Politics & Government

Election Scorecard: Field Set, With A Dearth of Candidates

Only two potential challengers have emerged for 14 elected city positions up for grabs this November.

The deadline to take out nomination papers for this fall's biennial city election passed last Friday, and Melrose residents won't see a very long ballot when they get to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

According to Melrose Election Administrator Linda-Lee Angiolillo, all candidates who pulled papers for the election have returned their signature lists and are certified as of yesterday.

There's only one contested aldermen's race this year—in Ward 7, challenger Francis Murphy is taking on incumbent William Forbes.

Find out what's happening in Melrosewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

On the School Committee, which has three seats available in this election, challenger Margaret Driscoll (committee chairwoman), Kristin Thorp and Don Constantine.

Ironically, while only two challengers emerged for 14 elected city positions up for grabs this November, in February this year, for the alderman at-large seat vacated by now Rep. Paul Brodeur, D-Melrose.

Find out what's happening in Melrosewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In the last city election in 2009, the big race was for School Committee, when six candidates jockeyed for the three available seats on the committee and two incumbents were ousted. One of those ousted incumbents, after one of the newcomers, .

In 2009, there was similarly only one contested ward alderman race—in Ward 4, where incumbent Bob Boisselle eked out a victory over challenger Philip Imbrescia.

Also, two years ago, five candidates sought one of the four alderman at-large seats up for grabs, but incumbents Don Conn, Paul Brodeur (now state representative), Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis and Ron Seaboyer were easily re-elected, with challenger Roderick Mangalonso getting no closer than almost 800 votes to the incumbents.

As he has since 2005 and will do so again this year, .

Do you have a question you'd like to ask the candidates? Leave it in the comments section below or email danield@patch.com, and stay tuned to Melrose Patch as we cover the election starting in October.

Below is the most up-to-date information on who's running in Melrose's 2011 election. All names in each ward are listed alphabetically, and incumbents are marked with an asterisk. Please contact Melrose Election Administrator Linda-Lee Angiolillo at 781-979-4125 with any questions.

Mayor

Name Robert J. Dolan*                                             

Board of Aldermen

Ward Name At-Large Jaclyn Lavender Bird*
Donald L. Conn, Jr.*
Marybeth McAteer-Margolis*
Ronald Seaboyer* Ward 1 John Tramontozzi* Ward 2 Monica Medeiros* Ward 3 Francis X. Wright, Jr.* Ward 4 Robert A. Boisselle* Ward 5 Gail M. Infurna* Ward 6 Peter Mortimer* Ward 7 William H. Forbes*
Francis Murphy

School Committee

Name Margaret Driscoll*                        Donald Constantine* Kristin Thorp* Maryan Hollis


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