NORTHAMPTON — Gina-Louise Sciarra and Jillian Duclos advanced in Tuesday’s preliminary elections for mayor, setting the stage for a final showdown between the two come Nov. 4.
The two candidates have come to represent the two main political forces within the city for this year’s municipal election. One on side is the incumbent Sciarra, who is seeking a second term in office and has overseen the first phases of several major developments in the city, such as the Picture Main Street project to remake the city’s downtown, and the purchase of the former First Baptist Church into a “Resilience Hub” to act as a multipurpose community center aimed at addressing issues of homelessness and climate change in the city.
On the other side is Duclos, the former executive director for the Downtown Northampton Association, who has won the backing of Support Our Schools (SOS), an advocacy group formed in opposition to Sciarra’s school funding policies after the last two school budgets led to reductions in staff and services. A political action committee bearing the same name has raised more than $29,000 to support several endorsed candidates in this year’s election, including Duclos.
At a watch party held at JJ’s Tavern in Florence on Tuesday night, an emotional Duclos was surrounded by fellow SOS-backed candidates and supporters, who broke out into applause and cheering once informal election results had been posted at polling centers.
“This has been such a grassroots movement, with so many people working hard on this,” Duclos said in an interview. “I’m so glad to be moving forward together, and shifting the energy from the ground up.”
While Duclos celebrated at JJ’s, supporters of Sciarra gathered at the downtown restaurant Spoleto to celebrate and read off polling results. Sciarra told the Gazette in an interview the next step was to “run as hard as we can for the next seven weeks” until the municipal election on Nov. 4.
“I’m super grateful to the people of Northampton for the support,” Sciarra said. “I’m very proud of the work we’ve done and it’s great to see that in the polls…the thing that Northampton needs the most is to pull together.”
Though Duclos advanced past the preliminaries, she still faces a challenge in trying to unseat Sciarra, who received nearly double the number of votes in the preliminary election, with 2,991 votes to Duclos’s 1,510. But Duclos could narrow that gap if she manages to win over voters who cast ballots for other candidates. A total of 1,696 residents voted in the preliminary election for candidates other than Sciarra or Duclos.
“I applaud anyone that puts themselves out there to run,” said Sciarra regarding her opponent. “It’s a hard thing to do and I look forward to having discussions with Duclos.”
The mayoral preliminaries saw four candidates vying for the position. In addition to Sciarra and Duclos, the other candidates were Dan Breindel and Dave Dombrowski. Breindel received 1,214 votes, while Dombrowski received 482.
Breindel declined to comment on the election results, while Dombrowski did not immediately return requests for comment.
Before polls closed on Tuesday, several residents also spoke to the Gazette on who they voted for in the preliminary elections.
“I cast my vote for Gina-Louise,” said Robert Cameron of Ward 3. “She’s been a steady hand while in office. I see no reason to replace her.”
But other voters said they wanted an outsider in office, such as Bo Clark, also of Ward 3, who cast a vote for Duclos.
“I think we really need a shake-up in the mayor’s office,” Clark said. “I work in the public schools, so that’s a big priority for me. I’m excited for some fresh leadership.”