Worcester City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj’s home was hit with a baseball and campaign signs outside her house were knocked down in what the elected official discribed as “political targeting.”
“This is what we are facing,” Haxhiaj said in a social media post Friday night. “Tonight, while I was having dinner with my family someone hit my house violently with a baseball attempting to break the window of my living room. When we went out this is what we found.”
The city councilor, who is up for reelection, posted a photograph of the toppled signs. Haxhiaj said she reported the incident to Worcester City Manager Eric D. Batista and the police, noting, “This political targeting is ugly.”
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“The harassment I’ve been facing for over 4 years now is a reminder of what some of us are facing for our values, ideas & work,” Haxhiaj added in another post.
Haxhiaj was voted into office in 2021 as the first woman elected to represent District 5 of Worcester. She is also the first Albanian-American and Muslim to serve as city councilor in the community.
In response to Haxhiaj’s post, Mayor Joe Petty wrote, “As the Mayor of Worcester, I want to make it unequivocally clear that violence against any individual, including current city councilors running for office, has no place in our democratic process.”
“Our city has a rich tradition of civil discourse, debate, and respect for differing opinions. It is essential that we uphold these values as we engage in political campaigns and elections,” the mayor added in his social media post.
School Committee member Tracy O’Connell Novick, who is running for the committee’s at-large seat in the Nov. 7 municipal election, also expressed her support for Haxhiaj on social media, noting, “If you know you aren’t winning through democratic means, you try scaring people.”
In the photograph Haxhiaj posted, one of Novick’s signs is also knocked down.
“That isn’t going to work with Etel, or any of the other names on her lawn, but this is reprehensible, and every candidate for office should be loud and quick in denouncing this,” O’Connell wrote in her post.
Facing multiple challengers in her reelection bid, Haxhiaj, the incumbent in the race for the District 5 city council seat, won in Worcester’s preliminary election on Sept. 5.
