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A Superior Court judge ruled MassGOP Chairman Jim Lyons must reinstate Lindsay Valanzola, a fellow committee member he tried to remove in November, and allow her to participate in Tuesday’s election for chair.
Justice John P. Pappas issued a ruling Friday to grant “injunctive relief” to Valanzola, who filed a formal complaint in January stating that Lyons’ move to declare a vacancy in her state committee seat two months prior was “baseless and politically motivated.”
Valanzola said Lyons was trying to prove she lived in Nashville, Tenn., where she travels often for work. She said Lyons declared her seat vacant based on those allegations, despite his lack of success in trying to disprove her Massachusetts residency through the town clerk’s office in Wales, where she lives, and the secretary of state’s office.
“Honestly, I’m thrilled,” Valanzola said. “I’m so thankful for my attorney, George King, and for the judge ruling in my favor on this. It’s been a long two-plus years of fighting with the chairman, trying to reprove something that is public record and documented very clearly everywhere.
“I’m really glad that the judge was able to see through the political mess that this really was,” she added, saying that she was happy the matter was settled in time for her to vote in the MassGOP chair election on Tuesday.
Valanzola said she will not be voting for Lyons, and believes she was targeted after speaking against the party chair during a meeting held in July 2020.
A month later, she said Lyons launched an investigation into her residency, which involved hiring private investigators to follow her on business trips to Tennessee.
Last week, MassGOP Treasurer Patrick Crowley informed committee members that Lyons had spent $800 in 2021, using party resources, to hire a firm to conduct “opposition research” into Valanzola.
“I go back and forth between Massachusetts and Tennessee quite a bit,” she said. “The chairman was basically trying to prove that because I have a social life outside of the state of Massachusetts, I was no longer a resident.”
In his ruling, issued after a Tuesday hearing, Pappas wrote that MassGOP committee bylaws dictate that the chair “shall take appropriate steps to verify the existence of a member vacancy,” including a member who is no longer a resident of her district.
A MassGOP committee attorney sent Valanzola a letter on Nov. 9, stating that a vacancy in her seat was being declared “based on verified, corroborated evidence” that she was not a resident of the MassGOP district she represents.
“The bylaws do not define what these ‘appropriate steps’ are,” Pappas wrote. “However, the court may reasonably conclude that they require some amount of due process to be provided to the member, such as by way of a statutory voter residency challenge, which requires a hearing.”
Pappas wrote that Valanzola remains a registered voter in Wales, and a committee attorney’s challenge to her residency, through the Wales registrar of voters, was denied by the town clerk, who said challenges must be made by town residents.
“For these reasons, Valanzola’s motion for injunctive relief is allowed,” Pappas wrote.
The judge added, “The committee, Lyons, and those associated with them are enjoined from interfering with Valanzola’s exercise of her duties as a member of the committee, her right to vote in the committee’s election for chairman on Jan. 31, 2023, or recognizing a replacement for her seat while she remains an elected committee member and registered voter and resident of the town of Wales.”
Lyons did not respond to a request for comment. A committee spokesperson did not return an email seeking comment.
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