Rep. Jim Lyons Playing Fast and Loose With His Voting Record

Tea Party freshman who fought to eliminate school-based health centers now brags about bringing home the bacon

BOSTON –Just a few short months ago, Republican Rep. Jim Lyons led the charge on Beacon Hill to eliminate funding for school-based health centers in the Commonwealth. Now, with Election Day on the horizon, the Tea Party freshman is trying to convince voters that he is a champion of the important programs only local and state governments can provide.

In a post on the , Lyons appears to take credit for local aid to Andover schools, though he does not mention his amendment to next year’s budgets that would have forced public schools to fire school nurses and close down school-based health centers.

In the post, Lyons goes so far as to say, “our most vital services are provided through our local communities: education, police, fire, libraries, public works, and public safety.”

“It’s good that Jim Lyons now recognizes local schools provide some of the most vital services folks rely on, but a few months ago he was fighting to get rid of the health centers and school nurses who provide those services,” said Massachusetts Democratic Party Chair John Walsh. “Maybe Lyons has had a change or heart, or maybe he is realizing that the extreme Tea Party rhetoric that wins him praise from Republicans on Beacon Hill doesn’t sit so well with middle-class families in Andover and Tewsbury.”