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Date: 11/10/2021
SPRINGFIELD – The Nov. 2 election reinforced the position of incumbents across the city, as only two new candidates are set to join Springfield’s legislation.
For City Council, the lone newcomer is Zaida Govan, who defeated Lisa Thompson for the Ward 8 seat with 53 percent of the vote. Govan assumes the position from Orlando Ramos, who decided not to run for re-election after winning his state representative bid last year. In an interview with Reminder Publishing, Govan reflected upon what drew her to run for city council. “I was concerned that someone was going to take over [Orlando Ramos’] seat that didn’t really have our communities’ best interest,” said Govan.
With support from Ramos and others, Govan said she began her door-to-door campaign back in February. As Ward 8 Councilor, Govan aspires to address speeding concerns and economic relief for seniors and veterans while also improving the quality of life across Springfield. “I want to make sure we have a good quality of life in Springfield, where people want to live, buy homes here and stay here,” said Govan.
The other significant City Council change came from Maria Perez’s unopposed victory for the Ward 1 City Council seat. Perez previously served as a School Committee member for four years before running for the council. Perez will be assuming the role from Gumersindo Gomez, who became councilor after his son Adam Gomez won the state senator seat in 2020.
In the School Committee race, newcomer Joesiah Gonzalez won his unopposed bid for the District 1 seat, which oversees Wards 1 and 3. In an interview with Reminder Publishing, Gonzalez shared his outlook as a new member. “We were extremely excited to have a strong number of voters show up. I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure great education for the students of Springfield. They are the future of this city,” said Gonzalez. The newly inducted committee member expressed his intentions to work with colleagues to continue infrastructure improvements across the district.
Alongside the victorious newcomers, a majority of Springfield legislation remains intact. For the At Large positions, incumbents Sean Curran, Justin Hurst, Jesse Lederman, Kateri Walsh and Tracye Whitfield held their positions over challengers Juan Caraballo, Juan Latorre, Michael Lee, James Ryan and Debra Fletcher. The incumbent candidates secured their positions by a comfortable margin, with each garnering at least 1,000 more votes than the challengers.
For the City Council Ward positions, Michael Fenton of Ward 2, Marcus Williams of Ward 5 and Timothy Allen of Ward 7 triumphed in their unopposed re-election bids. Incumbents Melvin Edwards of Ward 3, Malo Brown of Ward 4 and Victor Davila of Ward 6 faced challengers in their re-election efforts before re-securing their positions. Edwards defeated Lezlie Braxton Campbell with 60 percent of the vote, Brown outgained Jynai McDonald with 54 percent of the vote and Davila bested Bob Collamore with 70 percent of the vote.
In terms of School Committee races, Gonzalez, District 2 member Barbara Gresham and District 3 member Christopher Collins won in their unopposed bids for district seats. District 4 featured the closest race on the ballot, with incumbent Peter Murphy edging out challenger Ayanna Crawford with 51 percent of the vote. The School Committee At-Large seats were secured by incumbents Denise Hurst and Latonia Naylor, who defeated challenger Cary Curley with 39 and 36 percent of the vote respectively.
Readers can see the full Springfield voting results at https://www.springfield-ma.gov/elections/votecounts.php.