Election in Somerville next Tuesday, November 6

[ron_newman]

Next Tuesday, November 6, Somerville will hold an election for all city offices - Mayor, Alderman-at-Large, Ward Alderman, and School Committee member. Polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm. This page will tell you where to vote, and what ward you live in.

For mayor, incumbent Joe Curtatone is being challenged by Suzanne Bremer.

Six candidates (four incumbents, two challengers) are running for the four alderman-at-large seats.

In wards 5, 6, and 7 (the wards closest to Davis Square), the current ward alderman is running for re-election against a challenger.

In wards 1, 2, 3, and 4, the current ward alderman is unopposed for re-election.

All School Committee seats are unopposed; in ward 4, nobody is on the ballot at all because the incumbent failed to return sufficient petition signatures on time.

Mayoral candidates:
Suzanne Bremer
Joe Curtatone - incumbent

Alderman-at-Large candidates - vote for up to four
Fred Berman
Jack Connolly - incumbent
Bruce Desmond - incumbent
Tony Lafuente
Dennis Sullivan - incumbent
Bill White - incumbent

Ward 5 Alderman
Joe Lynch
Sean O'Donovan - incumbent - if he has a web site, I can't find it

Ward 6 Alderman
Charles Chisholm
Rebekah Gewirtz - incumbent

Ward 7 Alderman
Rachel Heller
Bob Trane - incumbent

Somerville Journal article: Candidates for alderman at large have varied backgrounds to choose from - also links to videos of each candidate answering two questions from the Journal
Somerville News article: Candidates tell you where they stand

Candidates' responses to questionnaires from ...
Local anti-poverty organizations (mayoral candidates only)
Progressive Democrats of Somerville
Somerville Dog Owners' Group (som|dog)

My earlier LJ post about this election
And an even earlier LJ post

For my own preferences, see the comments.

Comments

[ron_newman]

My own preferences:

Mayor - I think Joe Curtatone is doing a pretty good job. I've met Suzanne Bremer and like her, but she is not experienced enough to be running for this office. I wish she had run for Alderman-at-Large instead.

Alderman-at-Large - I'm definitely voting for Bill White and Fred Berman, and still deciding whether to cast either or both of my remaining two votes. White is a needed voice of intelligence and dissent who tries to prevent the board from becoming a rubber-stamp for the Mayor. Fred Berman would bring a lot of good new ideas to city government.

Ward 6 Alderman - I think Rebekah Gewirtz is doing an excellent job.

Ward 5 Alderman - If I lived here, I'd vote for Joe Lynch, who seems a lot more on top of neighborhood issues than the incumbent.

[reverend-jim.livejournal.com]

What about Tony Lafuente, Ron? Truth be told, I voted for Mayor Joe over Tony in the mayoral race, but I'm going to throw Tony an At-Large vote. He seems like a good guy, he has a Somerville business, and I think he's got the right blend of "understanding how things get done in Somerville" and "won't rubber-stamp the Mayor's pet projects." It's possible that I'm swayed by the fact that his company made the Sox World Series banner, but I'm okay with that!

[ron_newman]

I don't think he's a bad choice at all; I just like Fred Berman better.

[reverend-jim.livejournal.com]

Oh sure, but it sounded like you might not use your other two votes, and I wondered why Tony wasn't worth one of them.

[ron_newman]

aquaflame16 sort of gave my reasoning -- I like Bill White and Fred Berman enough that I wouldn't want either one knocked off by Lafuente, even if I'd prefer Lafuente to some of the other candidates.

I still remember the election that Bill White won by a single vote, after a recount and an associated court case.

[reverend-jim.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see, I hadn't caught up on the thread below. I guess you can count me among those who don't care for that logic. As you say, Lafuente is a better choice than Jack-the-Hack, and while he probably has a better chance than Berman (and consequently might hurt Berman in your scenario), too many people voting Berman-or-nothing could keep Berman *and* Lafuente off the Board. I won't cast a spare vote for someone I *don't* want on the board, just to vote my full four, but I'm not going to deny a potentially good candidate my vote just in case he beats out my favorite. That's the way I've always done it, anyway.