The midterm municipal election in Springfield is off to a brisk start. Several races are developing only days after ballot papers became available. Challenges to some incumbents have been incubating for some time either publicly or quietly. Since the Election Commission opened the petitioning window on Friday, it appears even more officials could face opponents.
Against the backdrop of its own challenges and a broader wave of upheaval in Valley media, New England Public Media has named Elizabeth Román as its next executive editor for news. Román will take over the news operations of the region’s principal public media at a time of flux.
SPRINGFIELD—Lawyers for former Springfield mayoral aide, Darryl Moss, and his old employer, Mayor Domenic Sarno were in court last month to argue over whether Moss’s discrimination lawsuit can proceed. The parties, which include the city itself as a defendant, had not been in open court for months.
Payton North, the now-former managing editor for The Reminder, a weekly newspaper, took over as director of communications for the Hampden DA’s office this month. North had led the hyperlocal publication’s news operations as executive editor since late 2022.
As attorney general of Massachusetts, Maura Healey essentially ran point for the commonwealth’s legal opposition to Donald Trump. Now Healey is governor, a very different role than attorney general, and Trump has returned. Her successor in the AG’s office is facing a landscape not unlike the one Healey did—and Attorney General Andrea Campbell has been busy.
SPRINGFIELD—There is plenty of precedent for police officers to fill the City Council chamber. Usually, it is to oppose or support some substantive policy. This past Monday the room was full, if not packed with cops. Ostensibly, they were there to support Superintendent Lawrence Akers’s body camera financial package.
Cesar Ruiz, the former Springfield School Committee member and current home care magnate, is back. Six months after he dissolved his last SuperPAC in a settlement with the state, Ruiz is forming a new entity to intercede in elections in Massachusetts. This time, however, he is starting out with allies in the Boston area.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) has selected a site for a rail station in Palmer, marking a significant step for the project. The choice may bring some controversy. The agency chose “Site B,” a location on the south side of a CSX railyard half of a mile from downtown Palmer. The state will now proceed to a conceptual design phase.
Donald Trump has launched a trade war with Canada and Mexico. Elon Musk is doing his best to play aviation gremlin to the federal airship midflight. Both ongoing acts of economic and civic vandalism touch the jurisdiction of the Ways & Means Committee and therefore its ranking member Springfield Congressman Richard Neal.
The municipal political season has kicked off in Springfield. On Wednesday, School Committee member Joesiah Gonzalez announced that he would run for the Ward 1 City Council seat Maria Perez now holds.
The race will be a test for Gonzalez as much as for Perez, should she seek reelection.