Ford has better idea: Stay on school committee ballot

LYNN – The municipal election season officially begins Monday, but several candidates are already off and running and one veteran elected official has changed his mind on his election goal.School committee member John Ford Friday confirmed he has decided he will not seek election in the fall to the Ward 7 city council seat now held by his cousin, Rick Ford.”It was a long, hard decision: The thought of starting a whole new career was probably not a good idea,” Ford said. He will instead seek reelection to the school committee.Monday is the first day candidate nominations are available in the City Clerk’s office. They are available to candidates through June 26 and must be filed in the clerk’s office by June 29.The city preliminary election is scheduled for Sept. 1 with the final election to be held on Nov. 3. City council and committee seats are up for grabs. There is no mayoral election this year, but a former councilor and committee member said voters should expect a busy election season.”They should see the school committee attracting candidates, and Ward 7 candidates Brian Field and Jay Walsh are both popular young men,” said Loretta Cuffe O’Donnell, a former school committee woman and councilor at large.The 2013 election attracted newcomer candidates to five of the seven ward seats, with Dianna Chakoutis winning in Ward 5 and Rick Ford and Ward 6 Councilor Peter Capano running unopposed.The school committee will see a new composition. Rick Starbard is setting his sights on the council, and Charlie Gallo has announced he will not seek reelection, leaving two of the six seats up for grabs (Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy serves on the committee as its chairman).Field is a longtime Solimine Funeral Homes employee and Lois Lane resident; and Walsh lives on Raddin Street and, after 11 years at the GE’s River Works plant, was elected International Union of Electrical Workers Local 201 vice president last year.Rick Ford is running for councilor-at-large in a race that has also attracted Starbard and political organizer Brian LaPierre.Cuffe O’Donnell said voters may or may not appreciate candidates launching campaigns with the elections still months away.”People are inundated with politics,” she said.Another Walsh, Clay, is looking at a possible at-large or committee run. He ran two times previously for at-large without winning. He is Jay Walsh’s cousin.”It’s something we are thinking about,” he said.