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Date: 11/14/2023
SPRINGFIELD — Domenic Sarno, the city of Springfield’s longest serving mayor, is not done yet. The mayor earned another four-year term on Election Day on Nov. 11, besting City Councilor Justin Hurst.
Sarno received 57.1% of the vote compared to Hurst’s 42.3%, making this the closest challenge to Sarno’s administration ever. It was the mayor’s smallest share of a mayoral election vote since 2007 when he defeated then-Mayor Charlie Ryan with 52.54% and lowest in a reelection bid since he topped former City Councilor and current state Rep. Bud Williams in 2009 with 69.4%.
Sarno was first elected on Nov. 6, 2007, defeating Ryan. He won reelection in 2009 against Williams; 2011 against then-City Council President and now retired state Rep. Jose Tosado; 2015 against Salvatore Circosta; 2019 against activist Yolanda Cancel; and now, 2023. In January 2024, Sarno will begin serving his sixth term.
Sarno thanks loyal supporters for victory
After the polls closed on election night, Sarno’s supporters gathered at his Sixteen Acres campaign headquarters and waited as results trickled in.
In anticipation of the mayor’s arrival, Chief of Staff Tom Ashe went before the crowd and shared that Sarno was on his way, thanking everyone for their hard work and sacrifice. “We won big,” he said. “Enjoy this night.”
Applause and cheering echoed throughout the space, followed by people chanting, “Sarno, Sarno, Sarno, Sarno.”
As Sarno entered his watch party, he was met with handshakes and hugs.
Joined by his family, he made his way through the crowd talking with and embracing everyone he encountered.
Once he made his way to the podium, Sarno took the opportunity to thank several individuals.
“The great Sarno volunteers — grassroots,” he said.
Sarno shared that there have been standouts all throughout the city and the volunteers have been out there, no matter the weather.
“I’m forever grateful to you for what you’ve been able to do for myself and what we’re [going to] be able to continue to do for the city of Springfield,” he added.
Sarno thanked his wife, Carla, and his daughters, Cassandra and Chiara, for all their support and standing by him through many trials and tribulations.
“I want to thank the voters of Springfield for their continued voter confidence in my abilities. I thank them very, very much,” he said.
He went on to thank some of his “great” volunteers including Rose McCaffrey and Danny McQuade, along with his internal staff such as Communications Director Bill Baker, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Judi Crowell, Constituent Services Director and Deputy Director of Communications Molly Shea, Mayoral Aide Shenell Ford and Ashe.
Sarno also recognized several of the city cabinet and department heads in attendance, City Councilor Michael Fenton and Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi.
During the next four years, Sarno said he will continue to build new schools and keep moving finances forward.
“We’re going to continue to move our school system forward under the great leadership of Superintendent Dan Warwick,” he said.
Throughout his tenure and during his campaign, Sarno has repeatedly said that his No. 1 priority is public safety. He thanked the public safety leaders in attendance including Police Superintendent Cheryl Clapprood.
For the Hampden County Courthouse employees, Sarno assured them that he will continue to fight for it to stay in Springfield, specifically in the North End riverfront area.
Additional areas that Sarno would like to focus on include the parks, creating jobs and continued neighborhood investments.
“We have another four years and we’re going to continue to move the city forward on all fronts and we’re going to be diplomatically aggressive in doing that,” Sarno said.
He continued, “We’ve come a long way and there’s more to be done, but this is a solid, sweet victory and I’m looking forward to continuing working with each and every one of you.”
Hurst: ‘Let the mayor know ... we’re going to see him in 4’
With an upbeat — almost celebratory — yet defiant tone, Justin Hurst made two messages abundantly clear on election night.
To his supporters, you won’t be forgotten.
To his political opponents, we’re coming for you.
Despite falling well short in his bid to unseat Sarno, Hurst asserted that in staging the closest challenge to the mayor’s administration, his campaign illustrated a swell of distrust in the current leadership and thirst for change. With that in mind, “let the mayor know right now that we’re going to see him in four,” he declared.
“It’s not just the mayor, it’s the entire establishment,” he told supporters at his election night gathering at Cedars Banquet Hall on Island Pond Road. “I promise you all we are going to fight until we break the systems down.”
As results started to trickle in earlier in the evening, Hurst started out with a slim lead that quickly dissipated and by the time he entered the party around 9 p.m., he trailed by roughly 5% with more than 50% of precincts reporting. Shortly after, he took to the stage and acknowledged he “fell a little short.”
