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Date: 11/14/2023
NORTHAMPTON — The Nov. 7 Biennial Municipal Election saw voters elect familiar faces to at-large City Council and at-large School Committee seats.
In the at-large council race, current Ward 4 City Councilor Garrick Perry and incumbent candidate Marissa Elkins defeated challengers David Murphy and Roy Martin for two at-large seats.
According to unofficial results from the City Clerk’s office, Elkins received the most votes out of the four candidates with 3,664 out of a total of 5,408. Perry received 3,061 votes, Murphy accumulated 1,888 votes and Martin finished fourth with 439.
Elkins and Perry were both elected to their first term on council back in 2021. Perry is currently serving as the Ward 4 councilor but decided to run for an at-large position when current at-large councilor Jamila Gore decided to step down after her first term on council.
In the at-large School Committee race, Gwen Agna and Aline Davis defeated Margaret Robbins for two seats. Agna finished first with 3,976 votes, Davis secured 2,640, and Robbins followed with 1,857 votes.
Perry and Elkins
A native of the Washington D.C. metro area, Perry has lived in the downtown and South Street neighborhoods of Northampton for 20-plus years. He is currently a lead vocalist for the hip hop and reggae group, The Alchemystics and a manager of Bishop’s Lounge, an entertainment venue in downtown Northampton.
As someone who has worked in retail, restaurant and entertainment businesses throughout Northampton for the past 20-plus years, Perry’s campaign focused a lot on revitalizing the downtown area post COVID-19 and continuing work on key city events like Summer on Strong and Masonic Street Live.
In a statement to Reminder Publishing, Perry expressed his support for the Main Street redesign project and he expressed his desire to guide the city through that process.
“I am really excited to help guide our city along as we prepare to update our Main Street,” Perry said. “I am looking forward to helping welcome back brick and mortar music venues to our city and work to help rebuild our arts, culture and cuisine communities.”
Elkins, meanwhile, is a Texas native who currently serves as a managing partner at the Northampton firm of Elkins, Auer, Rudof & Schiff. According to her campaign website, she is president of the Hampshire County Bar Advocate Board of Directors, which oversees the panel of attorneys appointed to represent accused persons who can’t afford an attorney.
In an interview with Reminder Publishing before the election, Elkins also expressed her support for the Main Street redesign and talked about her desire to tackle the issue of zoning and how it relates to housing in the city.
“Fact of the matter is we just don’t have enough places for all the people who want to live here, and that’s not dependent on their income level,” Elkins said. “I think [zoning] is a key part of the effort to stabilize the housing market and the cost of rent and the cost of homes.”
Last term, Perry, Elkins and Gore created the Joint Commission to Study Racialized Harms Perpetrated Against Black Residents and Workers in Northampton, which will look at different initiatives that support redress and fair treatment for Black people who live, work and learn in Northampton and find ways to nourish Black community and culture in the city for future generations. The commission just started meeting recently and Perry and Elkins are both on the commission.
Agna and Davis
Agna has been an educator for over 45 years and most recently served as the principal for Jackson Street Elementary School.
She served as the Northampton Public Schools’ Early Childhood and Civil Rights Coordinator in the late 80s and 90s, where she worked to incorporate social justice, anti-bias and anti-racism in all aspects of classroom practice. She was elected to School Committee in 2021.
“I am very happy with the election results and grateful for Northampton voters’ continued support in my membership on the School Committee,” Agna said in a statement. “I look forward to working collaboratively with my colleagues, welcoming the new members. I also hope that we will have a community conversation with the City Council and all stakeholders about the future for our schools.”
Davis was also first elected to the School Committee in 2021 and currently serves as a second-grade teacher in Longmeadow. She has worked as a teacher locally for over two decades.
“I look forward to working with this new combination of School Committee members,” Davis said in a statement. “I will do all that I can to support our superintendent, and work together to craft a creative and thoughtful budget.”
Robbins, meanwhile, could not stand for re-election in her current Ward 1 seat because she was redistricted to Ward 4. Since Ward 4 already had an incumbent, she was forced to run for at-large.
In a statement to Reminder Publishing, Robbins said she will continue to work with the community and activists from neighboring districts on school funding, green schools and climate curriculum, while also supporting teachers and staff during annual budget discussions.
She quoted Tracy Novick, a five-term Worcester School Committee member and member of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees who also lost her seat on election night: “Thank you to all those who have supported me in so many ways...committee members have the unique position of answering to a constituency that cannot vote for them: the schoolchildren of the district. That is no less true than it was yesterday, and it will be no less true in January than it is today.”
Other results
In Ward 3, Quaverly Rothenberg secured 505 votes while write-in candidate Claudia Lefko received 169. This will be Rothenberg’s first time on Northampton’s council.
Incumbent candidates Stanley Moulton, Alex Jarrett, Rachel Maiore and Marianne LaBarge all kept their respective ward seats without contest. Deborah Pastriche-Klemer and Jeremy Dubs will serve for the first time in Wards 2 and 4 respectively.
Meanwhile, incumbent Ward 4 candidate Michael Stein retained his seat on the School Committee after defeating Endamian Stewart 356 to 264. Holly Ghazey, Karen Foster Cannon, Emily Serafy-Cox, Ann Hennessy, Margaret Miller and Kerry LaBounty all won their respective ward seats without a contest.
According to City Clerk Pamela Powers, 24% of the 22,444 registered voters in Northampton came to the polls on Nov. 7.