Politics & Government

With A Week To Go, No Competitive Race for Any Belmont Town-Wide Office

A 2009 Belmont High School graduate has taken out papers to run for School Committee.

With one week remaining before nomination papers are due at the Town Clerk's Office, Belmont voters could find themselves going to the voting booth on Tuesday, April 2 without a single competitive race to vote on.

As of Monday, Feb. 4, residents have taken out nomination papers to fill all the town-wide positions up for election this year, according to Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman, with most incumbents seeking re-election. 

Cushman said she is currently reviewing the nominating sheets submitted by several of the potential candidates in preparation of certifying the signatures. 

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In the race for Belmont School Committee, Jamie Kang, a 2009 graduate from Belmont High School, has pulled papers to run for one of the two seats on the School Committee, joining sitting member Laurie Slap. 

The MIT senior biology major will attempt to fill the position held by School Committee member Dan Scharfman who unexpectedly died on Jan. 21. She will need to submit 50 certified signatures of registered Belmont voters by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 12. 

Find out what's happening in Belmontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

At last week's School Committee meeting, Chairwoman Laurie Graham made a plea for interested residents to run for Scharfman's seat. With the town election two months away, the Committee decided to forgo its policy of appointing a resident to fill the remainder of Scharfman's tenure. 

Despite having submitted the necessary signatures in December, Scharfman's name will not be on the ballot, according to Cushman, since Scharfman has been taken off the town's list of registered voters, a requirement to run for an elected post. 

Nominations for Town Meeting positions have been coming in and while many of the eight precincts have the required 12 residents running to fill the ballot, Precincts 7 and 8 are still a few slots short of having a complete list of candidates. 

(* indicates incumbent)

Board of Selectmen (one member for three years)

Mark Paolillo *

School Committee (two members for three years)

Laurie Slap *

Jamie Kang

Board of Library Trustees (two members for three years)

Mark Carthy *

Sarah Phillips *

Board of Health (one member for three years)

Deirdre Houtmeyers

Board of Assessors (one member for three years)

Charles Laverty III *

Moderator (one member for a single year)

Michael Widmer *

Town Clerk (one member for three years)

Ellen O’Brien Cushman *

Housing Authority (one member for five years)

Gloria Leipzig *

Board of Cemetery Commission (one member for three years)

William Chemelli

Residents interesting in running for a town-elected office or Town Meeting have until Tuesday, Feb. 12 to have their papers submitted. Please see the Town Clerk's web page on Running for Elected Office for more information. 


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