The city held its first election under its new hybrid system of government on Tuesday (Sep 21, 2021). There were preliminary elections held in four of the eight city council districts. A preliminary must be held when there are  more than twice as many candidates as there are seats to fill. For example, if a one-seat city council district had only two candidates, there would be no preliminary and both of those candidates would appear on the general election ballot in November. But if there were three or more candidates, all would appear on the preliminary election ballot with the top two finishers advancing to the November ballot.

Here are the 2021 Preliminary Election results from the four contested districts:

District Two (Centralville) – Turnout – 744/8979

Corey Robinson – 513 – nominated
Robert Gignac – 121 – nominated
Marty Hogan – 106 – eliminated

District Three (Belvidere) – Turnout – 1413/9201

John Leahy – 643 – incumbent – nominated
William Samaras – 391 – incumbent – nominated
David Conway – 356 – incumbent – eliminated

District Four (Downtown; Centralville; Back Central)
Turnout – 494/8127

Wayne Jenness – 245 – nominated
Ryan Rourke – 148 – nominated
Paul Belley – 97 – eliminated

District Seven (Acre) – Turnout – 428/7378

Paul Ratha Yem – 191
David Ouellette – 149
Kamara Kay – 60
Patricia Stratton – 22

The above candidates labeled “nominated” will appear on the general election ballot on Tuesday, November 2, 2021, as will candidates in the districts that did not require a preliminary election. These are:

District 1 (Pawtucketville)

Rodney Elliott – incumbent
Daniel Rourke – incumbent

District 5 (South Lowell)

Kim Scott
Tooch Van

District 6 (Lower Highlands)

Sokari Chau – incumbent
Justin Ford

District 8 (Highlands)

Ty Chum
Erik Gitschier

At Large (elect three)

Deb Belanger
John Drinkwater – incumbent
Robert Hoey
Rita Mercier – incumbent
Vesna Nuon – incumbent
Bobby Tugbiyele

SCHOOL COMMITTEE

The School Committee will still have six members. Two will be elected citywide (“at large”) and the other four will be elected from districts. Each school committee district consists of two city council districts. The school committee districts are:

District 1 is council districts 1 and 8 (Pawtucketville and Highlands)
District 2 is council districts 4 and 2 (Downtown/Back Central & Centralville)
District 3 is council districts 3 and 5 (Belvidere and South Lowell)
District 4 is council districts 6 and 7 (Lower Highlands and the Acre)

None of the school committee races had enough candidates to require a preliminary so they all will be on the ballot for the first time in November. Here are the candidates for those races:

The school committee candidates are:

At Large (elect two)

Michael Dillon (incumbent)
Jackie Doherty (incumbent)
Connie Martin (incumbent)
James Peters

District One (elect one)

Ben Opara
Stacey Thompson

District Two (elect one)

Hilary Clark
Eileen DelRossi

District Three (elect one)

Susie Chhoun
Andy Descoteaux

District Four (elect one)

Cheth Khim
Dominik Lay