A Progressive’s Guide to Tuesday’s Town Election: Town Meeting

 

Remember to vote on Tuesday!

OK. If you’ve checked out our post on the top of the ticket, its now time to dig down in the weeds: Town Meeting! This is Belmont’s legislature, in essence, and incredibly important. Think of your local TMMs as your representatives before Town Government and “first line support” for any issues or problems you may have as a resident.

For the bottom of the ticket, we have a lot of great choices in most precincts. For the sake of brevity, I’m not going to discourse on each.
You can use the links to jump to your precinct:
Precinct 1
Precinct 2
Precinct 3
Precinct 4
Precinct 5
Precinct 6
Precinct 7
Precinct 8

A protip for voting: you’re electing 12 members for Town Meeting, but that doesn’t mean you have to vote for 12 people or – in Precincts where not enough candidates are standing – just vote for everyone. In some precincts we have write in candidates and you definitely should not throw a vote away on an undesirable candidate who is hostile to ideas that move Belmont forward, so my advice is don’t go “bubble happy” when voting for TM. Vote for the folks you know and support and leave the others blank.

Here are some candidates to consider for Precincts 1-8:

Precinct 1:

There are a slew of great new candidates in P1 – a progressive stronghold. I count 14 people to fill 12, 3-year spots. To be honest, the biggest problem we have here is a bottleneck of great people competing for a limited number of spaces!

If I lived in P1 (and I don’t) I’d vote for (in no particular order):

Three Year Slots:

  • Jessie Bennett
  • Peter Dizikes
  • Ian Todreas
  • Emma Thurston
  • Helen Goldin
  • Gail Gorman
  • Mary Gavin
  • John (Joe) Weis
  • James Staton
  • Stephen Tomczyk

Two Year Slot:

  • Jessica Olans Hausman

Precinct 2:

There are 12 candidates for 12 open spots in Precinct 2. If I lived in P2 I would be darkening a bubble for:

Three year slots:

  • Lesley Aitken
  • John Buckley
  • W. Sumner Brown
  • Susan Burgess-Cox
  • Thomas Caputo
  • Judy McSwain
  • Meghan Moriarty
  • James Gammill
  • Suzanne Robotham

One year slot:

  • Linda Levin-Scherz

Precinct 3:

Another uncontested precinct with 10 candidates for 12 seats, but there are some write-in candidates (noted here). I would vote for:

  • Rich Hartley (11 Edward Street – write in)
  • Cortney Eldridge (206 Beech Street- write-in)
  • Brad Abruzzi (14 Pearl Street – write-in)
  • Jill Souza Norton (96 Clark St – write-in)
  • Shaun Goho
  • Bonnie Friedman
  • Stephanie Clement
  • Vince Stanton
  • Carole Williams
  • Juliet Jenkins

Precinct 4

The “fightin’ 4th” as they call it – one of our town’s most important precincts (even if they’re not always treated that way). Alas, it has been difficult to attract candidates to run for town office. This year we have 10 candidates for 12, 3 year spots as well as some write ins. If I were voting in P4 I’d darken a bubble for:

  • Gitanjali Rege (write-in)
  • Dan Stevens (write-in)
  • Seneca Hart (Hull Street- write in)
  • Alon Joseph Manela
  • David Webster
  • Lucia Gates
  • Charles Clark
  • Debra Deutsch
  • Elizabeth Schmidt

Precinct 5

There’s a competitive race in P5 with 13 candidates for 12 slots, which is great. My recommendations (again- no particular order) are:

  • Claus Becker
  • Paul Aloisio
  • David Coleman
  • Thayer Donham
  • Myron Kassaraba
  • Casey Claire Williams
  • Roger Wrubel

Precinct 6

There are lots of good choices in Precinct 6 – another competitive district with 13 candidates for 12 slots. Here are some candidates to consider there:

  • Phil Thayer
  • Jamie Shea
  • Aaron Pickilingus
  • Peter Whitmer
  • Cabell Eames
  • Gail Mann
  • John Bowe
  • Theodore Dukas
  • Laurie Graham
  • Judith Singler

Precinct 7

Its been tough to get a full slate in P7 in recent years. Thankfully, we have one this time around, which is great news. Here’s who is worth looking at in Precinct 7:

  • Elizabeth Goss
  • Glenn P. Wong
  • Joan Drevins
  • Laura Hill
  • Thomas John
  • Glen Alexander Mohr
  • Steve Pinkerton
  • Alexandra Van Geel
  • Geoffrey Lubien

Precinct 8

My home precinct -and one that has seen considerable changes in recent years, as new families have moved into the Winn Brook neighborhood. Still one of the Town’s most conservative-voting precincts, the grass roots in P8 are encouragingly progressive. Our slate of TM candidates reflects that – with some great new names and a competitive race with 15 candidates for 12 slots. Here’s who I like and will be voting for:

  • Sonja Plesset
  • Shilpa Lawande
  • Patrick Murphy
  • Pamela Eagar
  • Ellen Sugarman
  • Laura Caputo
  • Lynn Peterson Read
  • Anthony Ferranti
  • Dave Nuscher
  • Kathleen Baskin
  • Kevin Brosnan
  • Mark Smith