Mayoral candidates Curtatone and Corbett set to face off after Somerville preliminary election

Current Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone and challenger Payton Corbett will head into the city’s mayoral election after a preliminary election held on Tuesday, Sept. 19. Meanwhile, the third candidate, Kenneth Van Buskirk III, will end his candidacy after taking the smallest share of votes.

Curtatone, who has served as mayor for 13 years, won 58.16 percent of the vote in the unofficial results posted on the City of Somerville’s website. The results did not include absentee, provisional, overseas or military ballots.

Corbett, a pro-union Teamster according to a Somerville Times article, took 35.06 percent, and Van Buskirk, who has acted as campaign co-chair for the Progressive Democrats of Somerville, earned 6.78 percent.

Joe Lynch, co-host of the Somerville Community Access Television news program Greater Somerville, said labor unions have rallied behind Corbett as a pro-union candidate.

“It was clear to me that the labor coalitions do not like the way that Mayor Curtatone deals with their contracts,” Lynch, who also moderated the Somerville Labor Coalition Candidate Forum in July, said. “Payton Corbett is a union shop steward; he has organized within a Teamsters labor union. His support naturally would be for union organizations who think that they are being treated unfairly, so I think that’s where the impetus came from for Corbett to challenge the mayor, who [the Somerville Labor Coalition] consider a union buster.”

Corbett's campaign did not respond in time to a request for comment.

Van Buskirk, despite meager support in the preliminary election, has remained “closely associated” with the Progressive Democrats of Somerville, Lynch said. However, Lynch believed the candidate’s campaign infrastructure was mostly skeletal.

“Unfortunately, I can’t say Mr. Van Buskirk’s campaign ever got any wind underneath its wings," Lynch said. "He was almost a single-handed campaign manager, candidate, finance director and sign-holder all rolled into one."

Alderman-At-Large Dennis Sullivan, who is also running for re-election in November, believed Curtatone’s credentials and accomplishments as the incumbent candidate significantly bolstered his likability.

“Basically, Joe Curtatone has been in office for [13] years and Payton Corbett is a new face, a fresh face,” Sullivan said. “[Curtatone's] done a good job, the city’s come a long way in public transportation, crime is down. I don’t know much about Payton. I’ve met him several times, so I really don’t know much about him.”

However, Sullivan noted that the race, with seven weeks left until Nov. 7, is still developing.

Curtatone has staved off defeat throughout his tenure since replacing incumbent mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay in 2003, according to Lynch. Curtatone was challenged in 2005 and in 2007, and since then ran unopposed in every election over the past ten years.

Lynch felt that Curtatone has earned the public’s loyalty by leading the city out of economic uncertainty, especially after the recession.

Greg Maynard, Curtatone's campaign manager, posited the election as a significant one in Somerville's history.

"Somerville has a big opportunity to move forward and be a leader in affordability and grappling with issues around that. That's what a lot of this election is about," Maynard said. "If people like the way the past [13] years have gone and like Somerville, then they should definitely turn out and vote, because Mayor Curtatone has played a really important role in that."

Curtatone may face a significant electoral challenge in the coming election, Lynch explained.

“You will always have somewhere between 28 to 30 percent anti-incumbent vote, no matter who runs,” Lynch said. “There’s always someone who doesn’t like the incumbent. [However,] Payton had more union voters than just anti-Joe Curtatone voters.

"Fourty two percent of the voters said, ‘I don’t like Joe and I don’t want him in there,'” Lynch added, referring to the percentage of voters who did not vote for Curtatone.

According to unofficial results provided to the Tufts Daily, slightly over 4900 ballots were cast in the preliminary elections. Sullivan described this as a “historically low number,” arguing this turnout relates to an undervaluation of the significance of local politics in daily life.

“It’s kind of funny, in a gubernatorial race or a presidential race, that’s when you see the masses come out,” Sullivan said, “but local government, be it your alderman, your mayor, we’re where the rubber meets the road. I would submit that we have a bigger impact on everybody’s life than at the national level."

"Day-to-day business — the streets are clean, the roads are plowed during the winters, public education, public safety — we deal with all those issues," he added.

Maynard hopes that Tufts students will join other Somerville residents in participating in municipal issues.

"Somerville needs the engagement of everybody in its community," Maynard said. "That's how we move the city forward."

The only other contest requiring a preliminary election was for the School Committee of Ward 1, in which Emily Ackman and Kenneth Salvato beat out Guillermo Samuel Hamlin. All other challenges will not be put to a vote until the general municipal election on Nov. 7.