Somerville preliminary mayoral election, Tuesday 9/19

[ron_newman]

The city of Somerville will hold a preliminary election on Tuesday, September 19, because three candidates are running for Mayor. The preliminary election will eliminate the candidate with the lowest vote, with the remaining two facing off in the November 7 general election. The candidates:

• Payton Corbett (campaign website | Facebook page)
• Mayor Joe Curtatone (official city page | campaign website | Facebook page)
• Kenneth Van Buskirk -- if this person has a campaign website, a Facebook page, or really any campaign at all, I haven't been able to locate it. Please comment if you know anything at all about him.

There is also a preliminary election on September 19 for Ward 1 School Committee, because three candidates are running for an open seat there: Emily Ackman, Guillermo Hamlin, and Ken Salvato. I know nothing about this race; if you do, please add a comment here. All other School Committee races and all Alderman races (both at-large and ward) will take place on November 7.

Somerville Local First will hold a candidates' meet & greet event on Tuesday, September 12, 6-9 pm, at Workbar, 31 Union Square.

Somerville Candidate Video Profiles on SCATV

Videos from Somerville Labor Coalition candidate forum on June 27

All comment is welcome here!

Comments

[redbird]

For the moment I am following Naomi Kritzer's guideline (from her blogging on Minneapolis elections) that thewe days, if someone doesn't have any sort of campaign website, they may have filed papers but they actually aren't running for office. There may be spaces on the ballot that are closer to "oh good, someone wants the job"—Naomi started election blogging because she was looking for any information at all about candidates for seats on the Soil and Water Commission (it's a thing there)—at which point you might google to make sure the person isn't known to be supporting Satan or serving time for assault, but otherwise vote for them so the commission will at least have a quorum. But we have two actual candidates for mayor here.

[ron_newman]

Just because I'm not aware of this perrson's campaign doesn't mean he doesn't have one, as I haven't been totally plugged into local politics of late. I'm hoping others can supply any information that I am missing.

[motyl]

Ken has a summary of his plans in his candadicy announcement here

https://thesomervillenewsweekly.blog/2017/07/12/kenneth-salvato-announces-candidacy-for-east-somerville-ward-1-school-committee/

Van Buskirk Video

[elramsay]

Here is a YouTube video by Kenneth Van Buskirk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK6rcsajhWM

The Somerville Media Center has Candidate Profiles for most people at their YouTube page
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0HOSLzNYaoAlI24GOoDCog

Just Google the candidate's names, plenty comes up...

(no endorsement implied)

Re: Van Buskirk Video

[ron_newman]

Yes, I linked to those in my post. But does he have any actual campaign website or other organization?

If you have other links for any of the candidate, please add them here.

Re: Van Buskirk Video

[elramsay]

If he's got a website or any online presence for his campaign, Google isn't finding it. His Facebook page is personal and doesn't seem too active. Not sure what makes a person run for the office of Mayor and not have a website or info page out there anywhere....

https://www.facebook.com/kenneth.vanbuskirk.3

Re: Van Buskirk Video

[ron_newman]

It's not just that I can't find an online presence. I also haven't seen any sign of his campaign in the real world (posters, leaflets, signs, mailings, etc.)

Re: Van Buskirk Video

[redbird]

I googled for van Buskirk days ago; it's not just that Ron didn't link to campaign stuff for him, it's that I couldn't find it easily.

I'd rather have text, even a transcription, than video. (For me that's just preference; for some of my friends that's a disability issue.) But I didn't even find a hypothetical vanbuskirk4somerville.com website with "I'm running for mayor" and links to a campaign video and a "contact us" link for donations.

Re: Van Buskirk Video

[3rdragon]

Agreed on the video. I just hate getting info in video format, but I have friends who would struggle to understand it at all.

My usual policy is to not vote for anyone who can't be bothered to make the info about why I should vote for them readily available.