Swampscott Reporter Dec 5, 2007

Four declare intention to seek state rep’s seat
By Kris Olson / kolson@cnc.com
Wed Dec 05, 2007, 09:31 AM EST

Swampscott -

Doug Petersen’s successor will have to win twice to join the House of Representatives, it would seem.

Two Democrats and two Republicans have each indicated they fully intend to gather the necessary signatures to be on the ballot for the Feb. 5 primary. First to declare on the Democrat side of the aisle was Marblehead resident Lori Ehrlich, a CPA and graduate of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, who is perhaps best known as the co-founder of two environmental non-profit organizations, HealthLink and the Wenham Lake Watershed Association.

First into the Republican race was retired Marblehead police officer John Blaisdell, a Swampscott native and current Marblehead resident. A U.S. Army veteran of Vietnam, Blaisdell has also been a correction officer for Essex County and a court officer in Salem District Court.
In recent days, however, two new candidates have emerged. Vying with Blaisdell for the Republican nomination will be Tanya DeGenova, who planned to make her formal announcement Thursday at the Boston Yacht Club prior to the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Marblehead, of which she is a member. Also gathering signatures is Democrat Cesar Archilla of Swampscott, an attorney with the Salem-based firm of Andrews & Updegraph.
About DeGenova.

DeGenova is a retired FBI special agent who is now president and CEO of TSD Security Consulting Group Inc., a Boston-based private security and investigative firm. Over a 20-year career, DeGenova served as an interpreter, as a special agent and as a supervisory special agent both at the bureau’s D.C. headquarters and in its Boston field office. DeGenova is fluent in French and Russian and can also speak and write in German.
From January 2003 to April 2005, DeGenova consulted full-time to the U.S. military in Germany and cared for wounded soldiers at the Landstuhl U.S. Army Hospital as a Red Cross volunteer.

Now back in Marblehead on a full-time basis, DeGenova said she would “like to be a voice for all law-abiding citizens and legal resident aliens,” adding that being multilingual might help her reach out to segments of the population that have traditionally gone under-served.
She said her government service has made her “sensitive to civil-rights issues.” Other issues of interest for the self-professed “compassionate conservative” include affordable housing, education and the environment.

Though the Hatch Act limited her political activity while she was in the FBI, DeGenova noted that she was close to former president Ronald Reagan and was part of the team that investigated his would-be assassin, John Hinckley Jr. In her retirement, she worked on George W. Bush’s presidential campaign locally as well as Mitt Romney’s successful gubernatorial bid.
In addition to contributing to the good deeds done by her Rotary Club, DeGenova has volunteered in recent years at the Pine Street Inn and the Women’s Lunch Place in Boston, each of which work with the homeless. She has also served on the Boston Yacht Club’s Race Committee.

The 58-year-old widow has two grown children, the younger of whom graduated with the Marblehead High School Class of 2002. DeGenova holds a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and a master’s in international relations from Georgetown.

About Archilla
Archilla embarked on his legal career after working for 12 years with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. A graduate of Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster, Mass., and the Suffolk University School of Law, Archilla was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in June 1999. For six and a half years, Archilla worked in the Essex County District Attorney’s Office, first under Kevin Burke, then current DA Jonathan Blodgett. He has more than 100 jury trials to his credit, according to his firm’s Web site.

For Andrews & Updegraph, Archilla practices in the areas of criminal defense, civil litigation and domestic relations. During his run, Archilla may be able to seek the advice of Newburyport state Rep. Michael Costello, who is “of counsel” at the firm, meaning he is not active in the day-to-day business of the firm but nonetheless serves as a resource.

Archilla has lived in Swampscott for more than 10 years, is married and has two children in the Swampscott Public Schools.