Two new people will be joining the 13-member City Council in Springfield, Massachusetts as a result of Tuesday’s elections.
Incumbent city councilors who ran for re-election in Springfield Tuesday all won – most by comfortable margins. There were two wards where voters filled open seats.
Justin Hurst was the top vote-getter among the five Councilors elected at-large with 6,033 votes.
“The voters of Springfield came out, they believe in the vision that I have for the city of Springfield and certainly that was reflected in the vote last night,” Hurst said. “I am appreciative to all of the residents of Springfield who came out and certainly to my colleagues in government who were elected last night, they deserve it and we are going to continue to fight on behalf of the people of Springfield.”
The other Councilors elected at-large in order of finish are Jesse Lederman, Kateri Walsh, Sean Curran and Tracye Whitfield.
Finishing in sixth place in the citywide vote was Juan Caraballo. He would be first in line to join the City Council if one of the at-large Councilors cannot complete their two-year term that begins in January 2022.
Hurst has topped the field in every citywide vote for Council since he first ran in 2013. His first place finish this year will further fuel speculation about a run for mayor in 2023 – a possibility Hurst did nothing to tamp down during an interview Wednesday with WAMC News.
Asked if he had given any thought to running for mayor in two years, Hurst said, “Stay tuned.”
In the election for the Ward 4 City Council seat, incumbent Malo Brown defeated Jynai McDonald -- the same opponent he faced when Brown won for the first time two years ago.
City Councilor Melvin Edwards, who has represented Ward 3 since Springfield made the switch to ward representation in 2009, defeated Leslie Braxton-Campbell by about 100 votes in an election that saw about 650 votes cast.
City Councilor Victor Davila was re-elected to a second term from Ward 6 defeating Bob Collamore by a better than two-one margin.
Ward Councilors Tim Allen, Mike Fenton, and Marcus Williams all ran for re-election unopposed.
Maria Perez, a longtime member of the Springfield School Committee, will join the City Council as the representative from Ward 1. She ran unopposed for the open seat.
The other new Councilor will be Zaida Govan. She beat Lisa Thompson in the election for the Ward 8 Council seat. The incumbent Orlando Ramos, who is also a state legislator, did not run.
Govan said she is pleased with the win, but “disheartened” that her election was decided by just 1,300 voters.
“People say that it is the candidates’ responsibility to get the voters to come out, I disagree with that,” Govan said. “I think it is all of our responsibility because we live in a democracy and our right to vote is how we make our decisions about how we live our lives and if we only allow 3 percent of the population to make the decision for the entire community that is an issue.”
There was no official citywide voter turnout reported by the city’s Election Office.
