Precinct Changes Part Of Fatigue Altering Town-Election Terrain

Arlington MA

19 February, 2022

4:00 PM

Description

Your Arlington Last Updated: 19 February 2022 Written by Juli Brazile, Bob Sprague, Peter Fuller Precinct changes and Covid exhaustion likely are making significant impacts on the 2022 town election. The biggest effect may be on Town Meeting. With the deadline past for filing nomination papers, it is clear who's running. Main town offices feature no opposed candidates, except for town moderator. Longtime incumbent John Leone faces a challenge from Greg Christiana. For Select Board (Steven DeCourcey) and School Committee (Kirsi Allison-Ampe and Len Kardon), incumbents rule. For the Board of Assessors, no one opposes William Zagata and Gordon Jamieson. Town Meeting has its own variation on this theme – lack of opposing candidates, or too few to fill available seats. Impacts on election? Asked about the April 2 election numbers, Town Clerk Juli Brazile wrote Wednesday, Feb. 16: "Every 10 years the Town Meeting races can be impacted by new precinct lines, and we expect communities will experience a little extra chaos. "The 2022 town election is serving up more than the usual chaos for candidates and voters, largely due to the delays caused by reprecincting and the uncertainly about whether Town Meeting will be in-person or remote. Voters are urged to visit the Elections & Voting web page regularly for the latest news on candidates, ballots, and voting." Here is a closer look at the numbers of Town Meeting members so far: Townwide, out of 252 total Town Meeting seats, 178 are to be filled: Eleven precincts were redrawn, so each needs to elect all 12 of its meeting members, or 132. The remaining 10 precincts weren't redrawn, so each needs to elect only four members for three-year terms plus fill any vacant seats. That comes to 16 members. In six precincts, each need to elect five members. That's four, as described above, plus another to fill a vacancy. That adds 30. Of 178, 52 not running Of the 178 people who filled those seats in last year's annual Town Meeting, 126 are running. That means 52 re not running. Before this election season, some resigned, some may have moved out of town or passed away, creating at least nine vacant seats. Twelve are known resignations plus the Precinct 8 seat in which the late Brian Rehrig had served. That amounts to 39 people who chose not to run, and one of the 12 is running in a new precinct after a move within Arlington. Presumably, most of those not running just decided they'd had enough. A few may have forgotten or overlooked the filing deadline and will attempt to get reelected with write-in votes. For the 178 seats available, just 44 new candidates have chosen to run. This year, it appears no organization has been actively recruiting candidates publicly, as Arlington Fights Racism did the last two years. Its website says it "encourages candidates to run for Town Meeting," but outreach on social media has been muted. See this link to Town Meeting candidares >> Unusually low? Hard to say whether or not the numbers of candidates, both incumbent and new, are unusually low without analyzing past elections. It's possible, though hard to know definitively, that exasperation with the virtual Town Meetings has demotivated incumbents and potential new candidates. In summary: Four precincts have contested elections. Eleven precincts have the same number of candidates and seats. Six precincts regarded as having too few candidates. As April 2 nears, and Covid's grip loosens, watch for write-in campaigns. 2022 election information from town website YourArlington.com has provided news and opinion about Arlington, Mass., since 2006. Publisher Bob Sprague is a former editor at The Boston Globe, Boston Herald and Arlington Advocate. Read more at https://www.yourarlington.com/about.