Nov 5th: Medford Local Elections

Tomorrow, November 5th, is the Medford municipal election for mayor, city council, and school committee. Polls will be open from 7am to 8pm. You can check your polling location here.

 

Mayor

The mayoral election features 13 term (26 year) mayor Michael J. McGlynn against challenger Anthony D'Antonio. 

Mayor Michael J. McGlynn  City mayor website  WickedLocal article
Anthony D’Antonio   Campaign website  WickedLocal article 

 

I'll be voting for Anthony D'Antonio over Mayor McGlynn, in large part because I think 26 years is quite enough for anyone to hold the same office. McGlynn has done some good work, but seems focused primarily on finishing the projects he has already started, not taking on new challenges. I'm also strongly swayed by the fact that D'Antonio advocates a modernized, user-friendly website for the city which I must say it desperately needs. Mayor McGlynn doesn't see the need for making information on project bids and city spending available online. He strikes me as behind the times in terms of technology - he doesn't even have a personal/campaign website. I honestly can't say I think D'Antonio is brilliant, but I sure do think McGlynn's time has past.

City Council

The Medford city council consists of 7 seats for a term of 2 years. All 7 seats are up for re-election tomorrow. There are 13 candidates: 6 incumbents and 7 challengers. You can vote for up to 7 candidates.

Incumbents;
Robert Penta   WickedLocal article
Breanna Lungo-Koehn   WickedLocal article
Michael Marks   WickedLocal article   Campaign website
Paul Camuso   WickedLocal article
Fred Dello Russo Jr.   WickedLocal article
Rick Caraviello   WickedLocal article   Campaign website

Challengers:
Bob Fitzpatrick   WickedLocal article   Campaign website
Neil Osborne   WickedLocal article   Campaign website
Jim Morse   WickedLocal article   Campaign website
Jeanne Martin   WickedLocal article   Campaign website
Robert Cappucci   WickedLocal article
Adam Knight    WickedLocal article   Campaign website
Mark Crowley   WickedLocal article   Campaign website

Choosing City Council candidates was a challenge for me. First, there are 13 candidates running for 7 seats; that's a lot of individuals to investigate. Second, none of the major issues in the race matter much to me: the building of a parking garage in the square, the enforcement of parking restrictions, the renovation of the police station. I don't really care what is decided on these. So as a first pass at narrowing down the candidates, I looked to see which ones have campaign websites. In my opinion, if you're running for election and don't have a website in 2013, you're not prepared for the present, much less the future. Sadly but unsurprisingly, that narrowed the field from 13 to 8. I'll be voting for:

 

Adam Knight

Mark Crowley

Neil Osborne

Bob Fitzpatrick

Rick Caraviello

Michael Marks

Jeanne Martin 

 

School Committee 

The Medford school committee is a 6 person body, elected every 2 years. This year, the 6 incumbents are running unopposed. You could write in an alternative, but otherwise these 6 will be re-elected.

 

John Falco, Erin DiBenedetto, Ann Marie Cugno, Paulette Van der Kloot, George Scarpelli and Robert E. Skerry Jr.

 

Useful in writing this post was:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/medford/news/x348804795/ELECTION-2013-Medford-election-guide