There was no City Council meeting Tuesday night because of Halloween, so today’s newsletter is devoted to the City Election which is this coming Tuesday. First, the candidates:

CITY COUNCIL

At Large (three with most votes win)

• Rita Mercier (incumbent At Large)
• Vesna Nuon (incumbent At Large)
• Corey Belanger
• Erik Gitschier (incumbent District 8)
• Bobby Tugbiyele
• Virak Uy

District 1 (highest vote getter wins in each district)

• Daniel Rourke (incumbent) – Unopposed

District 2

• Corey Robinson (incumbent)
• Martin Hogan

District 3

• John Leahy (incumbent) – Unopposed

District 4

• Wayne Jenness (incumbent)
• Amada Gregory

District 5

• Kimberly Scott (incumbent)
• Susie Chhoun

District 6

• Sokhary Chau (incumbent)
• Justin Ford

District 7

• Paul Yem (incumbent)
• Fru Nkimbeng

District 8

• Ty Chum
• John Descoteaux

NOTES: Incumbent At Large Councilor John Drinkwater is not seeking reelection. Incumbent District 8 Councilor Erik Gitschier is running At Large this year which means there is no incumbent Councilor running in District 8.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE

At Large

• Jacqueline Doherty (incumbent)
• Connie Martin (incumbent)

SC District 1

• Stacey Thompson (incumbent)
• Fred Bahou

SC District 2

• Eileen Delrossi (incumbent) – unopposed

SC District 3

• David Conway – unopposed

SC District 4

• Dominik Lay (incumbent) – unopposed

NOTES: Incumbent District 3 School Committee Member Susie Chhoun is running for City Council in CC District 5 which means there is no incumbent School Committee member running in SC District 3.

To learn more about the candidates, check out the excellent 2023 General Election Guide from Lowell Votes.

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Results from 2021

Here’s a look at the results of the last city election (names in bold won):

Council at Large

Vesna Nuon – 6,156
Rita Mercier – 5,875
John Drinkwater – 5,696
Bobby Tugbiyele – 4,103
Deb Belanger – 3,435
Robert Hoey – 2,247

District 1

Daniel Rourke – 1,068
Rodney Elliott – 864

District 2

Corey Robinson – 1,030
Robert Gignac – 371

District 3

John Leahy – 1,454
Bill Samaras – 1,054

District 4

Wayne Jenness – 530
Ryan Rourke – 465

District 5

Kimberly Scott – 659
Tooch Van – 476

District 6

Sokhary Chau – 758
Justin Ford – 238

District 7

Paul Ratha Yem – 454
David Ouellette – 385

District 8

Erik Gitschier – 1,116
Ty Chum – 600

 School Committee at Large

Jacqueline Doherty – 5,861
Connie Martin – 5,099
Michael Dillon – 4,034
James Peters – 2,758

District 1

Stacey Thompson – 1,732
Ben Opara – 1,528

District 2

Eileen DelRossi – 1,151
Hilary Clark – 1,031

District 3

Andre Descoteaux – 1,788
Susie Chhoun – 1,642
(Descoteaux resigned in March 2022 and was replaced by Chhoun)

District 4

Dominic Lay – 853
Cheth Khim – 812
(Missing results from second council district, however, Lay is winner overall)

Question 1 – Should the mayor be elected directly by the voters? (Non-binding) YES – 7,429
NO – 2,411

Turnout citywide: 12,095 of 67,867 (18%)

Preliminary election held on Sep 21, 2021, for Council Districts:

• 1 – Martin Hogan eliminated
• 3 – David Conway eliminated
• 4 – Paul Belley eliminated
• 7 – Kamara Kay and Patricia Stratton eliminated.

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There’s usually a correlation between a candidate’s performance at the polls and the amount of money the candidate has spent. Candidates for Lowell City Council must report money raised and spent through the state’s campaign finance process. That is administered by the Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) which has a terrific website. The “search candidates” section shows for each candidate in the system, how much they have raised, who donated it to them, how much they have spent, and who they paid it to. The “search contributions” section allows you to search by contributor name, by contributions by Lowell residents, or many other queries.

Here’s what the OCPF system reports (as of yesterday) for each candidate for Lowell City Council. I’ve indicated the district councilors who are unopposed this year since their need to raise and spend money is not as compelling as their colleagues facing contested races.

