The number of women on the twenty-four member City Council will jump from nine to twelve (assuming Allison Sharma’s review of write-in votes falls short). As I discussed here, the possible outcomes ranged from eight to fifteen women. Jim Cote, Jay Ciccone, and Chris Markiewicz prevailed in contests where a woman could have won the seat (Julia Malaki, Nicole Castillo/Janet Sterman, and Allison Sharma). Deb Crossley/Andreae Downs and Brenda Noel beat two incumbent men (Brian Yates and Dick Blazar). And, Susan Albright (and Jake Auchincloss) held off Braden Houston.
It will be very interesting to see who gets leadership positions on the new Council.
It only took 80 for Newton to elect its first woman to the Board of Aldermen, and 143 years to achieve gender parity. Combined with the election of its first female Mayor, Ruthanne Fuller, this is definitely a milestone in Newton’s history.
While I’m disappointed in the outcome (for now!) of my race, I am absolutely THRILLED that so many other smart, thoughtful women prevailed last night. It was a terrific day for the city council overall!
@Ted: Agreed. Thus far, Mayor Setti Warren has publicly acknowledged victories in 1) Northampton’s mayoral race, 2) Framingham’s mayoral race, and 3) various Boston city council races. Any idea why he’s remained silent on Mayor-elect Ruthanne Fuller’s historic victory?
Hey, Sean, where’d my E go? ;-) That’s twice at least that it’s missing.
@Julia – That’s one of the things we like about you. Not too much Ego
Cheryl Lappin will likely be elected Board President by her colleagues. We have an all woman State legislative delegation and the two top Municipal positions Mayor and City Council President will likely be women.
@ Tom D, looks like Setti just issued a statement a few minutes ago.
Here is the statement from Setti Warren, the first African-American Mayor of Newton, congratulating Ruthanne Fuller on becoming the first woman to be elected Mayor of Newton.
A historic transition indeed.
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I am absolutely thrilled about this development! Women are half the country, so why shouldn’t they be half the elected representation. Go Newton!!
Not only will half of our city councilors be women, five of our ward delegations will have female majorities (i.e. two-thirds women): Wards 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6.
Wards 7 and 8 will be two-thirds men.
And at the moment Ward 4 appears like it will be all dudes.
@Peter Kathy: Rep. John Lawn also represents part of Newton.