UPDATED: Connolly School Committee; Mahoney and Mercandetti Planning Board
All three incumbent Library Trustees were re-elected and Town Meeting member Eric Doherty will join the Library Trustees as its newest member; four seats were available.
Heather Connolly sworn in as School Committee member tonight
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UPDATE 10:00 p.m. Tom Mahoney and Stephanie Mercandetti have won seats on the Framingham Planning Board.
Mahoney had 1,944 votes; Mercandetti 1,602. Ned Price finished third with 741 votes.
"I want to thank the voters today for their faith and belief in me to bring professionaism to the board," said Mercandetti at a party celebrating her victory.
Mercandetti said she will bring a new perspective to the Planning Board. She plans to be sworn in on Wednesday and attend her first meeting Thursday night.
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Heather Connolly was elected to a 1-year seat on the Framingham School Committee defeating Don Taggart. Connolly had 1,695 votes. Taggart had 1,396 votes.
About 10% of the town's registered voters participated in today's election. Unofficially, 3,484 votes were cast or 9.97% of the town's registered voters.
The Planning Board race is still too close to call at this time, said Assistant Town Clerk Lisa Ferguson at 9 p.m.
Incumbent Planning Board member Tom Mahoney was running for re-election. There were also two write in candidates - Stephanie Mercandetti and Ned Price. There are two seats available on the Planning Board
At 9:30 p.m., they were waiting for five precincts and unofficially Mahoney was in the lead, followed by Mercandetti.
"We are certainly pleased with the campaign we ran and how the day went today and hoping for some favorable results," said Mercandetti, while awaiting results at the Memorial Building.
"I was very impressed with Don Taggart and his campaign," said Connolly tonight at the Memorial Building. "I want to thank a lot of people who stepped up at the last minute, especially Janet Leombruno and Carol Sanchez, all the Selectmen, and all my endorsers. I really appreciate all the support."
"I want to thank my main committee members Claudia, Sharon, Joe Hauck, who did a lot of my signs and A.J. Mulvey. And I also want to thank School Committee member Mike Bower and Rick Finlay, who have been a constant source of support. Finally, I want to thank the Connolly family, my father-in-law, my brother-in-laws and my sister-in-laws for all their support. And lastly, Audrey, Mary and Trey who I love dearly; this has become a real family event and I proud of them for that. And finally Chris, I could have never done this without him."
Connolly was sworn in tonight. She plans to attend the PTO presidents meeting with the Superintendent of Schools at 9 Wednesday morning and her first School Committee meeting is tomorrow, April 4 at 7:30 p.m.
All three incumbent Library Trustees were re-elected and Town Meeting member Eric Doherty will join the Library Trustees as its newest member; four seats were available. Doherty will have to step down as a Town Meeting member, said Ferguson.
Janet Harrington had the most votes for Library Trustee with 1,929, followed by Maria Barry at 1,874, then Nancy Coville Wallace at 1,797 and Doherty with 1,401 votes. Challenger George Brown received 1,230 votes.
Moderator Edward Noonan, who ran unopposed, topped the ticket with the most votes overall at 2,524.
Selectman Jason Smith, also running unopposed, had 2,226 votes.
School Committee members Beverly Hugo and Andy Limeri were running unopposed for 3-year seats and had 2,259 and 2,036 votes respectively.
In the Town Meeting member races, some precincts had all 12 seats up for re-election due to re-districting. Other precincts only had four seats available.
In Precinct 4, all four of the incumbents (Linda Lackey, Roxana Sanchez, Paula Schmeidler and Karl Thober) lost their seats. Elected to Town Meeting were Bob Berman, Adam Steiner, Dan Rao and David Remis.
Framingham Patch will have a full report on all the Town Meeting seats later. The Town Clerk's office still needs to verify the results.
Sharon Machlis Gartenberg
9:51 pm on Tuesday, April 3, 2012
*Which* 5 precincts are they waiting for?
Jim Rizoli
10:34 pm on Tuesday, April 3, 2012
WOW! Look who was targeted here! Those nasty conservatives, don't want any of you in TM.
Nice job Democratic knock the TMM conservatives out machine.
Pretty soon the Dems will have all the seats and the town will be bankrupt as you spend all our money! Nice to see you guys have a plan to destroy the town.
Remember this is all happening under YOUR watch.
Jim@ccfiile.com
Susan Petroni
11:37 pm on Tuesday, April 3, 2012
@Jim - I saw you were re-elected with a total of 28 votes, unofficially. Town Clerk's office still needs to verify all the Town Meeting races.
Jim Rizoli
12:45 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
28 votes better than none.....
First time I ran I got 2, must be gaining worlwide support.....Next the president race 2016.
Jim@ccfiile.com
Susan Petroni
12:55 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Actually, next you will have to run again for Town Meeting member next year.
In precincts where are 12 seats were up - the top 4 received a 3-year seat, the next 4 a 2-year seat and the last 4 a 1-year seat.
