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Two Running For One Williamstown Selectman Position
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Incumbent Thomas Sheldon will face a challenge from Justin Adkins. There will also be a four-person race for two seats on the Elementary School Committee. Theodore Anagnos, Darryl Lee Brown Jr., Christopher Jones and Richard Scullin III are all running for the two seats. Neither incumbent, Jennifer Trainer Thompson and Adams Filson, returned nomination papers.
The remaining races are uncontested. Below is the list of races.
SELECTMEN 1 seat
Thomas Sheldon
Justin D. Adkins
WILLIAMSTOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL COMMITTEE (K-6) 2 Seats
Theodore Anagnos
Darryl Lee Brown, Jr.
Christopher Jones
Richard J. Scullin III
LIBRARY TRUSTEE 1 seat
M. Geoffrey Hedden
PLANNING BOARD 1 seat
Chris Winters
NORTHERN BERKSHIRE VOCATIONAL REGIONAL SCHOOL COMMITTEE 1 seat
Thomas R. Mahar
HOUSING AUTHORITY 1 seat
David L. Mangun
HOUSING AUTHORITY 1 seat
Joan Simpson Burns
Five Vying For Adams Board of Selectmen
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At Monday's deadline for nomination papers, the five candidates that had returned papers were incumbent Arthur "Skip" Harrington, former Selectman Edward Driscoll, and newcomers Richard Blanchard, John Duval and Jeremy Halek. Two others, Donald Sommer and Anthony Coty, had taken out papers but did not return them.
The only other race is for moderator. Incumbent Joseph R. Dean Jr. is being challenged by Ryan Biros.
Five elected positions do not have candidates.
Parks Commissioner Aimee Sinopoli will not be running again and the board was already one position short. Of three open positions on that board, only incumbent James Fassell returned nomination papers.
Two seats on the Redevelopment Authority — five-year and a two-year — also have no candidates. Incumbent Joseph Allard will not seek re-election, which adds to an already vacant position.
Additionally, Cemetery Commissioner Robert Ciempa is not seeking re-election, creating a vacancy there.
For all other posts, only the incumbents returned election papers. The full list is available below.
Adams 2012 Offices for Election
Adams School Board Member Resigns For Selectman Run
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Duval, who has served on the Adams-Cheshire Regional School Committee for 17 years, said in a statement that his experience on the committee would inform his decisionmaking on the Selectmen. He particularly pointed to the work being done by Town Administrator Jonathan Butler and the current board and said he would be "excited to join the team."
There are two seats up for election on the board: Selectman Jason Hnatonko is not standing for re-election but current Chairman Arthur "Skip" Harrington has already returned papers for a try at a second term. Both Hnatonko and Harrington were swept into office three years ago in what many saw as a rejection of the board's performance at the time.
There could be large field for the two three-years seats. In addition to Duval, Richard Blanchard, Jeremy Halek, Anthony Cote, and Donald Sommer and Edward Driscoll, both former selectman, have also taken out papers. As of last week, Harrington, Blanchard and Halek had returned their papers.
The town election is May 7.
Duval's Statement:
"Today I proudly announce my candidacy for a seat on the Board of Selectmen in the May 7th election. As a lifelong resident of Adams, it will be an honor for me to serve the town where my wife and I have raised our three boys, and where the future is only looking better.
Earlier today, I resigned my seat of 17 years on the Adams-Cheshire Regional School Committee so that I may devout my full effort and energies to running for this town wide office. While I will miss the work involving the schools and our students, that experience will be the most important foundation that I will bring to my decision making as a selectman. I am proud of the work I did on behalf of hundreds of children in our district for many years, and was particularly proud to be a very strong supporter of the major renovation project now under way at Hoosac Valley High School.
I am encouraged by the direction, leadership and enthusiasm resonating from Town Hall. In his first three years as our Town Administrator, Jonathan Butler has produced good results, and I look forward to working with him to make sure the momentum of progress continues. The current Board of Selectmen should be proud of what has been accomplished the last few years, and I am excited to join the team.
Our Board of Selectmen must continue to work hard and be creative in partnership with the administrator and all town departments to make sure that there is a continual fair balance between the services offered by the town and the cost to those taxpayers who are served. My background with the school committee as its past chairman, budget development and oversight, and union negotiations will serve me well in this task. I have also served on several Adams town boards including the Capital Improvements Committee, Charter Review Committee and Town Meeting Member."
North Berkshire Towns Give Romney Primary Win
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In North Adams, only 579 votes were cast out of 8,717 registered voters, less than 7 percent. The big winner was the one candidate who had no primary challenger: Barack Obama. The Democratic incumbent won 276 votes.
With more than half the city's voters unenrolled, there was a chance for a more competitive Republican nomination race. That didn't happen. Romney, the state's former governor whose appearance in the far west was rare, did score 140 votes, far outpacing the field.
