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Date: 7/5/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — With just days left before nominations close, the November municipal ballot looks set to feature races for at-large town councilor, but not for district councilors or School Committee.
As of June 28, incumbent at-large councilors Brian Clune, Brian Griffin, Sean Powers and Jaime Smith had taken out nomination papers for reelection; Griffin had already returned his papers with enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Additionally, Frederick Connor and Elisa Olivo have returned papers for nomination. If Clune, Powers and Smith return their papers, there will be six candidates for the five available at-large seats on the council.
Additional candidates have until Friday, July 14, to take out nomination papers at the town clerk’s office in Town Hall, 28 Central St., West Springfield. Papers must be returned by Tuesday, July 18.
Candidates must collect signatures of registered voters on their election papers to be nominated for the ballot. At-large seats require at least 100 signatures, including 25 from each of the town’s four districts, each of which comprises two voting precincts. Nominations for district councilor require 50 signatures from that district.
For the district Town Council seats and the School Committee seats, as of June 28, exactly as many candidates have taken out papers as there are seats available.
Benjamin Armstrong is running for District 1 councilor. District 2 Councilor Michael LaFlamme, District 3 Councilor Anthony DiStefano and District 4 Councilor Daniel O’Brien are running for reelection.
On the School Committee, incumbents Diana Coyne and Colleen Marcus have already qualified for the ballot; incumbents Kathleen Alevras and Kira Thompson have taken out papers for reelection; midterm appointee Robert Mancini has taken out papers to retain his seat; and challenger Mustafa Thompson has taken out papers to join the board. If all of them are nominated and no additional candidates step forward, there will be six candidates for the six seats, all of which are elected at large. The mayor serves ex officio as the committee’s chair and seventh voting member.
Three current officeholders have not taken out reelection papers: current Town Council President Edward Sullivan, District 1 Councilor Michael Eger and School Committee member Nancy Farrell. Eger has announced publicly that he will not run for reelection.
All seats on this year’s ballot are two-year terms; the four-year mayoral term is not up for election this year.