Before getting to the February 3, 2026, city council meeting, here are the results of the same day’s special primary election for the state senate seat left vacant when Edward Kennedy died last year. In the Special Democratic Primary, State Representative Vanna Howard defeated State Representative Rodney Elliott. Here are the unofficial results from each community in the district:

DISTRICT WIDE

Elliott – 2369
Howard – 3326

Dracut

Elliott – 496
Howard – 359

Dunstable

Elliott – 98
Howard – 154

Lowell

Elliott – 1499
Howard – 2159

Pepperell

Elliott – 151
Howard – 445

Tyngsborough

Elliott – 130
Howard – 219

There was no candidate on the Republican primary ballot, however, Sam Meas ran a write-in campaign. To achieve the nomination, he would need 300 votes, which is the number of nomination signatures needed to make it onto the primary ballot. It looks like he achieved that number by enough votes to withstand any challenge to the validity of the count. In other words, if someone wanted to keep Meas off the general election ballot and he had only received 301 write in signatures, if someone challenged the validity of those write-in votes and two were tossed out, he would be knocked off the ballot. I don’t know the total number of write in votes Meas received, but it was enough to safely place him on the ballot.

Returning to the Democratic Primary, Howard won a substantial victory. Because every election is different, I’m hesitant to speculate on the reasons for this outcome. I received numerous pieces of campaign literature in the mail from each candidate so there was not a disparity of mailings. In a low turnout election, it’s generally thought that the candidate who does a better job of identifying and turning out their votes will most likely win, but that kind of turnout operation is easier to pull off in a smaller district like state representative or city council districts.

It’s also possible that ideology, or perceived ideology, may have played a role. Although an active Democrat, Elliott is seen to lean conservative on some issues, whereas Howard is unapologetically progressive in her positions. In special elections across the country, we are seeing enormous swings from the conservative candidate (usually a Republican) to the progressive candidate (usually a Democrat), so that possibly played a role here. It’s long been said that all politics in local, but in the Age of Trump, all politics is national.

As for turnout in this Democratic Primary, here are Tuesday’s vote totals compared to the vote totals in the 2018 Democratic Primary which is the last time that seat was vacant after incumbent Eileen Donoghue resigned to become Lowell City Manager. That race was won by Ed Kennedy, who held the seat until his untimely death last year. In order of finish, the other candidates were John Drinkwater, Rodney Elliott, Terry Ryan and Bill Martin.

This is not an exact comparison because redistricting following the 2020 census replaced Groton and Westford with Dracut, but the other towns – Dunstable, Lowell, Pepperell and Tyngsborough – were in the district for both races and the comparison in votes cast in each community between the two elections shows how low the turnout was this time:

Districtwide turnout in 2026 was 5,756; in 2018 it was 19,594

Dunstable turnout in 2026 was 253; in 2018 it was 431

Lowell turnout in 2026 was 3,686; in 2018 it was 11,593

Pepperell turnout in 2026 was 601; in 2018 it was 1,215

Tyngsborough turnout in 2026 was 353; in 2018 it was 1,394

[Dracut turnout in 2026 was 863; in 2018, turnout in Groton was 1,624 and in Westford was 3,337.]

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Democratic nominee Vanna Howard will face Republican nominee Sam Meas in the March 3, 2026, special election. Unenrolled candidate Joe Espinola will also be on the ballot. The winner should be seated in the State Senate soon after the vote is certified. However, the winner will also have to remain in campaign mode because the seat will be on the ballot again in this fall’s election. Also, if Vanna Howard prevails on March 3, the state representative seat she holds now will be vacant, which should attract several candidates.

Here are the offices on the ballot this fall with the number of nomination signatures needed to be on the primary ballot shown in parentheses:

• U.S. Senator (10,000 signatures)
• U.S. Representative (2,000 signatures)
• Governor and Lieutenant Governor (10,000 signatures)
• Attorney General (10,000 signatures)
• Secretary of State (5,000 signatures)
• Treasurer and Receiver General (5,000 signatures)
• Auditor (5,000 signatures)
• Governor’s Councillor (1,000 signatures)
• State Senator (300 signatures)
• State Representative (150 signatures)
• District Attorney – (1,000 signatures)
• Register of Probate – (1,000 signatures)

Nomination papers should be available on February 10, 2026. Nomination signatures must be turned into local election offices for certification by April 28, 2026, then certified nomination papers must be transported from the local election office to the Secretary of State’s office by May 26, 2026.

The State Primary is on Tuesday, September 1, 2026

The State Election is on Tuesday, November 3, 2026

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As for the city council meeting, two issues discussed at the prior meeting – a moratorium on data centers and a combined city and school facilities department – were back before the council this week.

Regarding the data center moratorium, recall that Councilor Belinda Juran questioned whether the initial draft from the city solicitor was overly broad in that it would capture someone using a server to operate a small business in their home. In my newsletter last week, I explained that Councilor Juran was correct to be concerned because the definition of datacenter as written would apply to something like the registry of deeds which is not the kind of operation the council seeks to prohibit. Considering that concern, the council sent the draft back to the solicitor for clarification.

Here is the relevant language from the January 27, 2026, draft:

“DATA CENTERS: a building or series of buildings that houses and supports the high-performance servers, storage systems, networking equipment, and related computing infrastructure and equipment necessary for storage, processing, and distribution of data and applications.”

Here is the same section from the February 3, 2026, revision with the added language shown in bold:

“DATA CENTERS: a building or series of buildings, with the intended primary use being commercial, that houses and supports the high-performance servers, storage systems, networking equipment, and related computing infrastructure and equipment necessary for storage, processing, and distribution of data and applications.”

Councilor Juran was skeptical that the added language fully addressed the problem, saying that a bank has a “primary use being commercial” and, because it holds servers, storage systems, etc., it, too, would be covered by this moratorium.

Juran’s criticism of the new language is well taken but for some reason other councilors seem more concerned with getting the moratorium enacted rapidly than they did with its consequences. Because of that vibe coming from the council and because the proposed ordinance must first go to the planning board for its input, Juran relented on her objection to this iteration of the ordinance in the apparent hope that the planning board will further clarify the language.

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This “need for speed” also created confusion with the combined school and city maintenance department proposal. This issue also arose at the January 27 meeting with a motion by Councilor Corey Robinson motion to draft home rule legislation that would allow the city to create a centralized facilities department. The council passed that motion but also asked the mayor to bring the issue before the school committee and to schedule a joint meeting of the school committee and city council to answer any questions the school committee may have.

At this week’s council meeting, not only did the draft home rule petition return to the council, but it did so in the form of a vote to file it with the state legislature. With varying degrees of consternation, councilors said it was premature to consider filing this and asked that it be continued for a month to allow consultation with the school committee.

To review, state law specifically grants the school committee with authority over maintenance within schools while the city council is responsible for maintenance of the school buildings. State law also allows these functions to be consolidated in a single department provided both the city council and the school committee consent to it.

When the proposal to combine maintenance departments reached the school committee last year, the committee overwhelmingly rejected it. Mayor Gitschier will now take a shot at getting concurrence from the school committee, however, if that does not happen, some councilors seem determined to go it alone with this special legislation route.

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This week in Seen & Heard, I reviewed the movie “One Battle After Another”; the Grammy Awards telecast; the email newsletter MASSterList; a Globe article about the last Patriots and Seahawks Superbowl; and a Times article about how a Cambodian dance troupe in Portland, Maine, has been disrupted by immigration enforcement activities.