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.

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know much about Jack Connolly? I know he got voted out of his seat when Rebekah Gewirtz won, but then he ended up as an Alderman-at-Large when Provost left her seat.

There are a fair number of signs for him in my neighborhood, but I keep hearing grumbling about how he is too involved with developers and is bad for residents. Specifically, I heard that he pushed through the hugely confrontational development at 344(?) Summer St. over objections from the neighborhood. This was in 2002 (before I was in the area), and the development as been in court for the past five years.

Can anyone offer any insights into him?

[ron_newman]

Jack was the ward 6 alderman for many years. He's friendly and approachable, but that Summer Street development proposal is probably the main reason he lost the election two years ago.

It also bothered me that he mailed out an anti-immigrant flyer when running in this year's special election for alderman-at-large against Marty Martinez.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading my mind Ron -- I was just about to post asking someone for this kind of info. :)

Can you say some more about how the voting for alderman-at-large works? I understand that there's some funky stuff if you vote for fewer candidates than there are open seats. ???

[ron_newman]

You may cast up to four votes. If you feel really strongly that one or two candidates are preferable to all the others, you may want to cast fewer than four votes. I don't understand your last sentence.

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

I think what you're thinking of is the idea of a "bullet" vote.
As I understand it, the way this works is just that if one candidate is really important to you, but you think it might be close, you vote only for that one candidate and not for any others, thereby not helping the others to possibly beat the one you care about most.

Example (with a very small population ;):
Candidates A,B,C,D,E,F
No bullet voting:
A: 8
B: 10
C: 7
D: 6
E: 5
F: 4

10 people voted, each for 4 candidates each. Everyone likes B, most people like A and C. The last spot is down to D, E, F. Let's say there were two people who really wanted E to win, but happen to also have cast votes for D, allowing D to beat E. Had these two people cast bullet votes for E only, E would have beaten D.

With bullet voting:
A: 7
B: 8
C: 6
D: 4
E: 5
F: 4

So now, A, B, and C still win, but along with E, instead of D.

People seem to have mixed opinions about the ethics of bullet voting, but it is certainly allowed.

Hope that made any sense!

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

That did make sense, and you spared me trying to explain what I meant to Ron when I only half-understood it myself. ;) So thanks!

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Sorry I was unclear -- aquaflame16 explained what I was trying to get at. Basically it boils down to, if you feel strongly about one person and "ehh" about the others, you're better off just voting for that one person in order to sort of maximize the "strength" of your vote.

Also, wanted to add that we trick-or-treated at Joe Lynch's house the other night and I was quite impressed with the pumpkin into which he (or someone) had carved his name and logo. :)

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

you are most welcome, glad I could help. :)

[ron_newman]

Thanks. I could not have explained it as well as that. I will probably still cast two votes, though.

[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.

Boundaries have to go somewhere

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

For the folks who live on Josephine Ave.

After years of living here and paying only scant attention, I have figured out a really screwy system. Even though the street is only 2 blocks long, we represent 2 different wards. Odd side of the street is Ward 5 (O'Donovan) and even is Ward 6 (Gerwitz). Even the polling place (Brown School) for Ward 5 is in Ward 6.

I look out my window and my neighbors have a sign for Gerwitz, but I don't vote in that election.

You think they could have included the whole street in the Ward. I mentioned it to Rebecca when I met her at our block party. I really can't identify with those strange folks on Rogers behind me.

Re: Boundaries have to go somewhere

[ron_newman]

The wards must have equal population so that the city complies with the "one person - one vote" requirement, established by a US Supreme Court decision in the 1960s.

There's probably some fudge factor allowed, but the populations at least have to be reasonably close. The city will redraw the ward boundaries after the 2010 census.

If you kept Joe Curtatone's first campaign mailing, one side of it is the official Somerville ward and precinct map. If you didn't, here's the map on the city website.

Re: Boundaries have to go somewhere

[ron_newman]

(Say, if you live on Josephine Avenue, you probably know Brandon Wilson. Say hi to her for me!)

Re: Boundaries have to go somewhere

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know Brandon, but only because of the block party. She's way on the other block of Josephine.

The interesting thing is that the map shows just about all the lines are drawn that way. I understand why it's done, but it seems to be guaranteed to generate confusion, especially if the aldermen representing opposite sides of the street don't agree on something -- like traffic patterns or parking. People facing the same street have more similar issues than neighbors who share the same block.

And my apologies to Rebecca for misspelling her name. See, she is irrelevant to me.

Re: Boundaries have to go somewhere

[ron_newman]

both her names, actually -- it's Rebekah Gewirtz

Some time, we should meet. Meanwhile, please consider voting for Joe Lynch.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

Here's an even better explanation for 'bullet' voting, based on how the ballots are tallied.
~Everyone has 4 votes for Alderman at Large. If you only use 1 vote, the other 3 votes are counted as 'blanks'. Thus, it moves your candidate up a notch while the other candidates stay at the same place. Thus, your candidate gets a 'bump' toward reaching the finish line first!
Also, FYI to Ron, as you said above you don't live in Ward 5. I'm still undecided in this race, and I DO live in Ward 5. I just wanted to say that I find it annoying when people who do not live in my ward tell me who is the best candidate for the ward. There is no way you can know enough about the everyday goings on in Ward 5. I realize that people get to know candidates in many different forums, but because you agree with someone (anyone) on one particuar issue, does not necessarily mean that person would be the best person to represent the entire ward. One or two issues does not a Ward make! Just my two cents......

well count me annoying too

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

I don't live in Ward 5 but have met Joe Lynch and followed that race closely -- Ward 5 is very close to where I live. The reason why I hope my neighbors in 5 vote for Lynch is that he has always been very well informed about the issues of the Green Line extension, which will touch everyone in Ward 5 and most of us in Ward 4. He actually wants to prepare for the Green Line now, instead of doing it around election time in a couple of years, and he's not beholden to Developers which I think is a big plus. If I was in Ward 5 I'd be holding signs for him.

My at-large votes are going to Lafuente, White, and Berman (I think).