With Medford having a true mayoral race for the first time in decades, Medford for MA has a strong interest in helping elect the most progressive candidate. Additionally, we feel that it is in Medford’s best interest to elect city council members who are progressive and demonstrate the ability to work with the mayor.
Candidates for Mayor:
Stephanie Muccini Burke – Democrat, 16 years on the council, then 4 years as Budget Director; Endorsed by several unions, Mayor McGlynn, Carl Sciortino & Attorney General Maura Heally www.burke2016mayor.com Responses to M4MA questionnaire.
Bob Penta – Republican, 35 years on the council, has rarely shown support for progressive values. www.pentaformayor.com Has not responded to the M4MA questionnaire.
Candidates for City Council:
John Falco Jr. (D) – www.johnfalco.org Current member of the School Committee, is generally progressive and is well respected. Response to the M4MA questionnaire.
Neil Osborne (D) – https://neilosborneformedford.wordpress.com Very involved with NAACP, generally very progressive but opposes Green Line expansion. Response to M4MA questionnaire.
Christopher D’Aveta (D) – www.daveta.com City planner, has been active member of Medford for MA, along with his wife; clearly Progressive; Medford Democratic Ward Chair. Response to M4MA questionnaire.
Richard Caraviello (D) – www.facebook.com/pages/Rick-Caraviello-Medford-City-Council/149545795113929 Incumbent, very responsive, to residents and open to considering local issues on their face value, outside of party lines, small business owner.
Adam Knight – www.knight4council.com Incumbent, strong union ties, does research on issues before they are raised at council meetings.
Michael Ruggiero – http://takegovernment.com Moved to Medford within the past year, appears to have progressive values but is very negatively aggressive towards current government.
Michael Marks (D) – http://marksformedford.com Incumbent, very conservative.
Frederick Dello Russo (R) – incumbent, current City Council President. Good at running the Council meetings, but doesn’t call residents back, seems to be in favor of developers, owns and runs the family business.
Mark Crowley (R) – www.crowleyformedford.com Known as a fiscal conservative. Active with the Republican party, was a delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention.
Breanna Lungo-Koehn (D) – Incumbent, asks fiscally conservative questions and votes conservatively; practicing lawyer, elected to the council before she attended law school, is the only woman on the Council.
Neal McSweeney – (D) – Publicly supportive of the Community Preservation Act
William O’Keefe Jr. – Served one term on School Committee.
George Scarpelli – www.votescarpelli.com Current School Committee member, Somerville Assistant Director of Recreation.
Leonore Eforo – Not accepting outside donations. Running to show you don’t need a lot of money to run for local office.
School Committee candidates:
David McKillop Jr., Kathleen Kreatz, John Amirault, Christopher Murphy, Erin DiBenedetto, Robert E. Skerry Jr., Mea Quinn Mustone, Ann Marie Cugno, Paulette Van der Kloot and Jane Wright.
We welcome information regarding the candidates, as Medford for MA is strongly considering endorsing candidates.