Rick Santorum got 68 votes, Ron Paul 33 and Newt Gingrich 26. The Green/Rainbow Party polled a paltry two votes: one each for Jill Stein of Lexingtona and one for Harley Mikkelson of Michigan.
Adams had better turnout, with just a little more than 10 percent of the town's 5,437 of voters going to the polls. Out of 544 ballots cast, nearly half went to the Democratic nominee. Obama scored 268 votes, with Romney picking up 118, Santorum 52, Paul 36, and Gingrich 27.
In Williamstown, the polls were a lot busier, with 596 votes cast. Obama, big winner again with 367; Romney had 132. The rest came in at Santorum 39, Paul 37, Gingrich 18. Stein took 3 votes for the Green/Rainbow nomination.
Oddly, the results weren't terribly different across the three communities. Even the Republican stragglers placed in order.
U.S. Senate Hopeful Warren Stumps in North Adams
 Elizabeth Warren is ready to take on Scott Brown for the U.S. Senate seat that Brown won in special election in 2010 after Edward Kennedy died. |
Recapping her own story of rising from a middle-class family to success, Warren told more than 300 people at the Eagle's Hall on Friday night that she fears everyone does not have a shot at success and that she wants to make sure they do.
"I worry my story is embedded in time," Warren said. "I am the daughter of a maintenance man who became this fancy pants professor at Harvard."
She grew up in frugal surroundings, started working at at 9 baby-sitting for the neighbor, went to a public university and taught in public schools on her way to teaching economic law at one of the most prestigious colleges in the world. But now when she looks around, she fears few can follow her path and that is why she is running for the seat, she said.
"As a country coming out of the Great Depression and really the next 50 years, we made the decision to invest in us, to invest in our children, to invest in our future," Warren said. "In the '80s, we lost our way. We turned in a different direction and look where we are today."
Warren said times were booming when the government invested in education, transportation, power and research but those have all taken cuts and, instead, the country is investing in big businesses such as oil, "one of the most profitable industries on Earth."
"We're not investing in our future and that's what draws me into this race," Warren said. "Are we a country that says 'I got mine, the rest of you are on your own' or are we going to be a country that says 'we love success, we think success is terrific, we celebrate success but we believe that everyone, no matter how powerful, no matter how rich has to take a piece of what they've got and pay it forward, to invest so we've got the right conditions in education, infrastructure, power and research so that the conditions will be right so the next kid can make it big."
She also took a shot at what once have been one of the county's largest employers.
"When General Electric is paying zero in taxes at the same time we as a country are saying there is no money for after school programs, young people are going to have to take up more debt to get a college education, seniors have to work and live on less, it's not a question of economics, it's not a question of finance, it's a question of values," Warren said.
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"At 2.4, we don't only not build a future, we don't hang onto the present," she said.
Warren is expected to be the Democratic candidate to take on incumbent Scott Brown after scaring top-tier Democrats out of the ring; immigration lawyer Marisa DeFranco and Boston lawyer James King are still in the primary. She lead the charge in developing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau but was over to lead it. She was also chief adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission, a member of the Federal Judicial Education Committee and most recently appointed as assistant to the president and special adviser to the secretary of the Treasury on consumer financial protection.
Warren has not been shy about saying she will go Washington and throw her weight around to "rebuild" the middle class by making those investments. That has draw criticism from Brown, who's trying to position himself as a bipartisan aisle-crosser, not a rock-thrower.
Warren says the Wrentham Republican is anything but bipartisan. Brown has voted against three different bills that would have brought jobs to the state, against the DREAM Act and financial reforms that shifted more burden to the taxpayers, she said.
"That's not bipartisan, that's voting against families as I see it," Warren said. "Scott Brown is much more about protecting Wall Street, protecting the biggest corporations. I am here to say that we need to protect our kids and our future."
As for her own ability to reach across the aisle, Warren pointed to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau development that faced challenges by the "biggest lobbyists in the world." She said she's work with banks and creditors with regulations that protect both the consumer and the banks.
"I know how to work with a lot of people to get something done," Warren said. "This is my first election but it's not my first campaign."
This campaign is also an uphill battle with Brown not only being an incumbent with strong approval numbers but also twice as much money as her, she said. Her campaign strategy is not going to be about buying TV spots but instead a grassroots campaign fueled by word of mouth, she said.
"I need you, starting now, to start talking about this election of 2012, talk about what's at stake, talk about the difference between investing in those who have already made it and investing in our future.Tweet it, Facebook it, if you are old fashioned use the telephone," Warren said.
Warren was joined by the many of the county's politicians. Mayor Richard Alcombright, state Sen. Benjamin Downing, D-Pittsfield, and state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi, D-North Adams, introduced Warren. Also attending were some of the area's Democratic leaders and city councilors, U.S. representative hopefuls Andrea F. Nucifor Jr. and Bill Shein, and state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, D-Pittsfield, who later took the stage to encourage the crowd to spread the word.
State Election