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Former Opponents Back Mazzeo Against Tyer After Pittsfield Preliminary Election

Three people wearing sunglasses stand on steps before a stone colonnade
Josh Landes
/
WAMC
Karen Kalinowsky, Melissa Mazzeo, and Scott Graves

Following her preliminary election victory Tuesday, Pittsfield, Massachusetts mayoral candidate Melissa Mazzeo announced two endorsements on the steps of city hall Wednesday afternoon.

In unofficial city tallies, Mazzeo secured first place with 2860 votes to first-term Mayor Linda Tyer’s 2571 in the preliminary election. The top two vote-getters advance to November’s general election.

“As you can all imagine, I’m thrilled to be continuing our campaign’s journey, and last night’s results I believe tell a story of a city looking for something out of the corner office – accountability," said Mazzeo. "I stand here today with two others who felt very strong about that word, and what it would mean to have a mayor who each and every day cares deeply about how your tax dollars are being spent.”

The 10-year city council veteran was joined by retired cop Karen Kalinowsky and businessman Scott Graves, her former electoral rivals who were eliminated from the general election Tuesday.

“Having started this journey not knowing either one of them very well, I now know that Karen and Scott are genuine, hardworking people who above all love our city and want to see it reach its potential," said Mazzeo. "It’s because we share this belief so strongly that we agreed to support each other after the primary. So to that end, I am pleased to announce that Karen and Scott have endorsed my campaign and will be working with team Mazzeo going forward.”

Mazzeo said the agreement was formally made after a candidate mixer earlier in September, but that an alliance began to form from the very first candidates’ debate in August. Mazzeo says the two share her frustration with the city’s direction.

“Their frustration is what drove them to run," she told reporters. "This was a big deal to come out and run for mayor and put yourself out there as they both have done, and they’ve done an amazing job, and people walked away from that very first debate saying ‘he’s got great ideas, she’s got great ideas,’ and I said, absolutely. There’s so much that’s going on in the city that people are looking for, and it’s exactly what our platform is built on.”

“Well, I just believe that she has my beliefs," said Graves. “[I] want to take care of crime and help strengthen the city and make it grow moving forward and really focus on business and getting more businesses here and existing ones to expand.”

Even at the beginning, I knew that me and Melissa had some of the same things when it came to schools – the accountability of the administration," said Kalinowsky. “The city streets, as she knows from 10 years on the council, the problems that we’ve had. And with the crime in the area. So I believe that working together, hopefully, we can get those things taken care of in the city.”

Tyer spoke to WAMC minutes later inside city hall after Mazzeo’s press conference and pointed to her own support.

“What I’m the most proud of is that I’ve been endorsed by the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, which is a state organization that advances women in politics, so I’m proud to earn that endorsement through a competitive application and interview process," said the mayor. "I’m also happy that I have the endorsement of several members of the city council who share the same values of collaboration and problem solving that I bring to this work every day.”

The mayor pushed back against the charge that her administration hasn’t supported small businesses while courting large companies from out of the area like online retailer Wayfair.

“We have supported 23 small businesses that are here in the city of Pittsfield in the last four years. So yes, Wayfair is coming from outside of our region – and this is great news for people, for jobseekers, it’s great news for the city of Pittsfield – but we’ve also supported businesses like LTI Smart Glass and we helped open Green Apple Linens," said Tyer. "We’ve helped to support small retail shops on North Street.”

As for accountability, Tyer said her administration has been appropriately checked over the past four years.

“The way we have been held accountable is we do our annual state of the city, where we talk to the people of Pittsfield and tell them just what we’ve done in this last year and where we’re going next, and this is my way of bringing accountability right to the people of our city,” she told WAMC.

Less than a quarter of the city’s almost 28,000 total registered voters turned out for the preliminary. The general election will be held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on November 5th.

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
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