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The municipal elections in New Bedford are heating up with only a couple of weeks left before the Oct. 7 preliminary election.
All 11 seats on the City Council are up for grabs, and with the announced retirement of at-large councilor Linda Morad, the 20-year council veteran, New Bedford’s legislative body is guaranteed to undergo some changes.
The New Bedford Light is giving all candidates running for municipal office the chance to introduce themselves — and the candidates for at-large councilor race are up first.
Both incumbents and challengers were offered the chance to participate in The Light’s video interview series. Candidates who either declined to participate or who did not answer multiple emails requesting their participation include Brian Gomes, Scott Lima, Carlos Maiato, James Roy and Ian Saunders.
In their own words, candidates laid out their platform and responded to basic questions about their vision for city government.
No candidates knew the questions ahead of time, and all had to respond to each question in one minute or less. After stating their platform, each candidate answered questions about:
- Their priorities for the city’s budget
- How to improve government effectiveness — especially the council’s working relationship with Mayor Jon Mitchell
- Their top three goals for the City of New Bedford
At-large candidates will have the chance to discuss their answers and platforms on Monday and Tuesday nights (Sept. 22 and 23), when The Light’s columnist Jack Spillane will host a special edition of his podcast, “The Chat.” Over two nights, the at-large candidates will appear in this digital candidate forum.
The candidates for ward councilor, School Committee, and assessor were also invited to participate in this video interview series. Since none of these races will have a contested preliminary election, the videos will be made available before the Nov. 4 general election — with questions pertinent to the office they seek.
You can find the video series here.
Don’t forget to register to vote in the preliminary election by stopping by the elections office in City Hall or registering online by Sept. 27. The last day to register for the general election is Oct. 25.
View the at-large councilor candidate interviews below ↓
Ian Abreu
Jennifer Arruda
Shane Burgo
Devin Byrnes
Naomi Carney
Christopher Cotter
Shaun Mulvey
Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org
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With our city’s back against the wall, having to rely on state aid, and raising taxes to cover a budget that has increased from $249 Million dollars to $550 Million Dollars. What ideas do each candidate for the at large city council seats have to move this city forward, create some hope, and stop the yearly increase in taxes.
This is great! And looking forward to the sessions next week.
My quick takeaway is that it is truly wild that 1) there is nobody under 30 on the City Council and 2) that incumbent City Councilors – especially the longest serving ones – talk about things they want to change and yet they’ve already had the chance to do that for many years. Seems to me voters started paying attention and now there’s a lot of lip service.
Other than Shane Burgo, I’m not likely to support a single incumbent this cycle. It’s time to try something else.
Amen to that.
Sorry I totally disagree, Councilor Burgo is a nice person, but he is politically way too far to left, and his vision will only hurt the city.
Only Linda Morad and Brian Gomes have objections to Jon Mitchell’s budget increases over the past 10 years. Shame on those councilors who allowed this administration to put our city’s residents and business’s in jeopardy. You can’t have less than 300 million dollars in revenue and then a 551 million dollar operating budget the PROBLEM BECOMES WHERE’S THE MONEY GOING TO COME FROM? TAXPAYERS AND NOT ALL THAT MONEY GOES TO MAKE UP THE DIFFERENCE FROM REVENUE AND THE CITY’S OPERATING BUDGET? FIND OUT HOW COUNCILORS VOTED IN REGARDS TO THE PAST 10 YEARS of INCREASES TO THE CITY’S OPERATING BUDGET. DON’T BE AFRAID TO VOTE THEM OUT
They’ve been wishy washy! That’s how I see it.
Let’s be real, over ten years of Mayor Mitchell and the budget jumped over 300 Million Dollars and Six Councilors (Abreu, Carney, Giesta, Gomes, Lopes, and Morad) were along for the ride and approved these increases. Where’s the outrage? Where’s the leadership? Read the responses from these councilors, all lip service, walking the fence, and not one has any answers, ideas, or solutions. Should more of these senior councilors be stepping down with Councilor Morad ? ? ? New Bedford taxpayers deserves better.
Ian Abreu will always have my vote. He is true blue and listens to constituents. Brian Gomes and he will always be voted in by me. My entire household agrees. THEY LISTEN and RESPOND.
You are welcome to your opinion, but there is no leadership in being part of council that has approved the Mayor’s budgets that have now taken us from a city budget of $249 Million to the present budget of $550 Million Dollars. True Blue shouldn’t be 10 years of no new ideas, no new solutions, and just rising taxes. And just remember after you vote for them the tax rate will be set and taxes will go up again. New Bedford deserves better.
The light is not posting things the residents of New Bedford need to know, they are still picking and choosing what they post and from who. KARMA!