Loisel announces bid for Northampton’s Ward 3 council seat
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LAURIE LOISEL
Published: 01-30-2025 5:15 PM |
NORTHAMPTON — With local elections more than nine months away, a challenger to a City Council seat has already announced their candidacy.
Laurie Loisel, 64, the current director of communication and community engagement for the Northwestern District Attorney’s office, will seek the Ward 3 position currently occupied by Quaverly Rothenberg, who was elected to the seat in 2023 after running unopposed.
In an interview with the Gazette, Loisel said she was inspired to enter politics in reaction to the inauguration of President Donald Trump earlier this month.
“This new administration in Washington is making me think about, ‘What do I want to do for democracy right now?’ ” Loisel said. “I decided that I wanted to get involved in local politics.”
But Loisel’s foray into Northampton politics also can be seen as an attempt to oust Rothenberg, who some find a controversial figure during her time on the council. Rothenberg has frequently disagreed with the majority of council members and Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, voting against or abstaining from several key measures and frequently raising charter objections, delaying the vote on several financial orders such as the school budget for the current fiscal year, in opposition to its included staff cuts.
Jennifer Dieringer, a Ward 3 resident who is serving as a campaign chair for Loisel’s election committee, said she and other residents of the ward began meeting a month after Rothenberg won the seat, out of concern that their views were not being represented on the council.
“A group of us started meeting, voicing concerns that we were not getting access to her [Rothenberg],” Dieringer said. “[Loisel’s] identification as someone who could run for that seat came out of those meetings.”
Rothenberg said on Thursday she welcomes the challenge.
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“This is exactly what democracy looks like,” she said in a statement. “I hope lots of folks will throw their hat in this year, not just in Ward 3 but across the city, because by engaging in true democratic processes we can push the envelope toward representation of not the few but the many.”
Loisel said that she would attend more council meetings in the future to gain a better understanding of the various intricacies involved with serving the ward.
“I’m going to be spending some time attending meetings, really paying close attention to what’s going on in the city so that I can get up to speed,” Loisel said. “I would try to work with the residents of Ward 3 about the issues that are important to them and work with the rest of the council about the issues that are important to the city.”
Having worked in the DA’s office since 2015, Loisel previously worked as a reporter and editor with the Daily Hampshire Gazette for 29 years. The Grant Avenue resident also served on the Northampton Human Rights Commission from 2015-2020 and has served as president and in other leadership roles at the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence.
“I have lived in Northampton and loved this city since I first moved here in 1983,” Loisel said in her campaign announcement. “I feel motivated now to work hard to keep our local government functioning smoothly in part because I am worried about the threats a second Trump presidency will mean to people who are the most vulnerable among us. When we work together as a community, we can mitigate those threats.”
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.