With the Springfield mayoral race a hot mess and the at-large Council an huge large field of qualified hopefuls, the ward races offer a calm respite. The incumbents in both Ward 4 and 6 face challengers. In Ward 4 on Tuesday, incumbent Malo Brown will face off against Kareem Kibodya, a former policy and political staffer.
The allegations of vote-buying occurring right outside Springfield City Hall have dropped a hand grenade into a historic but quiet municipal election. It has set off a wave of condemnation, conspiracies and snickering across Springfield and within its political class.
The SuperPAC homecare mogul Cesar Ruiz funded took a prominent role in municipal preliminaries. The Hispanic Latino Leaders Now Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee (HLLN) filed a new report with state campaign finance regulators that shows it is spending to support a clutch of City Council candidates.
To fulfill a campaign promise, Massachusetts State Auditor Diana Dizoglio will have to go to voters to change the law. Fellow statewider, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, announced Friday that existing law does not authorize an audit of the legislature, a key plank of Dizoglio’s platform.
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With his mayoral campaign in mortal danger, Springfield at-large Councilor Justin Hurst held a defiant press conference Thursday morning, vigorously denying his campaign engaged in vote-buying. The allegations, which are reportedly now before federal and state investigators, arose after early-voters swamped Election Commission staff Saturday.
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As the Springfield 2023 cycle meanders to conclusion, only a few candidates appear to be dominating the air war. Several at-large City Council candidates, including several who advertised during the preliminary, have also bought ad time. In the mayor’s race, however, the incumbent, Domenic Sarno, largely has the air to himself as October concludes.
In what could be their only general election outing, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno jousted with at-large City Councilor Justin Hurst in a debate WWLP aired Monday. The faceoff featured a range of issues from crime to the equitable distribution of resources.
Was the defining issue at the October 16 meeting of the Springfield City Council for naught? It certainly seems possible. The debate collapsed into confusion and hand-wringing until its lead sponsor, Council President Jesse Lederman untied all the knots.
As the Springfield mayoral race lumbered into October, the campaign cash dash was barely at a trot. Piles of money and late heat in the campaign propelled at-large Councilor Justin Hurst and Mayor Domenic Sarno past the September 12 preliminary. Yet, neither showed a surge of activity many had expected ahead of the final confrontation on November 7.
BOSTON—Nearly ten months into her administration, Governor Maura Healey finally got a major legislative win. Before legislators, advocates and state officials, she signed a tax cut bill, with a value of upwards of $1 billion, to great acclaim.