A familiar City Council race was foreshadowed Tuesday as nomination papers became available at Election Commission offices. The dozen candidates eager enough to stop by on the first day of a monthlong window included six of nine sitting councillors and four challengers who also ran two years ago.
Thing felt different on the School Committee side, where four sets of nominations were taken out – only one by an incumbent (David Weinstein), with the rest being newcomers: Jane Hirschi, the founder of the CitySprouts urban gardening nonprofit; Anne Coburn; and Jia-Jing Lee.
Mayor E. Denise Simmons was the first person picking up papers for the Nov. 4 municipal elections. She was elected to the council for the first time in 2001 and could be reelected to her 13th term in office.
Simmons was followed by Catherine Zusy, who stepped in after the death of councillor Joan Pickett and could be reelected into her first full term; and Sumbul Siddiqui, first elected in 2017 and seeking her fifth term in office. Also soon taking out papers Tuesday were incumbents Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, who served on the council from 2019-2020, returned in 2023 and seeks his third term in office; Ayesha Wilson, who moved over two years ago from the School Committee; and vice mayor Marc McGovern, first elected in 2013 and seeking a seventh term in office.
The returning council challengers are Dana Bullister, who ran in 2021; Scott Hannon, who explored a run in 2019; John Hanratty, who ran in 2023; and Robert Winters, who ran in 2023 for the first time since seeking office in the 1990s.
The new names for council on the first official day of election season were Nicolas Cauchy and Ned Melanson.
Nomination papers are due back by 5 p.m. July 31. Fifty confirmed signatures qualifies a resident to run.
The field of council candidates can be big in Cambridge – the 2023 elections had two dozen candidates for nine at-large seats with two-year terms. (After they take office, the councillors elect one of their own as mayor upon their inauguration in January.) Committee races tend to be smaller, and two years ago there were 11 candidates for six seats. The six members are led by whoever is named mayor.
Offices in Cambridge are determined through ranked-choice voting, which replaces all-or-nothing ballots with ones that let voters identify their favorite candidate, second-favorite, third-favorite and so on.
This was the Election Commission’s first season in its new offices at 689 Massachusetts Ave., the circa-1904 beaux-arts style Cambridgeport Savings Bank Building near City Hall in Central Square. The commission opened there June 11 after moving from 51 Inman St.
A stronger
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This election is extra important because the current council, with its 6-3 stacked court, is damaging the city with its lack of transparency, deep dive and study into issues, and dismissal of working class homeowners who are seeing houses torn down for market rate. This is not helping affordable housing. We also have to get big money out of politics. Outside influence with deep pockets are turning our neighborhoods into investment portfolios from around the world, many units staying vacant. The “vote now, fix later” program doesn’t work because very little gets fixed later.
We need to vote out city councilors who block safer streets and prioritize the convenience of wealthy homeowners over public safety and progress—the same people who fund their campaigns.
Vote out:
Toner
Wilson
Simmons
Nolan
Zusy
These councilors are serving private interests, not the public good.
Who is moderate?