As of 8:25, nothing in yet
The election results are …
by Jerry Reilly | Mar 16, 2021 | Newton | 31 comments
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Early results with 4 precincts reporting and about 2000 votes in, Oliver and Lucas are winning!!
.. with very healthy margins.
8:42 – 10 out of 32 wards reporting
Lucas – 2510
Barash – 1822
Oliver – 2530
Ranalli – 1905
8:45 – More results, bigger margins for Lucas, Oliver
Doesn’t look like Ranalli can make up the deficit at this point.
Where are you getting these numbers?
Gail, I think John Oliver has this won pretty clearly. Congrats to John as well. I’m sure anyone who has volunteered as much as he has for the community will do a fine job.
Performative progressives who don’t actually want more Black and brown people to live in Newton are so gross. I’m disgusted and disappointed by these results.
Well done, Newton! Better days ahead :)
A little harsh Claudia..How do you precisely know what they want or what they don’t want? This whole racial grenade lobbing is getting old.
Life is good.
Claudia, that’s a weird thing to say considering we finally elected a black councilor. I voted for Bryan and Maddy based off my own visions of what I’d like from Newton, but a lot of the racism arguments just don’t land when it’s a white candidate trying to speak for BIPOC while running against a black man.
greg?
sean?
chuck?
doug?
anything to say?
Congrats to Tarik Lucas and John Oliver on their wins yesterday, as well as to Bryan Barash, Madeline Ranalli, and David Micley for being willing to do something most of us have not- run for office and be willing to put themselves out there for scrutiny (and who I hope will continue to seek public service), and of course to all of us in the city of Newton.
I suspect (and hope) the tenser aspects of these races will fade away quickly as we focus on what the Council is doing rather than who may or may not be joining.
@Joe Rizza – Greg’s pretty much checked out of Village14 these days but he did have this to say this morning in the Chamber of Commerce newsletter ….
Oliver, Lucas win seats on Newton City Council
Congratulations to John Oliver (Ward 1) and Tarik Lucas (Ward 2) who were elected to the Newton City Council yesterday in a special election to fill two open at-large seats, according to unofficial results.
About 23 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the special election.
There are a lot of critical issues facing Newton’s businesses and nonprofits right now. The chamber looks forward to collaborating with the councilors-elect as we look to rebuild our economy and bring employers and workers back to Newton.
Oliver and Lucas will occupy the seats until November when they, and the other 22 council jobs, plus mayor and school committee will be up for reelection.
Yay, we get to do this again (but bigger!) in a mere 8 months!
The turnout and margin is a stunning defeat for all the city councilors that aligned themselves with Barash and Ranalli.
I hope this election outcome emboldens people to challenge them, the school committee, and the mayor for November.
Rather than thinking it as a stunning defeat, I think it is more productive to think of it as a necessary and potentially helpful temperature check as to where the residents of Newton are on some very important issues we face.
The impressive turnout (by special election standards) and the margins should give those elected official who have been impatient to achieve their goals to course correct and make sure that they are truly listening to and representing the goals and values of the citizenry. If the majority of us aren’t where they are, then they need to listen vs trying to convince us or shame us to adopt their goals. What is the saying? “All politics is local?” A good lesson to remember.
That isn’t to say that Councilors with more “global” and/or “liberal’ values can’t leverage their leadership positions to influence constituents. But that is a process and may or may not be successful. But they will ignore the wishes and interests of their constituents are in the present, at their own peril.
I think they are smart and will get the message. And that makes me very hopeful
“impressive turnout” ?? Really? 23%. Three out of four registered voters found something else to do. You would think after reading this blog , with all its hand wringing, cries of racism, the insults right and left , the impassioned entreaties for this or that candidate – you would think that more Newtonians would naturally have been more engaged. But no. Just another example of how this blog runs too hot, with the same voices coming from the same entrenched positions, responding to some perceived slight with a sense of outrage that doesn’t match the moment. Its a little embarrassing.
Bruce Wang, I agree with Claire. Not sure if you can call it a stunning defeat for existing council members. It’s a special election after all. They are, by definition, weird.
But Claire’s point is well taken. The turnout tells us a lot. Heard from a lot of folks today about how they voted based on the schools especially. A lot of anger there, especially against the teachers union. I’m not sure I understand that rationale, but if the mayor is smart, she will figure out that she needs to make sure the schools are back open as soon as possible, and certainly in full by September.
As for the rest, I think zoning also resonated with people. Considering that we approved Northland a year ago, I don’t think it is as simple as “folks don’t want big projects”. More likely it is “zoning change isn’t for me if it impacts me, or at least not as radically as I’ve heard it discussed”. Some of that was fear based, but I’d be surprised if there isn’t a bit of a pull back on some of the zoning changes, and we do after all have an election in 11 months.
I’ll also note that Tarik is a really nice guy. And I’ve heard good things about John too. It was easy to vote for them. And so much of the discussion was about Bryan’s positions and Maddie’s experience, it left a lot of room for Tarik and John to run on their own terms. Don’t discount the candidates.
All of these are just my personal opinions, and I’m not trying to stir the pot at all. Just been thinking about these items this morning.
I will say, negative campaigning worked as well. It defined the debate. Some of that was on Bryan and Maddie, some of that was on all of us. And it is a brave new world in terms of sitting city councilors getting directly involved. I don’t look forward to future elections in Newton.
But after any election is over, I’m hopeful for a bit (and glad it is over). Let’s see what Tarik and John bring to the council.
I’m also hopeful Village14 will now return to being a community forum where we spend as much time talking about community happenings as we do about election nonsense. I miss that.
