Two months after one election, another is around the corner

Campaign in historic vote will be under way soon

By RICK COLLINS
The Patriot Ledger

Braintree politicians have had more than a year to stretch out for the upcoming mayoral and town council races. And with next year's budget set and town meeting over, residents could soon start to see a flood of campaign signs, mailings, phone calls and visits from the large number of candidates expected to run for office in the new government.

"This is going to be the most exciting election season in the history of Braintree," said Kelly Moore, president of the North Braintree Civic Association. "There are a lot of qualified candidates and people are talking about this election."

Braintree voters last spring chose overwhelmingly to replace town meeting and the selectmen with a mayor and town council.

Town Clerk Donna Fabiano recently finalized this year's election schedule.

Candidates for mayor will be able to take out nomination papers between June 18 and Aug. 3. All nomination papers must be returned by Aug. 7.

Candidates for the six district councilor seats and three at-large seats will be able to take out nomination papers starting Aug. 13.

Mayoral and at-large candidates must collect at least 150 signatures, including 25 from each of the six new voting districts, while district councilor hopefuls need signatures from 100 people within their district.

The preliminary election for mayor will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 25, with the top two vote-getters squaring off in the general election scheduled for Nov. 6.

There won't be a preliminary election for the town council seats; all candidates will have their names on the general election ballot.

Four men have already declared their intention to run for mayor, Brian Muello, Joseph Powers, Joseph Sullivan, and Paul Walsh.

Sullivan held his official campaign kick-off last week. Powers is holding a fundraiser next week and will formally declare his candidacy in a public event later this month.

Town council hopefuls, meanwhile, have largely kept their ambitions quiet. Some long-time town meeting observers did note the large number of new faces that took to the microphone last month.

There has also been significant palace intrigue over who will run for which council seat.

The new voting districts have forced some political allies to decide amongst themselves whether to run for the district seats or at-large seats, rather than square off against each other.

The high-profile election, combined with an underlying call for change, should also prompt a number of fresh faces to seek office.

"There are just a whole bunch of names out there," said Sonya Shaw, a long-time political activist in town.

The bottom line for Braintree voters is: expect to have a lot of campaign material to read.

In 1999, when Weymouth switched its form of government, there were 10 candidates for mayor and 47 candidates for the 11 council seats.

"You can imagine how many lawn signs there were out on lawns," said interim executive secretary Susan Kay, who was unsuccessful in her bid for mayor that year. "You knew there was an election, that's for sure."

It's unknown yet just how many candidates Braintree's first-ever mayoral and town council election will generate, but early guesses put the number anywhere as low as 18 and as high as 40.

Shaw thinks the cost of running - both in terms of money and time - will actually keep the number of candidates down.

"Its going to be an expensive run because people are going to have to do a lot of campaigning," she said. "While I don't think anybody's going to walk into the seats without a fight, I don't think we're going to see five or six candidates from each area."

Rick Collins may be reached at rcollins@ledger.com.