Somerville city election next Tuesday, November 5: Useful links and open discussion thread

[ron_newman]

A week from today, Somerville will hold a municipal election. Mayor Joe Curtatone is unopposed for re-election, but voters citywide will select four aldermen-at-large from a list of seven candidates. Voters in wards 1,3,5,and 7 will also elect a ward alderman, while voters in wards 1,2,and 5 have a contest for school committee.

Polls will be open from 7 am to 8 pm. To find out what ward you live in and where you will vote, fill in this form.

The Somerville Times sent questionnaires to all candidates and published the answers here:

• Meet the Candidates: Alderman-at-Large
• Meet the Candidates: Ward Alderman
• Meet the Candidates: School Committee

Somerville Patch also asked three questions of each candidate, and published the answers in their election guide.

If the Somerville Journal published an election guide, I haven't found it online. But they did write an editorial, endorsing some candidates.

Progressive Democrats of Somerville circulated questions to candidates, but not all of them responded:

• Alderman at Large
• Ward Alderman
• School Committee

Somerville Community Corporation asked the ward and at-large alderman candidates about several affordable housing and land use issues. The candidates' answers are posted here (ward candidates) and here (at-large candidates).

If you know of other local election guides or questionnaire sites, please leave a comment on this post. If you have anything at all to say about the election, please leave a comment on this post.

[Earlier posts: August 10 | September 17 ]

Here is a full list of candidates. 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 - acting incumbent Maureen Bastardi was defeated in the September 24 preliminary election
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
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

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

[prospecthillsom.livejournal.com]

Somerville Community Corporation (http://somervillecdc.org/) asked the ward and at-large alderman candidates about several affordable housing and land use issues.

The candidates' answers are posted here (ward candidates) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/10lrVUPtxFGZ9SxKdethzIwE7i8FwDpQRj0EgNIOGLE8/edit) and here (at-large candidates) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ocy9btlZSB5FeSg4BRk7N2QqWC-pBdMWlDyIcIk3I9Q/edit).

[ron_newman]

I've added these links to my post, but they require the user to have a Google Docs account, which not everyone has or wants. If you created these files, could you please change their permissions so that they are world-readable and don't require a Google account? Thanks.

(Also, the files aren't linked from the SCC front page at all, so I don't know how people would normally find them.)

[prospecthillsom.livejournal.com]

I didn't create the document, but I don't have a Google Docs account and I was able to view the documents, so I'm not really sure what the problem is.

I was just sharing information as requested in the original post. I don't have any affiliation with SCC, but I found the survey and answers informative and thought I'd share them with other voters and potential voters. If there are technology issues or other issues, I'm sure they'd be happy to hear from you!

[ron_newman]

Also, these documents appear to be incomplete, as the first one has answers from only one of the two candidates in each of wards 3, 5, and 7, and no answers from either candidate in ward 1. The second one has answers from only five of the seven at-large candidates.

[ron_newman]

Thanks. I do have a Google Docs account, which I had to log into before I could see the documents. How did you find them?

[prospecthillsom.livejournal.com]

As I said, I'm sure SCC would be thrilled to hear your thoughtful feedback.

Someone forwarded the documents to me - they were linked to a Facebook post.

[ron_newman]

Thanks. I found their Facebook page and left comments there.

ETA: They say they've fixed the file access, and that these are the only candidates who responded.