A new in Holyoke and elsewhere in the Valley. (WMP&I)

HOLYOKE—Four years after making history as the Paper City’s first Latino mayor, Josh Garcia has won reelection and upended city politics again. Facing no opponent of his own, Garcia headlined a slate of Council candidates to remove opponents of financial reforms the state said the city needed.

It paid off. Garcia’s candidates swept the ward races. Perhaps more significantly, Kevin Jourdain, Garcia’s principal antagonist on the Council, lost his at-large seat. It was one of many surprises that ripped through the 413 Tuesday night, matching some of the energy, enthusiasm and, above all, change voters are demanding from this Commonwealth to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

“There has been a lot of progress, but there’s also been a lot of bottlenecking, for a lot of debatable reasons that might exist,” Garcia said in an interview. He called Holyoke voters’ choices Tuesday “refreshing.”

“I’m so much looking forward to work with these folks,” he continued.

Change—or backlash—was a common theme in the nation’s off-year elections. One year after Donald Trump’s return stunned Democrats, the party scored substantial victories in New Jersey and Virginia, flipping the governor’s mansion in the latter case.

New York chose Zohran Mamdani, a 34 year-old Indian-Ugandan immigrant, to be the city’s next leader. He will be the first Muslim and South Asian mayor in the city’s history and its youngest in over a century.

Sciarra survives in the Paradise City. (WMP&I)

Back in Western Mass, Northampton Mayor Gina-Louisa Sciarra appeared to hold on by the skin of her teeth. Unofficial results from the City Clerk showed the first-term mayor 76 votes ahead of challenger Jillian Duclos. The Daily Hampshire Gazette indicated that Duclos had accepted the results and was looking ahead to a future candidacy.

Four years ago, Sciarra succeeded David Narkiewicz, a popular technocrat who led the city for a decade. Sciarra would claim wins over her term, including reopening of key venues like the Iron Horse, where she held her kickoff. However, complaints about school funding, proposed changes downtown and remaining reverberations from COVID-19 weighed the mayor down.

Across the river in Chicopee, Joel McAuliffe, a former Ward 1 City Councilor, secured enough votes to rejoin the body as an at-large representative. Two of the Chicopee legislature’s at-large seats were open. Joining McAuliffe will be Jessica Avery, chair of the city’s Democratic Committee.

In Springfield, there was also a comeback. Justin Hurst, who left the Council two years ago to run for mayor, placed second in the race for that city’s five at-large seats. Jose Delgado, first elected two years ago, placed first. Behind Hurst were Tracye Whitfield, Kateri Walsh and Brian Santaniello. Incumbent Sean Curran was pushed into sixth place and will not return for the Council’s 2026-2027 session.

For much of the year, it seemed that the ward races would be where most of the action was. However, the incumbents in Ward 1, 4, 5, and 6 prevailed, if by slim margins.

In Ward 1, Maria Perez secured another term after a rollicking campaign. It saw her lose her job and sue her opponent, Joesiah Gonzalez for defamation. Still, Gonzalez, the outgoing School Committee member for Wards 1 and 3, rallied in the weeks after he was accused of orchestrating Perez’s termination and misrepresenting the reasons she lost her job. He conceded shortly before 10:30PM.

Davila (probably) hangs on. (courtesy Davila campaign)

In Ward 6, incumbent Councilor Victor Davila held on to an 18 vote lead over newcomer Mary Johnson. As of this writing, Johnson had not conceded. There are likely few if any provisional ballots, which means overturning Davila’s 1.01% victory will be a heavy lift.

By far the most crushing loss came in Ward 7, the city’s most affluent. Timothy Allen, who has held the seat since the reintroduction of ward representation in 2010, fell to challenger Gerry Martin, a 25 year-old law student.

“Congratulations to my opponent, Gerry Martin, on a clean, well-run, and successful campaign,” Allen wrote, conceding on Facebook. “I stand ready to support him in any way he needs.”

Allen had become one of the body’s finance mavens. He was widely respected for his methodical approach to issues, both large and small. Yet, Martin sensed that East Forest Park and the Outer Belt section of 16 Acres were ready for fresh blood, another trend that repeated itself across the country on Election Day.

Municipal races in Western Massachusetts are nonpartisan, yet, here in Holyoke, party politics did play a role.

Although Holyoke is an arch-Democratic city, it is far from uncommon for Republicans to win seats in City Hall. Without local party affiliation, Republicans and Democrats alike usually focus on matters that have no partisan lens. That seemed to change this year, especially as the bloc Jourdain led increasingly focused on issues like immigration. The same bloc stymied passage of reforms to city finances the state said were necessary.

Ch-ch-changes, turn and face the dais, ch-ch-changes…don’t want to be a vote-poor man… (still via Holyoke Media)

The 13-member municipal legislature has seven ward seats and six at-large. Garcia and a political action committee, Holyoke Forward-Palante, backed three at-large incumbents, the Ward 1 incumbent Jenny Rivera, at-large challenger Mimi Panitch, Ward 3 challenger Anne Thalheimer, and Richard Purcell in the open Ward 4 race. Wards 2, 5, 6 and 7 were uncontested.

The incumbents received Garcia and the PAC’s backing, Patty Devine, Council President Tessa Murphy-Romboletti, and Israel Rivera placed first through third. Panitch placed fourth, followed by incumbent Michael Sullivan and Howard Greaney. Jourdain placed eighth behind seventh-place challenger Jennifer Keitt.

Rivera prevailed in Ward 1 while Purcell won Ward 4, succeeding Kocayne Givner, who declined reelection. Ward 3 City Councilor David Bartley, who often voted with Jourdain, had beaten back challenges from Thalheimer before. He had toyed with retiring from the Council, especially after losing the 2020 race for state rep.

Yet, he could not withstand the campaign Garcia and his allies waged in support of Thalheimer. Bartley, the son of a former Speaker of the Massachusetts House, earned  419 votes to Thalheimer’s 476.