Please note that the amounts reported lag actual transactions, so a candidate who has a big mailing or a big newspaper ad buy just before the election, might show a large amount of cash on hand here, but will have spent it by election day. For a full campaign finance picture, we’ll have to wait until the End of Year reports which are due in mid-January.

Also, candidates for Lowell School Committee do not report directly to OCPF. Instead, they file reports with the city (either the Clerk or the Election Office). Consequently, their data is not as easy to access as that of the Council.

Rita Mercier

Starting balance: $12,280
2023 contributions: $13,445
2023 expenditure: $6,624
Cash on hand: $19,101

Vesna Nuon

Starting balance: $5,974
2023 contributions: $26,028
2023 expenditure: $20,151
Cash on hand: $11,851

Corey Belanger

Starting balance: $0
2023 contributions: $13,615
2023 expenditure: $6,856
Cash on hand: $6,904

Erik Gitschier

Starting balance: $2,907
2023 contributions: $22,356
2023 expenditures: $18,304
Cash on hand: $6,959

Bobby Tugbiyele

Starting balance: $3,570
2023 contributions: $18,702
2023 expenditures: $18,815
Cash on hand: $3,457

Virak Uy

Starting balance: $0
2023 contributions: $10,983
2023 expenditures: $9,419
Cash on hand: $1,629

Daniel Rourke (incumbent) – Unopposed

Starting balance: $12,496
2023 contributions: $15,865
2023 expenditures: $4,794
Cash on hand: $23,567

Corey Robinson

Starting balance: $8,132
2023 contributions: $10,267
2023 expenditures: $7,159
Cash on hand: $11,241

Martin Hogan

Starting balance: $0
2023 contributions: $1,500
2023 expenditures: $388
Cash on hand: $1,111

John Leahy – Unopposed

Starting balance: $78
2023 contributions: $10,620
2023 expenditures: $215
Cash on hand: $10.483

Wayne Jenness

Starting balance: $5.455
2023 contributions: $5.024
2023 expenditures: $3,927
Cash on hand: $6,551

Amada Gregory

Starting balance: $0
2023 contributions: $2,100
2023 expenditures: $1,922
Cash on hand: $178

Kimberly Scott

Starting balance: $2,477
2023 contributions: $11,963
2023 expenditures: $6,540
Cash on hand: $8,013

Susie Chhoun

Starting balance: $672
2023 contributions: $8,169
2023 expenditures: $5,157
Cash on hand: $3,684

Sokhary Chau

Starting balance: $26,554
2023 contributions: $51,088
2023 expenditures: $34,084
Cash on hand: $43,562

Justin Ford

Starting balance: $1,284
2023 contributions: $954
2023 expenditures: $614
Cash on hand: $1,625

Paul Yem

Starting balance: $4,172
2023 contributions: $5,326
2023 expenditures: $6,973
Cash on hand: $2,525

Fru Nkimbeng

Starting balance: $0
2023 contributions: $4,903
2023 expenditures: $3,432
Cash on hand: $1,478

Ty Chum

Starting balance: $298
2023 contributions: $787
2023 expenditures: $600
Cash on hand: $486

John Descoteaux

Starting balance: $0
2023 contributions: $12,767
2023 expenditures: $4,493
Cash on hand: $8,274

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The justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held a session at the Kiernan Justice Center on Friday. Established in 1692, the SJC is the oldest appellate court in continuous existence in the Western Hemisphere. The Court is made up of a chief justice and six associate justices.

The SJC normally sits at the John Adams Courthouse at Pemberton Square in Boston, however, it often travels to other locations to hear cases. This allows the justices to make contact with people from outside of Boston who are connected to the judicial system and allows those people to be exposed to the justices.

The visit to Lowell began with a brief reception for local judges, court personnel, elected officials, and leaders of the Greater Lowell Bar Association. The justices then ascended to one of the seventh-floor courtrooms where they heard arguments in three different cases.

After that, the justices met with a group of students from Lowell High School and answered their questions. The Lowell Sun has excellent coverage of the session.

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Happy Birthday to Ben Butler who was born on this day in 1818. A graduate of Lowell High School, Butler was a Lieutenant General in the United States Army during the Civil War, served multiple terms in Congress, was a candidate for President, and was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1883. He died on January 11, 1893, and is buried in the Hildreth Cemetery in Lowell. For more about Ben Butler, please see my recent blog post.