Welcome to “It’s Election Season, Baby” a new feature on Caught in Southie! Why? Because, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, it’s election time.
To kick things off we’ll talk about what you have to look forward to over the next month.
By November, we will know who our new Mayor of Boston will be and who will sit on the Boston City Council. As of right now, candidates are still declaring whether or not they are going to run and they are picking up their nomination papers at City Hall. Candidates only have until May 11th to pick up the papers, collect signatures and return them back at City Hall by May 18!
Signature Breakdown
Mayoral candidates must get at least 3,000 signatures of registered voters, At-Large Councilors must get 1,500 signatures and a District Councilor must get 200 signatures.
So you have a role to play! If you aren’t registered to vote, you can do it right now online here. It’s super fast & easy and once you are registered you can sign those papers!
There are a few simple rules to signing papers and I want you to know them so you don’t panic if someone asks you to sign. And at this point, with so many potential candidates, you WILL be asked to sign over the next month usually in front of supermarkets, banks, Walgreen’s:
- You must be a registered voter to sign
- For District City Council candidates, you must live within that person’s district
- For your signature to count, you can only sign the papers for up to FOUR At-Large Candidates
- For your signature to count, you can only sign for ONE Mayoral Candidate
- For your signature to count, you can only sign for ONE District City Council Candidate
Now for the candidates themselves!
Mayor of Boston
As of right now these are the mayoral candidates:
City Council At-Large
These people are planning to run to be one of the City Councilors At-Large (they represent all of Boston, not just a district). There are 4, total At-Large, seats on the Boston City Council.
There are two incumbents: Southie’s own, Michael Flaherty and Julia Mejia.
Here are the new candidates:
Althea Garrison (no website yet)
Raymond Vasquez (no website yet)
I hope I got them all!
City District Councilor: Dorchester’s current District 3 City Councilor, Frank Baker is running for reelection.
So far his opponents are:
Romilda Pereira (no website yet)
City District Councilor: The District 4 City Council seat now held by City Councilor Andrea Campbell is up for grabs and there are a LOT of candidates:
Leonard M. Lee Sr. (no website yet)
Trina Ruffin (no website yet)
As of right now the Preliminary Election, to narrow the field of candidates down (similar to a Presidential Primary), is scheduled for September 21st and the “actual” election is scheduled for November 2nd.
Ok, Southie, make sure you are registered to vote and have your pens ready to sign those nominations! Election season is NOW!
Lower End homeowner since 2005. Mom of three BPS kids. Friend to all except those who don’t clean up after their dogs and/or who put their trash out in kitchen bags (seriously, people, it’s not that hard to use a barrel). Queen of the Nerds (okay that one is only in my dreams).
