NORTHAMPTON — The city will hold a preliminary election on Sept. 28 to narrow the field of candidates for mayor in November’s election to two.
City Clerk Pamela Powers confirmed Wednesday that a preliminary election will be necessary after three mayoral candidates were certified for the November ballot — Shanna Fishel, Roy Martin and Gina-Louise Sciarra.
The Board of Registrars also has certified Rosechana Gordon’s voter signatures, but she has yet to pick up her nomination papers from the registrars and bring them to the city clerk’s office. If that happens by the deadline of Aug. 13, she will be added to the preliminary ballot.
Four other candidates who took out nomination papers to run for mayor — Jared Greenberg, George Russell, Jr., Jodi Shaw and Marc Warner — have not yet submitted the papers to the Board of Registrars. The deadline to do so is Friday at 5 p.m.
As things stand, the mayor’s race is the only one confirmed for the Sept. 28 ballot.
A preliminary election is held when three candidates for mayor are certified, or if a certain number of candidates are certified for other positions. Only the positions with the threshold number of candidates will appear on the preliminary ballot.
A preliminary race for superintendent of Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School is still possible after four out of six candidates — Michael Cahillane, Thomas FitzGerald, Thomas Pease and Julie Spencer-Robinson — were certified to run for three seats.
Incumbent John Cotton and challenger Richard Aquadro have not turned in their papers yet. One more certification would add the seats to the preliminary election ballot.
The general election is Nov. 2.
For the two at-large City Council seats, a preliminary election is triggered when five candidates are certified. As of Wednesday, three — Jamila Gore, David Murphy and Michael Quinlan — were certified. Marissa Elkins has not turned in nomination papers, while Michelle Serra is awaiting certification from the Board of Registrars.
Murphy will appear on the November ballot for at-large councilor and also Elector Under the Oliver Smith Will. He is the incumbent elector and has previously served on the City Council while holding the elector position simultaneously. He intends to do so again if he prevails in the at-large race and also beats back a challenge from Mary “Mimi” Odgers for the elector seat.
City Council contests are still possible in Wards 1, 3 and 4.
Ward 1 could see a race between Emily Coffin, who is certified for the ballot, and Stanley Moulton, who was certified by the registrars but had not yet turned in the papers to the city clerk as Wednesday. The Ward 1 seat is currently held by Michael Quinlan, who is running for at-large instead.
In Ward 3, incumbent James Nash is certified for November’s ballot, while challenger David Kris did not submit enough voter signatures. He can still submit more by Friday in order to be certified, according to Powers, the city clerk.
Ward 4 hopeful Jesse Hassinger is certified for November, while Garrick Perry still needs to turn in his signatures to the registrars.
Four School Committee candidates still need to submit nomination papers to the Board of Registrars: Holly Ghazey (Ward 2), Dina Levi (Ward 5), Edwin Burlingame, Jr., (Ward 6) and Kaia Goleman (Ward 7).
Margaret Miller is certified in Ward 6. Ghazey, Levi and Goleman are the only candidates in their respective wards, so it’s possible that the School Committee will end up with empty seats to fill after November’s election.
In the event of a vacancy, the School Committee “shall choose a person to fill the vacancy from among the voters entitled to vote for the office,” the city charter reads.
There will be no races for School Committee seats in Wards 1, 3 and 4, where only one candidate took out nomination papers and formal certification of each is pending.
Powers, the two-term city clerk, is running unopposed for reelection. She is certified for the November ballot even though it’s not clear if the position will still be elected by then.
A home rule petition before the state Legislature would change the city clerk’s job to an appointed position, and the change could take place before the election is held but after the ballot is printed.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.