Brockton mayoral candidates spend Sunday plotting strategy

BROCKTON— Mayoral candidate Jass Stewart was up at 6 a.m. Sunday, two days before the city’s preliminary election. Stewart spent the day having coffee with voters at an Ash Street home and attending the Jean Sullivan Memorial Breakfast and a motorcycle fundraiser for a local animal shelter.

He wasn’t alone, as fellow candidates Gayle Kelley and James Harrington began their final push Sunday for Tuesday’s vote.

``I’m campaigning to win. There’s no other way to think about it,'' said Stewart, 36, in his second bid for mayor, from his campaign headquarters Sunday afternoon.

With the vote a day away, Stewart, Kelley and the incumbent Harrington spent much of their time Sunday at campaign headquarters, plotting their final moves in what has become a heated campaign.

Polls will be open on Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters will select two of the three mayoral candidates who will move on to the Nov. 6 election.

On Sunday, the candidates planned the final logistics with their various camps for Tuesday — who will hold signs, who will make calls to voters, and, for Harrington volunteers, who will check people at the polls.

Kelley, who attended the wedding of her fiance’s son, Shane Kelly, at the Shaw’s Center earlier in the day, arrived at her campaign headquarters at 5 p.m. wearing a red blazer and a black top and black pants — the official colors of Brockton High School, where she taught for one year.

``If the people come out to vote, I think I have a very good chance,'' Kelley, 58, in her first bid for political office, said from her campaign headquarters on Main Street.

Harrington, who is running for his second term as mayor, met with volunteers at his campaign headquarters on Belmont Street late Sunday afternoon. He said his campaign has made 8,000 to 9,000 phone calls identifying ``people who will vote for us.''

``We’re cautiously optimistic,'' said Harrington, 59, when asked if he thinks he will win on Tuesday. ``What we’ve concentrated on is putting the field organization together.''

Harrington said he made various phone calls and attended the Sullivan breakfast Sunday morning before making a run to BJ’s Wholesale Club in Randolph to pick up food and other items.

Elections Commissioner John McGarry predicts between 10 and 12 percent of the 42,175 registered voters will come out on Tuesday. There are more than 94,000 city residents.

On Sunday, the candidates were joined by their supporters at their respective headquarters.

Several city employees attended a meeting of ward volunteers for Harrington’s campaign, including Brockton Housing Authority Executive Director Richard Sergi, Thomas Plouffe of the city’s Law Department, Brockton Housing Authority Director of Resident Services and Staff Development Allyne Pecevich, and Frances Pina, a substitute teacher in city schools.

``He has done, from my assessment, a better job of (promoting) diversity than previous mayors. That’s an interest of mine,'' said Pina, 56.

Pina, one of Harrington’s campaign coordinators for Ward 4, moderated Thursday’s mayoral debate sponsored by the NAACP at Messiah Baptist Church.

Charlie Vella, a father of three, was among more than 45 volunteers who met at Stewart’s campaign headquarters. Vella predicted a Stewart lead over Harrington in the preliminary.

``Jass is the kind of guy, he wants to clean up the city. You can count on him just pushing that broom right beside you,'' said Vella, 40.

At Kelley’s campaign headquarters, volunteer John Cashin, a foreman in the city’s Water Department, said Kelley ``can get things done in the city'' and will surprise people on Tuesday.

``It will be interesting,'' Cashin, 52, a father of four, said of the preliminary’s outcome.

Maria Papadopoulos can be reached at mpapadopoulos@enterprisenews.com.