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Date: 2/8/2023
LONGMEADOW – Longmeadow voters cast their ballots on Feb. 7 to narrow the field of Select Board candidates from three to two.
Vineeth Shanker Hemavathi and Walter Gunn garnered enough votes – 609 and 198, respectively – to continue on to the Special Town Election. Sanjiv Reejhsinghani received 88 votes in the three-way contest. A total of 896 voters went to the polls, 7.1 percent of eligible voters.
The position the candidates are seeking was left vacant in July 2022, when former Select Board member Steven Marantz relocated out of town. At that time, the remaining four Select Board members chose to keep the seat open until the next town election in the spring. At the Select Board’s July 18, 2022, meeting, the members’ reasoning was three-fold: the board is rarely split even on a vote, requiring a tiebreaker, the legal minimum amount of time between calling an election and conducting it is 92 days, limiting the time a newly seated member would serve to less than a year, and not having a special election would save the town the cost of conducting an election, which involves thousands of dollars to print ballots, secure a police detail and hire poll workers.
In mid-November, however, a resident had submitted a petition with the legally required 200 verified signatures, forcing the board to set a date for a special election. With three candidates throwing their hats into the ring, a preliminary election was required to shrink the field to two.
The candidates spoke to Reminder Publishing in the weeks leading up to the preliminary election. Gunn touted his time on the Planning Board and with the Executive Committee of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. Reejhsinghani talked about providing legal aid to unrepresented people, as well as volunteering for state legislators.
Shanker Hemavathi spoke about his public service as a teacher, national security analyst and representing people who have experienced domestic violence and housing discrimination.
Both Reejhsinghani and Shaker Hemavathi noted the perspective they could bring to the board as people of color living in Longmeadow.
The Special Town Election will be on March 7.