Brenda Crawshaw
7:27 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
I find it absolutely SHAMEFUL that only 10% of registered voters bothered to get off their butts and go vote. In our house we have a rule that if you don't vote, you don't get to complain. Perhaps this should be brought to a broader scale? Seriously, the next time someone spouts off, I may just ask them if they VOTED......
Susin Carlson
7:54 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Brenda, I said the exact same thing to my 14 year old. (I brought him with me) It takes 10 minutes tops and is a right that was hard fought for. I love voting, it reminds me of my patriotism and allows me to be part of the process.
Brenda Crawshaw
8:02 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Susin, I always bring MY son (also 14) too! I want him to know that yes, sometimes it is a PITA, but I figure if he gets used to it now, he will never have an excuse later when he CAN vote.
David Nolta
9:54 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
My Mom used to bring all of us (five children) to vote with her when we were growing up, and we LOVED going. It's a great idea, a good habit to get into, and I was delighted to see several Milfordites voting with their children on Monday.
Susan Petroni
8:28 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
I'll have more stats and numbers later today but the worst precinct - 17.
26 total voters in that precinct - pathetic!!!
Gina Fishman
8:54 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
My sentiments exactly -- if you didn't vote you do not get to complain! (For the record, I cast my vote in Precinct 7!)
Bryan Corrigan
9:04 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Would it be possible to post a map of the precincts. Unless your a insider you have no idea which areas of town are voting or who represents them to contact them with your input or concerns.
Kim Poness
10:07 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Bryan - if you go onto the Framingham town website, you can find your town meeting members (I THINK that's what you're asking). http://www.framinghamma.gov/index.aspx?NID=316
Carol Sanchez
10:30 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Did anyone catch Barry Bograd's wrap up on the Election last night? He pointed out that the Ladies (Heather and Stephanie) were young (40+ and 30+) while their opponents were both 70+, and he asked where have all the young men gone? Then, Jason Smith on Day One of his new Term hinted about a new form of government. And Jerry Desilets and I agreed on something! The need to lobby the MWDN to end the practice of anonymous blogging on their on-line pages as it created a very negative and mean spirited cloud over our very important local campaigns.
Diane Tiger
12:05 pm on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
@ Carol - so true... If the only exposure you had to Framingham was the comments in the MWDN you would never imagine that there were any redeeming qualities to the town or the residents! One of the things I really like about Patch is the policy of using full names. People are more likely to engage in a productive and civil conversation when they aren't hiding behind an alias. Susan, I appreciate your ongoing efforts to enforce this policy.
Susan Petroni
5:04 pm on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Thanks Diane & Carol! I try to enforce the policy as much as possible - although I can't monitor the site 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; which is why Patch as a flag if inappropriate button - we want readers to police the comments just as much as me.
One additional thought, I allow a little leeway for initials and first names when people are posting congrats to the drama program or we love a favorite gym or breakfast spot; but if you plan to post often and on "heated issues" the leeway is gone. I expect those posters to follow the rules, use their real first and last name and treat people with respect - just like if they were having a one-on-one conversation with them on the street or at a bus stop. And I enforce the rules 100% on those type of posters.
Jonah Vaughn
10:48 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
This is exactly what is wrong with the entire political landscape - right here in a nutshell! I am guessing the poster has labeled himself a conservative and therefore, there is no possiblity that anything good can happen if another labeled conservative is voted out in a completely democratic process.
"Nice job Democratic knock the TMM conservatives out machine.
Pretty soon the Dems will have all the seats and the town will be bankrupt as you spend all our money! Nice to see you guys have a plan to destroy the town.
Remember this is all happening under YOUR watch."
In a completely open voting process where multiple people run for seats, some people will gain more votes than others. That's the point. So if your team does not win, resort to name calling and scare tactics.
I believe that both sides offer strengths and weaknesses - and clearly the folks in Precinct 4 who turned out to vote, felt that the elected candidates offered greater strengths than possibly the incumbents. That's okay - that's called democracy. It's not an us vs. them thing, and I don't view TM as a republican/democrat/conservative/liberal body. TM members are good, caring citizens who want to make the town better.
These types of vindictive, spiteful comments need to be measured, and carefully crafted to discontinue this desctructive behavior. Enough already!
Linda Dunbrack
11:28 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
You have a great point, Carol, one that I have made often on Patch. Anonymity breeds incivility in electronic forums, which can have a direct impact on local elections. One of the biggest impacts is that it makes people less willing to run for office. It makes me laugh that the MWDN was complaining in an editorial about the lack of candidates and yet fosters a hostile climate for entering a contested race with its anonymous comment section. Anonymous commenters, whether using pseudonyms on MWDN or fake names on Patch, are typically internet trolls in the truest sense of the word, often posting with the intent of misleading others to support an agenda or targeting individuals. Lots of studies have shown how much less inhibited people are when they are anonymous and not held personally accountable for their comments. If you are going to say something, you should have the personal integrity and character to stand behind your remarks. Otherwise you are merely part of the problem.