4 intriguing Massachusetts mayoral races to watch—other than Boston
From the contentious to the weird.
With apologies to Tito Jackson, the mayoral election in Boston is not exactly shaping up to be a close one, with polls consistently showing incumbent Mayor Marty Walsh with a sizable lead.
Boston, however, is not the only city in Massachusetts holding an election Tuesday. Here are four other races in the state that have been cast into the spotlight, for better or worse.
1. Massachusetts’s newest city is off to quite a start
Formerly the state’s largest town, Framingham narrowly voted last spring to officially become a city, which meant it had to hold its first race for mayor this year. And what a race it has been.
After a preliminary election in September to narrow the seven-candidate field, Tuesday’s election pits former state Rep. John Stefanini against Yvonne Spicer, an executive at Boston’s Museum of Science.
However, the two first clashed head-to-head in May, when Stefanini was caught by a security camera taking down one of Spicer’s displays at the town’s library and putting it behind a trash can. The incident became a local political controversy and was even covered by Boston’s local TV stations.
From there, as Boston magazine’s Spencer Buell recently reported at length, the race has descended into allegations accusing Stefanini, who apologized for taking down the display, of vandalism, questions (and robocalls) over Spicer’s lack of participation in recent local elections, and potentially improper sign-waving by volunteers for Spicer’s campaign.
Despite Stefanini’s significant fundraising advantage and initial perception as the race’s frontrunner, it was Spicer who finished first in September’s preliminary election with 54 percent of the vote. Stefanini finished second with 29 percent.
In their most recent debate, Stefanini attacked his opponent as unexperienced and unqualified, while Spicer cast herself as “transparent, honest and trustworthy.” Read up on the recent contentious two debates here and here.
2. In Lawrence, a return from exile
Vice News once asked whether Willie Lantigua was the “most corrupt mayor in America.” Well, after losing his seat four years ago in a nail-biter and spending two years in the Dominican Republic, Lantigua is back in Lawrence. And he wants his old job.
Lantigua’s bevy of scandals notwithstanding, even former opponents admit that he is “approachable” and “likable,” and as The Boston Globe recently reported, the 62-year-old has a strong base of support in the community.
Meanwhile, Mayor Dan Rivera, who unseated Lantigua in 2013, is seen as vulnerable as Lawrence struggles with violent crime and a pervasive national drug epidemic. Rivera, who beat Lantigua, a fellow Democrat, by roughly 10 percent of the total vote in September’s preliminary election, has touted his work to rebuild local infrastructure and has been endorsed by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker.
And despite his nonfunctioning campaign website and his continued tradition of refusing to participate in debates or file campaign finance reports, Lantigua has hung around. Rivera even acknowledged his opponent’s grassroots popularity.
“He’s like their Robin Hood,” Rivera told the Globe, “except he didn’t give back to the poor.”
3. The former MassDems leader takes on Lynn’s Trump-supporting mayor
Whereas the two aforementioned races pit two Democrats against each other, Lynn’s mayoral election is one where there is an actual partisan divide.
Mayor Judith Kennedy has been raising concerns about immigration well before President Donald Trump’s campaign. In 2014, the two-term Republican drew protests and national headlines for saying the city’s services were being overwhelmed by an influx of Central American immigrants.
Now, Kennedy is facing a challenge from Tom McGee, a former longtime state senator and former chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee. If the preliminary election — which McGee won with 72 percent of the vote — is any indication, this Tuesday’s rematch could hand Lynn a new mayor.
The two candidates clashed over public transportation in a debate last month, with McGee opposing the privatization of public transit. Kennedy defended the moves by Baker’s administration and tacitly accused her challenger of not effectively advocating enough as a lawmaker on Beacon Hill for a proposed MBTA Blue Line extension to Lynn.
In an earlier debate, Kennedy challenged McGee to clarify his position on whether Lynn should become a sanctuary city (she opposes it), but he declined to provide a clear yes or no answer.
The Daily Item also has a list of 10 fun things to know about each of the candidates.
4. Newton: No longer ‘boring’
With Mayor Setti Warren running for governor, there’s a vacuum to fill in Newton.
Scott Lennon and Ruthanne Fuller, two longtime city councilors, were the victors in September’s preliminary election. Then, according to the Globe‘s Shirley Leung, the race between the two Democrats was “really boring.”
That was until Lennon took out an ad in a recent print edition of the Newton TAB that read, “I am the only candidate who has continuously held a full-time job for the last twenty years.”
The ad was received as a shot at his opponent, who worked full-time only briefly while raising three sons, and thus started something of “a gender war,” as Leung wrote. Fuller shot back in a blog post that said Lennon undervalued her experience and was “suggesting a woman’s experience counts for less than a man’s.”
After graduating from Harvard Business School, I’ve played a leadership role for 30 years while at the same time bringing up three great kids in this wonderful community. I have worked in the business world, in the non-profit sector (including 8 years developing and implementing the first-ever strategic plan for WGBH- Channel 2), as a citizen activist, and as a city councilor for eight years.
To that, Lennon responded he was only highlighting his own career history and that Fuller was taking the ad out of context. He noted that his own mother took time off to raise him and his sister as children.
I am proud of my career in public service spanning over two decades. I am proud of my record on equality, and I am proud to come from a city that shares these values. Anyone who knows me knows I would never question anyone’s decision to raise children at home, or enter the workforce, or strike a balance in between.
, Fuller was first in Newton’s preliminary election and has maintained a fundraising lead, though Lennon boasts more individual donors and union endorsements.
In a race where the two candidates are relatively close on the issues, it’s possible the spat over Lennon’s ad could prove to be a decisive factor. One fellow Newton city councilor told Leung that it was enough to push him onto a side, whereas another said Lennon had only used a “poor choice of words.”
Ted Hess-Mahan, another city councilor, called both candidates “good people” and had planned to stay neutral, but he’s so upset about the ad he is now throwing his support behind Fuller.
“Scott took a cheap shot,” he said. “I think he lost the character debate on this.”
City councilor Amy Sangiolo, who finished third in the mayoral preliminary election and has endorsed Lennon, called his ad “a poor choice of words but anyone who knows him or has worked with him — especially Ruthanne — knows that he would never put down stay-at-home moms.”
