The 23 candidates who submitted their nomination papers to run in Quincy’s municipal election have qualified for the ballot, including the three candidates running for mayor, the five candidates seeking an at-large seat on the City Council, and the four candidates running for School Committee.
The election will also feature contests for the Ward 1, 3, 5 and 6 seats on the council.
The deadline to submit nomination papers, along with the signatures of 50 people registered to vote in the city, to the Board of Registrars of Voters passed on July 19. The 23 residents submitted nomination papers before the deadline; four others who pulled papers did not return them.
City Clerk Nicole Crispo said all 23 candidates had their nomination papers, including the voters’ signatures, certified. In addition, all 23 submitted their statements of candidacy ahead of the Aug. 6 deadline to do so. The deadline for withdrawals and objections is 5 p.m. on Aug. 9.
Two preliminary elections will take place on Sept. 10 to whittle down the number of candidates running in the races for mayor and Ward 1 councillor from three to two.
The preliminary election will cost between $80,000 and $85,000, Crispo said, inclusive of all costs such as printing ballots, advertising for the election, and pay for election workers and police details. The money to pay for the preliminary election was included in this year’s municipal budget, the city clerk said; she anticipated holding a citywide preliminary when she drafted the budget for the election department.
Crispo said turnout in the preliminary election could be somewhere in the range of 30 to 35 percent. She based the estimate on the 2015 citywide preliminary, which included a four-person mayoral field and council races in Wards 2 and 3.
“We had a 30.2 percent turnout that year,” Crispo said. “Ward 1 is active, so I would say in the end it will be in the same range – 30 to 35 percent.”
A drawing to determine ballot position for the preliminary election is scheduled for Aug. 16. Crispo said she would ask the candidates for permission to move the drawing up to Aug. 12, so the city can get ballots printed sooner.
Absentee balloting for the preliminary will begin as soon as the ballots are ready, Crispo said, and will end at noon on Sept. 9. The deadline to register to vote in the preliminary election is 8 p.m. on Aug. 21.
The three candidates who qualified for the ballot in the mayoral race are: incumbent Thomas Koch of 249 Newbury Ave. and challengers Tracey Dorgan of 108 Sherman St. and Brenda Ryan of 14 Cranch St. Koch was first elected mayor in 2007 and was re-elected to two-year terms in 2009, 2011 and 2013. In 2015, he was elected to a four-year term – the first in Quincy’s history after voters approved doubling the mayoral term in a 2013 referendum.
A win for Koch would make him the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history. Two other mayors – Amelio Della Chiesa and James Sheets – each served for 12 years. Della Chiesa served for four years under a Plan E form of government and then eight years under Plan A; Sheets’ entire tenure was under Plan A, the city’s current form of government.
The three residents to qualify for the ballot in the race for the Ward 1 seat on the City Council are: incumbent David McCarthy of 48 Whitney Rd. and challengers Danielle Kempe of 1 Adams St. and Joseph Murphy of 18 Macy St. McCarthy is seeking his second two-year term on the council.
The top two vote getters in each contest will advance to the Nov. 5 final election. The deadline to register to vote in November is 8 p.m. on Oct. 16 and absentee balloting ends at noon on Nov. 4.
All three incumbent at-large councillors – Noel DiBona of 70 Chickatabot Rd., Nina Liang of 2 Williams St. and Anne Mahoney of 12 Ferriter St. – qualified for this year’s ballot, as did challengers Frank Rubino of 5 Whiton Ave. and Joann Sullivan Cantor of 316 Fenno St. DiBona and Liang are seeking their third two-year terms and Mahoney is running for her second term.
Two residents – William Burke of 28 Rice Rd. and John Rodophele of 62 Grenwold Rd. – pulled papers to run for an at-large seat but did not return them. A preliminary election would have been necessary if all seven candidates qualified for the ballot.
The four candidates in the running for the three School Committee seats available in the fall election include incumbents Paul Bregoli of 80 Willow Ave. and Kathryn Hubley of 44 Marion St. as well as challengers Courtney Perdios of 86 Ruggles St. and Frank Santoro of 14 Lois Ter. Bregoli and Hubley are each seeking their third four-year term on the committee. Santoro previously served on the committee for two terms as well.
The third incumbent school board member, James DeAmicis, is not seeking a second term.
The two candidates to qualify in the race for the Ward 3 seat are incumbent Ian Cain of 8 Highpoint Cir. and challenger Eriberto Soto, Jr., of 627 Adams St. Cain is seeking his third two-year term.
Kirsten Hughes, the incumbent Ward 5 councillor, is not seeking re-election to the seat she has held since 2012. Two candidates are vying to replace her: Stephen Christo of 42 Standish Ave. and Charles Phelan of 298 Fenno St. Phelan formerly represented Ward 5 on the council from 1988 to 1996.
Two residents who had pulled papers to run for Ward 5 councillor did not return them: Mary Lally, 10 Weston Ave. and Christopher DeCambra, 25 Langley Cir.
In Ward 6, incumbent William Harris of 74 Ashworth Rd. and challenger William Isenberg of 36 Carle St. both qualified for the ballot. Harris is seeking his third term.
Ward 2 Councillor Brad Croall of 92 Viden Rd. and Ward 4 Councillor Brian Palmucci of 16 Cross St. will be unopposed in the fall. Croall is seeking his fifth term and Palmucci is seeking his sixth.