complained to Mike DiGregorio that Randy Davison had been quoted in the Sun making an uncomplimentary remark about Freedom and Jackson in the tuition contract negotiations. She asked to have Davison removed from the negotiating committee. DiGregorio had recently made similarly discrediting remarks about Jackson School Board members, accusing them of a conflict of interest for negotiating with Fryeburg Academy, so he said nothing about the complaint against Davison. Instead, he waited until the furor over his Jackson comments had subsided. Then, in the home stretch of his run for reelection, he blamed Davison for the apparent impasse in negotiations with Freedom, Madison and Tamworth.

He made this accusation in a televised interview with the Sun, less than two weeks before the election. It spawned the reflexive media frenzy that he counted on, making him look like the hero of the controversy at Davison's expense. That story apparently also prompted more letters of complaint, and Davison was removed from the negotiating team, relieving DiGregorio of the team member who had most strenuously opposed his generous negotiating stance. It was all very sly politics, accomplished by a natural master of that dark art.