Four contested City Council races in this year’s municipal election as candidates spar for seats

Ward 5 voters electing new City Councillor, School Committee member

By Steve Freker

Malden voters will go to the polls on Tuesday, November 7 in the city’s biennial municipal election, and four contested races for City Council highlight the ballot this year. Voters have to choose between two candidates in Wards 2, 5 and 6 races and will decide three seats in the City Councillor at-large race on Tuesday.

Citywide voter turnout is expected to be between 27-30 percent of Malden’s registered voters, according to reports, higher than in past elections due to the aspect of a mayoral race. In 2021, the citywide voter turnout was a record low – just 20% – despite the city showing a record high of registered voters, just under 36,000. Only 7,187 voters cast ballots.

In the last election featuring a contested mayoral election, 30% of registered voters cast ballots in 2019, where incumbent Mayor Gary Christenson defeated challenger John Matheson. The highest turnout for a contested mayoral election in the past 20 years was in 2011, incumbent Mayor Gary Christenson’s first mayoral run, where the then Ward 1 Councillor defeated then Councillor-at-Large Deborah Fallon. Some 32% of registered voters came to the polls that year.

There is a special election spotlight in Ward 5, where voters have the opportunity this year to elect both a new Councillor and first-time School Committee member. Both incumbents – longtime Councillor Barbara Murphy and School Committee member Adam Weldai – opted to not seek reelection this year.

Voters will also elect seven other School Committee members on Tuesday. All eight candidates – including seven incumbents – are running unopposed. The new Ward 5 School Committee member running unopposed and being elected on Tuesday is first-time political candidate Elizabeth J. Hortie, LICSW, MSW, who works as a private practice therapist in Lynn; she is also a former nine-year Hamilton-Wenham Public Schools social worker.

In the Councillor-at-Large race, three incumbents – Karen Colón Hayes, Carey McDonald and Craig Spadafora – are all seeking reelection, with the fourth candidate being challenger Dante J. DiSerio. The top three vote getters from this group will be elected. Spadafora is seeking a 10th consecutive term and is the longest continuously serving elected official in the city of Malden –  first elected in 2003. Colón Hayes and McDonald are completing their first terms and were first-time candidates in 2021. DiSerio is a first-time Councillor-at-Large candidate this year.

In Ward 2, incumbent Councillor Paul Condon – believed to be the longest serving elected official in Malden history; now completing his 34th year (1986-2010, 2014-present) – is facing off against first-time candidate Sheila Rachels.

In Ward 5, there is an open City Council seat for the first time in over a dozen years as City Council President Barbara Murphy decided not to seek reelection this term. There is a faceoff between Ari Taylor and Julie Willcox Turner. Taylor finished runner-up to Murphy in 2021, while Willcox Turner is a first-time candidate. Murphy has endorsed Julie Willcox Turner to succeed her in the Ward 5 Councillor post.

The Ward 6 Councillor race features a rematch between incumbent Councillor Stephen Winslow and challenger Jerry Leone. Winslow, in his 2021 first run as a Ward Councillor after having served two terms as Councillor-at-Large, defeated Leone 61%-38%. Both candidates are former Ward 6 School Committee members.

Five incumbent Councillors are running unopposed and will be reelected to new, two-year terms on November 7: Ward 1 Councillor Peg Crowe, Ward 3 Councillor Amanda Linehan, Ward 4 Councillor Ryan J. O’Malley, Ward 7 Councillor Chris Simonelli and Ward 8 Councillor Jadeane Sica. The seven incumbent School Committee members who are running unopposed and will be reelected on November 7 are Michael E. Drummey (Ward 1), Robert S. McCarthy Jr. (Ward 2), Vice Chair Jennifer M. Spadafora (Ward 3), Dawn Macklin (Ward 4), Joseph S. Gray (Ward 6), Keith E. Bernard (Ward 7) and Sharyn Rose-Zeiberg (Ward 8).