Preliminary Election Narrows Pittsfield Election Field

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The candidates for City Council in two wards have been narrowed.

In the city's preliminary election to narrow down the field of candidates in Wards 1 and 3, incumbent Christine Yon and Lisa Tully defeated Tammy Ives in Ward 1 and Nicholas Caccamo and Richard Latura defeated Jeffrey Germann and Thomas Wells Jr. in Ward 3.

Caccamo led the field with 456 votes — 71 percent of the 642 votes cast in the ward and Yon led the field in Ward 1 with 369 votes - 59 percent of the 623 votes cast there.

Tully reeled in 37 percent of the Ward 1 votes with 233 votes - 166 votes shy of Yon's total. In Ward 3, Latura snuck by Germann by a margin of 25 votes. Latura received a total of 79 votes.

Wells received 52 votes and Germann received 54. In Ward 1, Ives received 21 votes.

A total of 1,265 votes were cast out of a total of 8,376 registered voters in the wards — a 15 percent voter turnout.

The preliminary sets the field for the Nov. 5 general election. That election sees competition in both of these wards but also seven candidates vying for four at large seats —  incumbents Barry Clairmont, Churchill Cotton and Melissa Mazzeo will be challenged by Kathleen Amuso, Barry Clairmont, James Conant, Mark Miller and Donna Todd Rivers. Incumbent John Krol is being challenged by Joseph Nichol in Ward 6 while Kevin Morandi for Ward 2; Christopher Connell for Ward 4; Jonathan Lothrop in Ward 5; Anthony Simonelli in Ward 7 are all running unopposed.

Seven candidates will be vying for six seats on the School Committee. Incumbents Katherine Yon and Daniel Elias are being challenged by Joshua Cutler, Brittany Douglas, Pamela Farron, Anthony Riello and Cynthia Taylor.

Neither the mayor's office or city clerk's office is being contested with Mayor Daniel Bianchi and City Clerk Linda Tyer both running unopposed.