JOHN VELIS
WESTFIELD – As the race for the 4th Hampden District seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives nears election day on April 1, a new controversy has arisen, claiming that city attorney John Velis, the Democratic nominee for the seat, is misleading city voters.
An anonymous packet with a coversheet asking “Why is John Velis claiming to have been born and raised in Westfield?” has been circulating around the district, with pictures from Longmeadow High School’s 1995 yearbook, which shows a picture of the LHS freshman basketball team with Velis seated in the back row.
Another sheet in the packet states three addresses in Longmeadow where Velis’ family resided, on 18 Ellington Street, 103 Meadowbrook Road, and 118 Farmington Avenue, with a photocopies of deeds from 1983 for a James and Susan Velis, previously of 53 Briarcliff Drive in Westfield, to the Ellington Street property in the Springfield suburb, and a 1996 for property on 5 Bates Street in Westfield, which the packet said could be found via the Hampden County Registrar of Deeds.
The packet also included a link to a candidate profile which appeared in The Reminder that wrote that the candidate was born in “Newtown,” which the packet asserted as referring to Newtown, Connecticut.
Velis said he too received the packet and addressed the allegations.
“My sister and I were born at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts,” said Velis, who stated that he currently resides on Holland Avenue in Westfield. “When I was young, my aunt was sick with a degenerative illness that eventually caused her death, and we moved to Longmeadow so my mother could be near her sister.”
Velis added that he did attend Longmeadow High School for a year, after which his family determined that Westfield was a better place to live, and that he is a 1998 graduate of Westfield High School.
The packet posed the question “How long was John Velis an actual resident of Westfield prior to leaving for college?”
“Moving to Longmeadow is something I’ve never attempted to hide,” said the 34-year-old Velis in response. “And with the exception of undergraduate schooling in Florida, law school in Boston, and serving in the war, I’ve lived in Westfield the overwhelming majority of my life.”
“I’ve never denied living in Longmeadow and the Velis family has been in Westfield for over 80 years,” he said.
