Pittsfield To Hold Preliminary Elections in Two Wards

Updated: Tuesday, August 6 at 6:00 p.m.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — There will not be a citywide preliminary election.

As of the deadline, there were only enough candidates to warrant a preliminary election in Wards 1 and 3. There are races in most of the other wards but there needs to be more than double the number of available seats to require a preliminary election to narrow the field.

In Ward 1, Tammy Ives and Lisa Tully are challenging incumbent Christine Yon for the City Council seat. In Ward 3, five people are vying for the seat vacated by Paul Capitanio, who is not seeking re-election. Nicholas Caccamo, Jeffery Germann, Richard Latura, Jennifer McGurn and Thomas Wells Jr. are all seeking that seat. Latura's signatures still need to be certified.

While those two wards are seeing competition, the corner office is going uncontested. Mayor Daniel Bianchi will be running unopposed for the position.

Four councilor-at-large positions will see competition with seven candidates vying for the 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 Kevin Sherman is not seeking re-election. Cotton's signatures still needs to be certified.

There will also be a race in Ward 6 with incumbent John Krol being challenged by Joseph Nichol.

There are a number of other unopposed seats — Kevin Morandi for Ward 2; Christopher Connell for Ward 4; Jonathan Lothrop in Ward 5; Anthony Simonelli in Ward 7 and Linda Tyer for City Clerk.

Eight seven candidates are vying for six seats on the School Committee. Incumbents Katherine Yon and Daniel Elias are being challenged by Joshua Cutler, Brittany Douglas, Pamela Farron, Brandon Mauer, Anthony Riello and Cynthia Taylor. Douglas and Farron's signitures still need to be certified.

Update: Brandon Mauer withdrew his name on the last day to do so, Aug. 22. In a public statement, he said, "It has recently come to my attention that I may have employment obligations that would not allow me to offer 100 percent to the School Committee position, that the citizens of Pittsfield deserve, and I also expect from myself."

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Races for the November election are beginning to shape up.

There will be a few City Council races and the number vying for School Committee seats has grown as of Tuesday.

But the mayor does not yet have a competitor. Mayor Daniel Bianchi is currently the only candidate to return nomination papers, putting him on the ballot for a second term. Gerald Ely has taken papers out for the position but he has not returned them.

The four a-large council seats could have as many as eight candidates but so far only four of those eight have returned nomination papers.

Incumbents Melissa Mazzeo and Barry Clairmont have both returned papers. School Committee members Kathleen Amuso and James Conant have also returned nomination papers for the seats. Incumbent Churchill Cotton and Edward Carmel and Donna Todd Rivers have all taken out papers but had not returned them. For an at-large seat, nomination papers must be signed by 300 registered voters. The fourth at-large incumbent, Council President Kevin Sherman, has stated that he will not run this year.

Ward 1 incumbent Christine Yon has returned nomination papers and will be challenged by Tammy Ives and Lisa Tully — both of whom have returned papers with the required 50 signatures from within the ward.

Ward 2 incumbent Kevin Morandi; Ward 4 incumbent Chris Connell and Ward 7 incumbent Anthony Simonelli have all returned papers and are currently running uncontested. Joseph Nichol, who represented Ward 7 from 2009 until unsuccessfully running for mayor in 2011, has taken out papers for Ward 6; incumbent John Krol has not taken out papers yet. Ward 5 incumbent Jonathan Lothrop has not returned election papers and no one else has so far taken out papers for that seat.

Ward 3 has seen a lot of interest but so far has no official contenders. Councilor Paul Capitanio is not running for re-election but five people have indicated interest in being candidates. Jeffrey Germann, Jonathan King, Richard Laura, Jennifer McGurn and Thomas Wells have all taken out election papers for the seat but have yet to return them.

Nine people have shown interest in six seats on the School Committee but only two have become candidates by returning nomination papers. Incumbent Daniel Elias and newcomer Cynthia Taylor have both returned papers while current Chairman Alfred "Alf" Barbalunga has said he will not run for re-election.

Taking out papers but not returning them yet for School Committee are Joshua Cutler, Brittany Douglas, Tanya Edwards, Pamela Farron, Brandon Mauer, Anthony Riello and incumbent Katherine Yon. Three hundred signatures are needed to get on the ballot.

Nomination papers available now; the deadline to return papers with the required signatures is 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6, in the city clerk's office.

A preliminary election is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 24, if needed, and the general election is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 5.