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3 Boston-area mayoral preliminary elections to watch Tuesday
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
It's preliminary day — again. While Boston's mayoral race may have hogged the headlines this summer, a half dozen other cities in Massachusetts are holding elections today to narrow down the final two candidates to be their next mayors.
Here are three races in the Boston area to watch:
Somerville: Boston's famously progressive neighbor has two-term incumbent Mayor Katjana Ballantyne facing challenges from not one, but two sitting at-large city councilors: Jake Wilson and Willie Burnley Jr. Ballantyne touts accomplishments like creating more affordable housing and achieving Somerville's first AAA bond rating, plus she scored the endorsement of Gov. Maura Healey. However, she's faced criticism over her leadership style — which her opponents characterize as lacking openness and action.
- Wilson says he would focus on improving city communications, building more housing, and investing in street and sidewalk improvements. Burnley, who is backed by local democratic socialist and "YIMBY" groups, supports more aggressive zoning reforms and wants to create an "Office of Social Housing."
- Read more about the race from The Boston Globe (paywall) and Cambridge Day.
Brockton: After six years in office, Mayor Robert Sullivan isn't running for reelection — and there's an eight-way race to fill his seat. The field includes a number of locally familiar names, including current city councilors and former mayoral candidates.
- The Brockton Enterprise asked all eight candidates about their plans to address homelessness and the city's recent school budget crisis. Read their answers here.
Gloucester: Mayor Greg Verga has two opponents in his bid for a third term: Paul Lundberg, a former city councilor, planning board chair and MBTA commuter rail leader, and current at-large City Councilor Jeff Worthley.
- According to The Gloucester Times, housing affordability has been the biggest issue in the race. While all three candidates support the construction of more housing, they differ when it comes to certain policies, such as allowing two- and three-family homes to be built by-right across the city, a transfer fee on high-end property sales and local rent control. Housing 4 All Gloucester has an overview of all three candidates' housing positions here.
Elsewhere in Massachusetts: Incumbent mayors are also on the preliminary ballot today in Fall River, Gardner and Northampton. And a dozen other communities have preliminary elections for city council and other local positions. See the full list here.
In other election news:
A recount in Roxbury? The third-place finisher in last week's razor-thin preliminary election to replace former Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson is calling for a recount. Mavrick Afonso's campaign said they were formally filing the request with the city yesterday, after finishing just 20 votes shy of a top-two spot to advance to the Nov. 4 election. (According to Boston's unofficial election results, less than 50 votes separate the District 7 race's second place finisher from the fifth.)
Meanwhile: The 2026 Republican primary for Massachusetts lieutenant governor is officially underway. Anne Brensley, a Wayland Select Board member and business executive, announced her campaign for the state's second-ranking job yesterday. State House News Service has more on Brensley's background and platform here.
P.S.— In the wake of Josh Kraft's decision to drop out of the Boston mayoral race, community activist Domingos DaRosa is making a long-shot attempt to get back in the race. Under a little-known state law, the third-place finisher in a preliminary election can be moved onto the November ballot if one of the finalists drops out. But there are a lot of sticky details. Stay tuned for more from WBUR's Eve Zuckoff in this week's Mass. Politics newsletter on how the law works and what DaRosa is doing.
