Springfield voters will he heading to the polls on Tuesday to select city council and school committee members.
There's some heightened drama in the council races where eight candidates are vying for the five at-large seats. One of them is former councilor Justin Hurst, whose contentious but unsuccessful campaign against Mayor Domenic Sarno in 2023 was dogged by allegations of voter fraud, prompting an investigation by the attorney general's office.
Jeanette DeForge, a veteran reporter with The Republican newspaper, says it's hard to tell if that issue will affect his chances of returning to the council.
Jeanette DeForge, The Republican: Justin Hurst was a popular, very vocal city councilor, kind of a a naysayer to Domenic Sarno. He gave that second opinion and he was city council president for a while. So he definitely has a good chance. They've never charged him with anything. He denies the allegations, but the case continues to be under investigation.
Kari Njiiri, NEPM: Of the incumbents Kateri Walsh, Jose Delgado, Tracy Whitfield, Sean Curran and Brian Santaniello. Who do you think could be at risk of losing their seats?
That's a hard question, too. All five incumbents are strong candidates. They all have certain focuses. Say, for example, Jose Delgado has really worked hard on digital equity. Brian Santaniello has really worked hard on strengthening laws to protect parks and playgrounds from needles. Kateri works very hard on veterans issues, women's issues. Tracy also does a lot of women's issues, and she's got a lot of focus on bringing young developers into the city and supporting them. And Sean's worked very hard on development. You also have your other two opponents, Nicole Coakley and Juan Latorre, who are very known as community activists. So, you've got an excellent slate of candidates.
We should also mention there's another interesting race for the Ward 1 seat, which encompasses most of the city's North End, and that's between incumbent Maria Perez and challenger Josiah Gonzalez. What's been going on there?
That's a very interesting case. Josiah and Maria were both employees of New North Citizens Council at one time. Josiah has left that position a while ago, but he was on the board. He recently resigned. And there was a huge controversy over Maria Perez, who's been an employee there for 40 years plus, and she was suddenly fired. They put out a press release that questioned whether she may have been embezzling, which it turns out was not the case. And it turns out that Josiah Gonzalez was the instigator of that press release. There's been a lot of fallout from that, and that will be interesting to see how that affects that race.
Voter turnout in the last election was less than 19%, which, although is low, was more than the 10% turnout in 2021, which we should note was in the midst of Covid. The preliminary was even lower than that. How could the races involving Hurst and the Ward 1 seat boost turnout this time around, if at all?
You hope it will attract people. The preliminary turnout was 3.4%. It was the lowest the city has ever seen, and it
It was the lowest the city has ever seen, and it's difficult to get people out because they don't come out when there's not a mayoral race or a high profile race on the ballot. But the truth is that city council positions are very important in your neighborhood.
The city council is people's first interaction with government.
They are. The city councilor is the person you go to if your stop sign is out. If there's a pothole in your street, it's all those quality of life issues. But they also are the people who drive a lot of new ideas, especially for neighborhoods. So, your city councilors make a difference.
