North Adams, Massachusetts voters have sent Jennifer Macksey and Lynette Bond to November’s general election for mayor. The two defeated Aprilyn Carsno and Rachel Branch in Tuesday’s preliminary election. Unofficial numbers show Macksey receiving around 800 votes and Bond receiving around 600 votes, while Carsno and Branch collected around 25 and 20, respectively.
Macksey, Assistant Superintendent of the North Berkshire School Union, has city hall experience from her days as the city’s treasurer.
"We're very excited about the results today. We're very grateful for our supporters," she said. "But this is the beginning of a lot of hard work ahead."
Bond is the Director of Development For Grants and Research at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams.
"I know I have a lot of work to do. We need to engage more voters to get more out for the election in November, but this has been a great night. It was a great day to see so many people and now the real work begins tomorrow," Bond said.
Around 16% of the city’s over 9,000 voters cast ballots in the runoff. The two will face off in the November 2 city election to become the first female mayor in North Adams history. Mayor Tom Bernard is not seeking a third two-year term.
Michael Sullivan and Joshua Garcia topped a seven-person field in Tuesday’s preliminary election for mayor of Holyoke. Sullivan, a three-term at-large City Councilor in Holyoke, received 28.1 percent of the vote. Garcia, who is Town Administrator in Blandford, had 22 percent according to unofficial results. In November, voters in Holyoke will elect the city’s first new mayor in a decade. Alex Morse resigned last March to become administrator of Provincetown.
