Ward representation: candidates start to emerge

Next Thursday, April 30, Arise is sponsoring a workshop with MassVOTE on how to run for city council or school committee in Springfield (5:30 at the Central Labor Council, 640 Page Blvd.) so I went down to the Election Commission yesterday to see who had taken out papers.

Of course, no one is officially a candidate until he or she has returned the proper number of signatures and had those signatures verified, but if everyone who has taken out papers runs, then at this point we would definitely have a preliminary election for the at-large city council seats and for the seats in wards 1,2, 4 and 8.

Of the nine incumbent city councilors, none has chosen (so far) to run for a ward seat. Bud Williams, of course, is running for mayor; Tim Rooke, James Ferrara and Jose Tosado have taken out papers while Kateri Walsh took out papers but apparently has not yet decided if she's running at large or for a ward seat. Walsh lives in ward 6, where only one other person has taken out ward papers so far-- the only ward in which there is, so far, no competition.

School committee candidates, however, are quite thin so far. The four ward seats for school committee consist of combined wards, and as of yesterday, NO candidates have emerged for wards 6/7 and 2/8. Only two incumbents have taken out papers for the at large seats, with Antoinette Pepe apparently undecided as to whether she will run from her ward or run at large.

Following is a list of everyone who's taken out papers:

City Council At Large:

Incumbents who’ve taken out papers: Timothy Rooke, James Ferrara, Jose Tosado

Non-incumbents: Peter Appleby, Walter Gould, David Poehler, Victor Davila, Robert Francesca, John Rivera

Incumbents who haven’t taken out papers yet: William Foley, Patrick Markey, Rosemarie Mazza-Moriarty, Bruce Stebbins

Not sure ward or at large: Kateri Walsh, lives in Ward 6

Non-incumbents for ward seats

Ward 1: Zaida Luna, Rajah Walia, Gumersindo Gomez, Michael Tuckey

Ward 2: Luis Garcia, Robert Underwood, Tommy Sullivan, Gil Perron

Ward 3: Melvin Edwards, Larry Lawson

Ward 4: Charles Stokes, Norm Oliver, E. Henry Twiggs, Lorenzo Gaines, Omega Johnson

Ward 5: Clodo Concepcion, George Bruce

Ward 6: Keith Wright

Ward 7: Alexander Sherman, Kenneth Pooler

Ward 8: Orlando Ramos, Gloria DeFillipo, John Lysak, Miguel Soto

School Committee At Large

Incumbents who’ve taken out papers: Michael Rodgers, Thomas Ashe, Antoinette Pepe (undecided at-large or ward)

Non-incumbents: Felix Rivera , Rafael Bones, Nathaniel Davis (undecided)

Incumbents who haven’t taken out papers yet: Ken Shea, Chris Collins

Wards 1,3: Norman Roldan, Orlando Santiago, Joshua Carpenter

Wards 4,5: Frank Buntin, Peter Murphy, Joseph Flebotte:

Wards 6,7: None

Wards 2,8: None