Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra and challenger Jillian Duclos will square off in November’s general election. That’s after Sciarra and Duclos were the top two vote getters in Tuesday’s four-way preliminary.
According to unofficial totals from the City Clerk’s office, Sciarra finished with about 47% of the vote, to Duclos’ nearly 24%. Two other challengers, Dan Breindel and David Dombrowski were eliminated. Breindel with approximately 19% was about 300 votes behind Duclos. Dombrowski was a distant fourth, with 482 votes.
During an interview Tuesday night, Sciarra was enthusiastic about her showing. She said her background was one factor that led to her decisive victory.
"Being a councilor for eight years and being mayor for four years has, I think, helped me in this campaign," she said.
As for the next phase of her campaign, Sciarra indicated she was not taking anything for granted despite the wide margin between herself and Duclos.
"I believe in always just running as hard as you possibly can," Sciarra said. "I have an amazing team and we will be talking to as many voters as we can, making sure that they know the truth about my record and what I've worked on, all the things that we as a community have worked on together for the last these last four years."
Duclos did not respond to multiple requests for comment about her second place finish as of 11 p.m. Tuesday.
At the polls
Voters casting their ballots at the Northampton Senior Center on Tuesday listed education spending, housing and a proposed redesign of the city’s downtown called “Picture Main Street” as topics at the top of their minds.
Some critics of Sciarra have said the mayor has not spent enough on the city’s schools, forcing layoffs and cutbacks in recent years. And a local political action committee, or PAC, named Support Our Schools formed with the purpose of supporting candidates pledging to increase the education budget.
The PAC endorsed Duclos who has promised to do just that. The challenger said she wants to see Northampton change how it budgets, prioritizing its operating budget first while focusing on capital projects later.
During a debate leading up to election, Sciarra defended her record saying the school budget increased more than five percent each of her four years in office.
Voter Jeffrey Barron said outside the polling place he supported Sciarra and her approach to bolster city financial reserves instead of spending more.
“I think that towns like this have…expected to do way too much with way too little money, and the funds are going to get less and less from the state as the federal government gives us less,” Barron said. “So, I want to have people that I trust and, and I trust the current mayor.”
Another voter, Sean Donovan, said he voted for Duclos. He agreed the schools need more money, as do departments such as fire-rescue and the department of public works.
“I do think our current administration is kind of stuck in some austerity budgeting that maybe served us years ago, but is not really serving our schools,” he said.
Other voters said an issue they had on their minds was not a local one: They were concerned about the future of Democracy given certain challenges in other states and nationally.
Sylvia Rhodes said voting is important and that everyone should do it.
“Oh, my God, it's terrifying. What we're seeing at…federal levels in terms of voting and all of that, with…movements trying to take away votes from people and everything,” she said. “It's very concerning."
The unofficial turnout was just over 29 percent for the preliminary which also included city council races for an at-large seat as well as the Wards 1, 3 and 5 seats. For a list of those results click here.
Other Western Massachusetts election results
There were two preliminary races in Holyoke Tuesday night, one for a School Committee seat and another for a spot on the City Council.
According to the city clerk's office Jens Michaelsen and Aida Oquendo will advance to the November elections, vying for the Ward 5 School Committee seat. Michaelsen received 72 votes and Oquendo earned 54 votes. They beat out James Rossmeisl who received just 49 votes. Incumbent John Whelihan is not seeking re-election.
In the Ward 1 City Council race incumbent Jenny Rivera and challenger Victor Machado will move on with 49 and 62 votes respectively. They beat out Jose Candelario for a spot in the November election.
Businessman Rajesh Sanghvi received the most votes in the race for Chicopee collector, ccording to the clerk’s office. He will be joined on the November ballot by longtime School Committee member Sandra Ann Peret. Sangvhi earned 795 votes to Peret's 771. In third place was Fred Kramptis — a city councilor — with 552 votes.
About 2, 100 voters out of Chicopee's nearly 44,000 registered voters went to the polls on Tuesday. That's about a 5% turnout for this preliminary race. Current collector Stanley Iwanicki will retire this year.
The general election will be held Tuesday, November 4.
NEPM’s Nirvani Williams and Elizabeth Román contributed to this report.
