"Handicapping" the School Committee Race

Today's Lowell Sun analyzes the upcoming campaign for school committee. Unfortunately, the story is rendered almost unreadable by the race track style of writing favored by Sun editor Jim Campanini (obviously the author of this unsigned piece) whose obsession with horse racing creeps into almost everything he writes. Peeling away the track lingo, Campanini thinks all five incumbents seeking reelection are safe. Of the five, the editor sees Regina Faticanti and Connie Martin as the strongest with Jackie Doherty, John Leahy and Kevin McHugh in the second tier. He also sees the four challengers falling into two groups with Jim Leary or Vesna Nuon having the best chance of winning the seat being vacated by Joe Mendonca who's running for city council and Tim Lavoie and Cecilia Okafor as qualified but with less of a chance of victory.