NORTHAMPTON — Two women will serve at large on the City Council for what could be the first time in Northampton’s history after voters chose Jamila Gore and Marissa Elkins in last week’s election.
There are two at-large seats and seven ward seats on the nine-member council. With the assistance of the city clerk’s office, the Gazette reviewed records listing every city councilor since 1969 and determined that all but four at-large councilors who have served in the past 52 years were men.
Three of those four women were later elected mayor, including City Council President Gina-Louise Sciarra, who won the mayor’s race last Tuesday against Marc Warner.
Gore and Elkins defeated Michael Quinlan and David Murphy in the at-large race; they will be sworn in on Jan. 3, 2022, making them the fifth and sixth women to serve at large since 1969.
Gore and Elkins will tilt the gender balance on the City Council to majority female for the first time in more than two decades. The only other time since 1969 that the council was majority female was in 1998, the year that longtime Ward 6 councilor Marianne LaBarge took office.
Voters also chose nine women for the 10-member School Committee, swapped out a male incumbent with a female newcomer on the Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School board of trustees, and replaced David Murphy with Mimi Odgers for the position of Elector Under the Oliver Smith Will.
Gore is the first Black woman elected to the Northampton City Council, and she and Garrick Perry, newly elected in Ward 4, will be the council’s second and third Black members ever. Perry was elected to replace John Thorpe, the council’s first Black member, who declined to seek a second two-year term.
“I’m glad for Northampton,” Gore said about the historic nature of Tuesday’s election for women. “It changes the perspective. It’s always good when you get a different perspective.”
The Gazette reviewed four types of documents kept by the city clerk from the past 26 elections: official results since 1999; the oath book that every elected official signs after their swearing-in; city-issued pamphlets listing every councilor and their committee assignments from 1980-2003; and similar lists printed in books, called Annual Reports, that name every government official in the city from 1969-79, including defunct positions such as milk inspector, weigher of hay and fence viewer.
Northampton voters approved the creation of the City Council in 1955; before then, the city was governed by the Common Council and the Board of Aldermen. Records between 1955 and 1969 were incomplete, but the Gazette checked several individual years in this time period and likewise did not find any instances of two women serving at large on the City Council at the same time.
“It’s not lost on me, and I think it’s very exciting,” Elkins said. She said she is “certainly able to step back” and see the historical significance of her and Gore’s elections, but emphasized that her focus is on preparing to serve.
“Many (recently elected women) were motivated, I think, by the 2016 election, motivated to become more involved and serve in this way,” Elkins said, referring to the Trump-Clinton presidential showdown that inspired her and others to “make the most immediate difference in the communities where we live and raise children.”
Frances McNulty, a former Ward 7 councilor who was elected to a single at-large term in 1977, was the first woman to serve at large during the 52-year time period that the Gazette reviewed. The next woman elected at large was Mary Ford in 1987, followed by Mary Clare Higgins in 1993.
The records also show that both of the city’s female mayors to date — Ford and Higgins — served as City Council president. Sciarra was the first woman elected at large since Higgins. The council chose Sciarra as president in 2020, and she will be sworn in as mayor on Jan. 3, 2022.
When Sciarra assumes the corner office, she will make history in another way: for the first time since 1980, Northampton’s mayor will have a name other than David or Mary. The city’s mayors for the past 41 years were David Narkewicz, Mary Clare Higgins, Mary Ford and David Musante. Prior to Musante, Harry Chapman served for two years, preceded by David Cramer.
Narkewicz, the outgoing incumbent, also served as City Council president before his election as mayor.
Five members of the City Council won reelection last week, while voters chose Stanley Moulton in the Ward 1 race and Garrick Perry in Ward 4.
James Nash, the Ward 3 councilor, beat back a challenge by David Kris. Also winning reelection were Karen Foster, Alex Jarrett, Marianne LaBarge and Rachel Maiore of Wards 2, 5, 6 and 7, respectively, all of whom ran unopposed.
Perry, manager of the downtown music venue Bishop’s Lounge, defeated Northampton Arts Council member Jesse Hassinger, former co-owner of the Belly of the Beast restaurant, by a total of 695 votes to 223, according to the city clerk’s office.
Moulton, who worked for the Gazette for 42 years as a reporter and editor before retiring in 2018, defeated social worker Emily “Lemy” Coffin 615-524 votes. Coffin picked up 54 more votes than Moulton in Ward 1A, but Moulton won Ward 1B by 145 votes.
The incumbent Ward 1 councilor, Michael Quinlan, did not run for reelection and sought an at-large seat instead. Quinlan placed third in the race for two at-large positions.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.