Of course, when Matt’s Village14a site comes online, we can offload all the election stuff there, and keep this site as a place where Jerry just posts things I need to know about Newton and Newton residents. I’d be good with that too. ;-)
Cheers to all.
@Peter, as part of an active NPS parents who tried to encourage turnout without making any endorsements, we’re pleased with the 14,000+ vote count. When you consider it was a winter weekday, that school kids were all-remote (therefore requiring all-day childcare) due to Election Day, only 2/24th’s of the Council was on the ballot, and the actual stated policy differences between the candidates were really not all that large if you take a step back…23% is not bad at all. We’ve heard from a lot of parents they made it a point to vote, and hope all City officials take notice at the numbers.
Peter, you should check out Gail’s post about the last few elections. It was a stunning turnout for a special election. Much higher than normal, close to a regular election with the mayor running.
Also, of course public forum’s attract the most passionate folks. That’s what they do. Most folks don’t pay attention. That’s why special elections are hard to predict.
As for embarrassing, you are right, I’m ashamed. Jerry and I were supposed to be practicing our secret handshake as part of the political elite, but we’ve been stymied because he doesn’t know what I look like. Besides that, I’m also embarrassed by my recent weight gain, my lack of covid productivity, my yard, my kids adopting my sense of humor and proclivity for bathroom jokes, my ability to eat 20 cheese sticks in a sitting, by what happens when I eat said 20 cheese sticks in a sitting, and by the fact that I didn’t name my dog Walter, since he clearly farts a lot. I’ll work on all of this before the next election.
@ Fig “More likely it is “zoning change isn’t for me if it impacts me, or at least not as radically as I’ve heard it discussed”. Some of that was fear based, but I’d be surprised if there isn’t a bit of a pull back on some of the zoning changes, and we do after all have an election in 11 months.”
To be clear, you really aren’t agreeing with me (which is okay) just want to be clear.
When I read your comment it is still tinged with suggestions of NIMBGism and that people just didn’t understand it. Many understood and rejected, not just next door, but because while they may have agreed with the goal (lets say more affordable housing) they disagreed with that the approach would achieve that goals across Newton. If that message isn’t internalized, then the wrong lesson will be taken away. IMHO
Sorry Claire, wasn’t trying to put words in your mouth. I did agree with your comment when I saw it, but I appreciate the clarification.
I guess my view is because Northland was approved by such large margins, I was trying to square those two elections. Entirely possible that many folks viewed it as you say.
On a bigger election we’d have polling to tell us. You and I are just spitballing here. But clearly zoning reform was part of the discussion and a major part at that, so hard not to draw some conclusions from that. You and I can argue the nuance but i think we agree on the importance of the issue to supporters of Tarik and John.
Thinking about Fig’s comment: “And it is a brave new world in terms of sitting city councilors getting directly involved. I don’t look forward to future elections in Newton.”
In a November election all 24 councilor seats are on the ballot. Conventional wisdom for candidates, mostly followed, is to keep your head down and run your own campaign, making no public endorsements in other races. This way you reap voters who might favor both candidates in a neighboring race. But in this special election the 22 sitting councilors are not running, the negative (future electoral) consequences of endorsing are not obvious, and there are two divisive topics. It seems natural that sitting councilors would take sides.
Will future November elections revert back to something more conventional? We’ll see!
Steve, that’s a good point.
@brucewang can u post which council members were aligned with Barash and Ranalli ? I wanna screen shot for my records.. My memory is not very good. Thank you.
@Ken Laird
Susan Albright, Ward 2, City Council President
Rick Lipof, Ward 8, City Council Vice-President
Maria Scibelli Greenberg, Ward 1 City Councilor
Alison Leary, Ward 1 At-Large City Councilor
Andrea Kelley, Ward 3 At-Large City Councilor
Josh Krintzman, Ward 4 At-Large City Councilor
Andreae Downs, Ward 5 At-Large City Councilor
Bill Humphrey, Ward 5 City Councilor
Deb Crossley, Ward 5 At-Large City Councilor
Brenda Noel, Ward 6 City Councilor
Alicia Bowman, Ward 6 At-Large City Councilor
Vicki Danberg, Ward 6 At-Large City Councilor
Becky Walker Grossman, Ward 7 At-Large City Councilor
Holly Ryan, Ward 8 City Councilor
Ruth Goldman, Ward 6, School Committee Chair
Tamika Olszewski, Ward 4 School Committee Member
Emily Prenner, Ward 5 School Committee Member
Kathy Shields, Ward 7 School Committee Member
Matthew Miller, Ward 8 School Committee Member
Bruce Wang,
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but that list is almost all councilors. This would signal to me that we have a lack of “diversity of thought” and residents should consider if they want to continue to vote for such an imbalance.
The ratio of support doe not reflect the actual voting margin from residents. Something’s not right
Thank you @Bruce W. I took a screen shot before the mods canceled your post.
This coming November is going to be very interesting. I wouldn’t be shocked if we see some right wingers challenge the incumbents. Mayor being the most interesting race to me with the school closure situation being a hot topic. I would like to see Tarik run for mayor.
Just heard NTA president Zilles went unchallenged and will assume his sixth term as President. No term limits? I wonder why no other NPS staff were interested in the position. We need the schools open 100% tomorrow.
I can’t imagine a right winger being even remotely successful. Most of the right wing candidates we have are jokes (Al C) and the last one that wasn’t a joke (James Cote) was voted out a few years ago. It doesn’t seem like it would be worthwhile for anyone further to the right than a centrist.