Business owner Silvia blames ‘dirty politics’ for departure from Fall River mayor race

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WLNE) — A now former candidate for Fall River mayor is blaming “dirty politics” for his departure from the race.

“It was getting a bit ugly and it wasn’t something I was prepared for,” Christopher Silvia, the owner of Christopher’s Cafe on South Main Street, said.

Silvia suspended his campaign on Sept. 1, a little under two months after he announced his candidacy on July 10.

While he was initially fueled by the support from his large online following, Silvia said the backlash on social media became too much to handle.

“You do hear that all the time, ‘politics is dirty,’ I wasn’t prepared for how dirty it was going to be, or how organized it was going to be against a particular candidate, myself,” Silvia said.

Silvia said he believes Mayor Paul Coogan’s administration was working to dig up information to undermine his campaign, suggesting the mayor was colluding with local media.

He said he believes everything that had been brought up about him was inaccurate.

“This goes back six months ago, when I had an Easter event for needy children and I showed the police,” Silvia said. “They were all involved in making Easter baskets, and that kind of set off an explosion with people who were not happy with the police department, and it just kind of grew from there.”

ABC6 News asked Mayor Coogan for his response at a Fall River Public Schools event Wednesday afternoon.

“Politics in Fall River is rock and roll, and its not my team that’s doing any of the problems,” Coogan said. “Any problems that Christopher Silvia has, or Paul Coogan has, or any candidate has, most of the time they are self-inflicted.”

“I think if you make a mistake, you own up to it and you move on,” Coogan continued. “But I’m not a big fan of playing the victim or blaming someone else.”

Silvia gained significant notoriety in Fall River for his restaurant, community work, and fundraising efforts after the Gabriel House fire.

He said work like that is why he ran for mayor in the first place, but now he is weighing legal action.

“At some point, you have to put an end to the social media platforms that kind of breed this or allow it,” Silvia said.

Silvia said suing a platform instead of a certain person is something he could possibly look into, adding he is not quite sure of his next steps.

“Who knows where life’s gonna take you, this was a hard couple of months,” Silvia said. “I have some decisions to make.”

In the meantime, Silvia said he’s working to return all donations made to his campaign.

Coogan still faces three other opponents in the preliminary mayoral race on Sept. 16 to decide the top two candidates for the November election.