He, however, characterized Sarno’s administration and supporters as fearful of losing power and influence as they awaited the final outcome.
“They may have won today; they all are over there worried about tomorrow,” he said. “When you look at those numbers, and we know the numbers, they were scared to death. They felt the power slipping through their fingertips and they did everything to try to stop us.”
Hurst also took time to thank his wife Denise and sons Justin and Jackson for their sacrifice throughout the campaign, noting, “they’re going to sacrifice a lot the next four years.”
Hurst, a five-term at-large city councilor, earned the opportunity to face off with Sarno in the city election after finishing a strong second in the September preliminary election, easily outpacing Ninth Hampden District state Rep. Orlando Ramos, City Council President Jesse Lederman and resident David Ciampi.
Hurst ran an aggressive campaign, taking aim at the Sarno’s record on topics ranging from the mayor’s unfulfilled campaign promise made during his successful run against Ryan to end the trash collection fee, to crime prevention in the midst of a historic number of homicides in the city, to Sarno’s distribution of the city’s allocation of American Recovery Plan Act funding, to rising water and sewer rates coupled with water quality concerns.
In the week leading up to the Nov. 7 election, Hurst and his campaign faced scrutiny following a media report that alleged at least one member of Hurst’s team was paying individuals $10 in exchange for votes for Hurst. Signed affidavits from City Clerk Gladys Oyola-Lopez, Clerk’s Office Elections Specialist Chelsea Parmentier, several election workers and a Springfield police officer obtained by Reminder Publishing detailed unusual activity during an early voting period in late October. That alleged activity included multiple queries from voters transported to the early voting location at City Hall as to where they would collect $10 or receive food in exchange for voting. City Solicitor John Payne sent a letter to the Hampden District Attorney’s Office requesting an investigation. Oyola-Lopez in her affidavit indicated a member of the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office told her they would contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Hurst hosted a press conference on Nov. 1, denying the allegations that his campaign paid for votes and in turn accused the Sarno administration and staff of a coordinated effort to manufacture a scandal. When asked if he had been contacted by investigators, he said, “They can investigate all they want. There will never be anything there.” In the days leading up to the election, Hurst and supporters regularly donned shirts that read. “They think we can be bought for $10 and a fish sandwich.”
Addressing supporters on election night, Hurst did not specifically cite the report, but said, “They thought they could dirty us up a little bit and we weren’t going to fight,” before crediting supporters with resiliency and urging them to remain vigilant.
“In the same way that they’ve come for some of you already, they’re still coming and they’re going to come,” Hurst said. “You all had the courage to stand up. You all had the courage to demand change. Many of you are going to face significant scrutiny.”
When asked by Reminder Publishing if he felt the media report and resultant attention on his campaign had an impact on the results, he said, “I believe it helped. I believed it helped get the vote out, I believe it helped inspire folks. I don’t think it had a negative impact, I think it had a positive impact. People who know me know what it is and they know that we ran a clean campaign and we’re trying to break down the establishment and that establishment is not easy to penetrate.”
Hurst reiterated his desire to run again in the 2027 mayoral election — “I’m coming for him,” he said of Sarno — noting this year’s defeat was not his first in politics.
“If you’re going to run for public office, you have to be resilient. The reality is when you’re trying to bring down the power structures that are in place here in the city of Springfield, resilience is what you need to be successful,” he said, later adding, “We know they have a stranglehold not just on Springfield but on the entire region here. You have to have the stick-to-itiveness in order to break through. When I ran for City Council, I didn’t get in my first time. It’s not uncommon for me to dust my shoulders off, get back up and run again.”
Asked what his major takeaways from this campaign were, he said, “I learned that people are struggling and they want a leader that’s going to advocate on behalf of them. They want someone who’s going to represent all of Springfield and when you look at the numbers, they represent that, they reflect that. We didn’t win, but it’s all about what your definition of winning is. I would argue that we won.”
Now heading into the final weeks of his City Council term, Hurst pledged that he and his team would continue to be active in and supportive of the community.
“We’re going to continue to be present. We’ve created a movement here in the city if Springfield. If you look at the crowd here, there are a lot of people invested in the movement and they want to see change, too,” he said. “They’re ready and willing to work and they’re going to continue to work on behalf of the residents of Springfield and I’m going to continue to fight for them and lead them at all costs.”