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Date: 8/30/2023
AGAWAM — Four nominees have qualified to run for mayor, triggering a preliminary election Oct. 10, according to Town Clerk Vincent Gioscia.
City Council and School Committee will also see contests in the Nov. 7 general election, but with a handful of incumbents stepping down or running for higher office, both races feature just one more candidate than there are seats available.
The preliminary election will narrow the mayoral field to two finalists, who will then appear on the Nov. 7 ballot along with the council and school races. The four preliminary election nominees are Cecilia Calabrese, William Clark, Christopher Johnson and Andy Montefusco. Calabrese and Johnson are current city councilors, with Johnson serving is council president. Johnson also served 10 years as mayor of Agawam in the 1990s. Clark has run for mayor and city councilor several times in the past decade.
Candidates for councilor will include incumbents George Bitzas, Thomas Hendrickson, Dino Mercadante, Robert Rossi, Anthony Russo, Rosemary Sandlin, Gerald Smith and Anthony Suffriti; as well as challengers Edward Borgatti, Susan Dawson, Peter Smus and Maria Valego. Sandlin had taken out nomination papers for a mayoral run, but ultimately decided to run for reelection to the council.
Even if all the incumbents are reelected, there will be at least three newcomers on the council because of councilors not running for reelection: Calabrese and Johnson, who are barred from running for two offices on the same ballot, and Paul Cavallo, who announced on Aug. 7 that he had chosen to end his decades of elected service.
“I spent 18 years in this town [government] and I enjoyed it immensely,” Cavallo said to his colleagues at a City Council meeting. “It’s a decision I have made with my family. My two boys, they’re older, they’re pretty sharp, and they sat down with their father and said, ‘You know, dad, you’ve had a good run.’ From 1963 to 2023 I’ve worked consistently, never had a break. My kids finally said, ‘Come on, dad, you’re going out a winner, why would you go for another term?’”
Cavallo said after a 38-year career in education, including his final role as principal of Agawam High School, he served four years on the School Committee and then seven terms on the City Council, interrupted by two years off after an unsuccessful run for mayor. After retiring from local schools, he also taught for 18 years at Springfield Technical Community College.
His fellow councilors gave him a standing ovation and told him he would be missed when his term ends in late December. Many of the councilors also recalled their memories of working with him at the high school — or having been his student.
“You were my assistant principal in high school, so I want to thank you for the times you didn’t give me detention that you should have,” Russo joked.
Suffriti, who said Cavallo was his guidance counselor when he was in high school, said “I learned a lot from you and I want to say thank you for teaching me some of the wisdom I’ve learned not only in the school system but also in local government.”
Mercadante said he, too, has learned from Cavallo, and told him to enjoy his retirement: “You are class. You’ve earned it.”
On the School Committee, incumbent Kerri O’Connor is not running for reelection, leaving a race among five incumbents — Shelley Borgatti-Reed, A.J. Christopher, Dawn DeMatteo, Michael Perry and Wendy Rua — and two challengers, Catherine McDougal and Christopher Pass. There are six seats available. The mayor serves ex officio as the chair and seventh member.
Polling hours will be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in both the preliminary and general elections, in the traditional precinct polling places throughout town. The town will not offer mailed or in-person early voting for this year’s municipal elections, Gioscia said. Those who qualify for an absentee ballot — because they cannot make it to the polls for a medical or religious reason, or will be out of town on election day — can request one up until five business days before the election.
The last day for new voters to register to vote is Sept. 29 for the preliminary election and Oct. 27 for the general election. For more information, call the clerk’s office at 413-786-0400, ext. 8215, or visit Town Hall at 36 Main St., Agawam.