Pittsfield Voters Will Narrow Candidate Field in 3 Races
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Voters will head to the polls Tuesday to narrow the field in three races: Ward 5, Ward 6 and mayor.
While the entire city will be deciding which two of the four candidates for mayor will be moving on to the general election in November, only Wards 5 and 6 will determine the top two candidates vying to representative their precincts. Neither ward has an incumbent running but both have former city councilors running.
On the mayoral front, incumbent Linda Tyer is being challenged by Rusty Anchor owner Scott Graves, retired Pittsfield Police Officer Karen Kalinowsky and Councilor at Large Melissa Mazzeo.
Tyer, the city's first mayor to serve a four-year term, is seeking another four years in the corner office. Mazzeo, who's finishing up her fifth two-year term as a councilor at large, is considered one of the favorites in the preliminary election.
However, Graves and Kalinowsky are hoping that their calls for new perspectives at City Hall will give them boost into the general election. Kalinowsky is calling for more accountability in both the city and school administration; Graves wants a more business-friendly administration, based on his own difficulties in dealing with permitting hurdles.
In Ward 5, Jonathan Lothrop is seeking to a return to the seat he held for a dozen years before standing down in 2015. Maselli and Kavey say they could bring a new and different perspective that would benefit the residents of a ward that stretches from the downtown south across Wild Acres and the airport to Richmond Pond.
In Ward 6, there are four candidates going into the preliminary but half will be eliminated by Tuesday night. They are Joseph Nichols, a former Ward 7 councilor and manager/chef of the Village Inn in Lenox; homelessness activist and construction worker Edward Carmel, retired businessman and outspoken critic of City Hall Craig Gaetani, and director of operations for the district attorney's office Dina Guiel Lampiasi.
Polling will occur from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 17; find your polling location here.
Tags: election 2019, mayor, Pittsfield city council , preliminary election,
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