Marianne Walles is among a field of a dozen candidates seeking the Somerville City Council’s four at-large seats in November. Ben Wheeler, Ari Iaccarino, Justin Klekota, Jack Perenick, Holly Simione, Scott Istvan, Jon Link, Christopher Ryan Spicer and Tuesday N. Thomas also are running, and current councilors Will Mbah and Kristen Strezo.
It will be Walles’ second electoral run: She ran for mayor in 2019, winning 40 percent of the vote against then-mayor Joseph Curtatone in the general election. Curtatone had at that point served eight terms.
Walles has been a social worker for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families for almost 30 years. After the 2019 election, Walles transitioned from servicing Cambridge to Somerville, motivating her run for council, she said.
“I really noticed that where I live and myself and the experiences I have are very different from a lot of the people I service,” she said. “I had spent some time talking to people about whether or not I should take another chance at running for public office, and a lot of people were very supportive and encouraging.”
As a social worker, Walles is part of the local 509 chapter of the Service Employees International Union, where she’s listed as regional metro vice president for the DCF. She’s been endorsed by 10 union chapters, her campaign website shows, including SEIU 509.
As councilor at large, Walles wants to advocate for education in the trades. “I think we hear a lot and see a lot of focus on college education,” she said. “There are a lot of our youth that choose a path of trade unions, and trades as careers,” she said. Expanded apprenticeship programs with clear pathways can address their needs.
She also wants to continue the work she’s done on Somerville’s program of payment in lieu of taxes, which asks large tax-exempt institutions to pay a quarter of their exempt taxes voluntarily to the city. Walles was appointed to Somerville’s Pilot Advisory Task Force in 2023 and formerly acted as co-chair of the Somerville-Medford Pilot working group.
A bill was introduced in the state Legislature this year allowing municipalities to require Pilot payments for institutions owning property valued at or over $15 million. Like Somerville’s task force, Walles said she wants to see the bill passed.
Walles also identified housing as a priority. Walles supports upzoning near transit hubs – but upzoning alone isn’t enough and to make housing affordable, Somerville needs rent stabilization, she said.
“I’m very pro-rent stabilization because I think a lot of what I see is, oh, build, build, build, and that’ll reduce the cost. But it’s not one singular thing that will reduce housing costs for people; it’s multiple different avenues that will help reduce housing costs,” she said.
Education, mental health, and infrastructure that is climate-resilient are also listed as priorities on Walles’ campaign website. She supports new and sustainable school buildings; expanded prekindergarten and afterschool programming; and unarmed and community-based response to mental health and addiction crises, as well as streamlined access to programs for residents in need. “Coming from a bureaucracy, I understand the frustrations people can have in trying to navigate services,” she said.
Walles held a campaign kickoff event in March. Ahead of the election, she plans to canvass and schedule more events. She’s particularly interested in meeting new residents and engaging community nonprofits, she said.
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