City elections, September 24 and November 5 - candidate list and open discussion thread

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It's an odd-numbered year, so Somerville is having a municipal election this fall. Three wards (1,3,5) will have preliminary elections on September 24. The whole city will vote on November 5.

Mayor Joe Curtatone is unopposed for re-election. Lists of candidates for Alderman and School Committee are behind the lj-cut below. With two aldermen having resigned and three others not running for re-election, we could have a lot of turnover. Please use this thread for discussing the election or any of the candidates and issues.

Progressive Democrats of Somerville have circulated questionnaires to each candidate for Ward Alderman and School Committee. Read the responses here:
Ward Alderman
School Committee

(I'd like to link each candidate's name to his or her campaign website. Please comment with links to such websites if they are missing here, so I can edit them in.)

Alderman at Large
There are four aldermen-at-large, elected citywide. One current alderman-at-large, Bruce Desmond, is not running for re-election.
Seven candidates are running for these seats. You can vote for up to four.

Jack Connolly (incumbent)
Carol Dempkowski
Sean Fitzgerald
William Medeiros
Mary Jo Rossetti (currently Ward 7 School Committee member)
Dennis Sullivan (incumbent)
Bill White (incumbent)

Ward 1 Alderman
Maureen Bastardi (acting incumbent, appointed after Bill Roche resigned; was Ward 1 School Committee member)
Elio LoRusso
Matthew McLaughlin

Ward 2 Alderman - incumbent Maryann Heuston is unopposed

Ward 3 Alderman - incumbent Tom Taylor is not running for re-election
Suzanne Bremer
Stephen Delani
Matthew Desmond
Robert McWatters

Ward 4 Alderman - incumbent Tony Lafuente is unopposed

Ward 5 Alderman
Mark Niedergang (currently Ward 5 School Committee member)
Courtney O'Keefe (acting incumbent, appointed after Sean O'Donovan resigned)

Ward 6 Alderman - incumbent Rebekah Gewirtz is unopposed

Ward 7 Alderman - incumbent Bob Trane is not running for re-election
Katjana Ballantyne
Joe Capuano

Ward 1 School Committee
Steve Roix (acting incumbent, appointed after Maureen Bastardi was appointed Alderman)
Kenneth Salvato

Ward 2 School Committee - incumbent Teresa Cardoso is not running for re-election
Dan Futrell
Michael Nionakis

Ward 3 School Committee - incumbent Adam Sweeting is unopposed

Ward 4 School Committee - incumbent Christine Rafal is unopposed

Ward 5 School Committee - incumbent Mark Niedergang is not running for re-election (but is running for Ward 5 Alderman)
Laura Pitone (also has a facebook page)
Ross Richmond
Caroline Rosas

Ward 6 School Committee - incumbent Paul Bockelman is unopposed

Ward 7 School Committee - incumbent Mary Jo Rossetti is not running for re-election (but is running for Alderman at Large)
Caroline Normand (unopposed)

Comments

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Also, you can enter your street address into this form, to find out what ward and precinct you are in, and who all of your elected officials are.