Politics & Government

Melrose Mayoral Field Set, Aldermen Field Still Evolving

It's official: One of the five current candidates will be Melrose's next mayor. Meanwhile, the Board is going to look a whole lot different.

City Hall is ready for a major shake-up.
City Hall is ready for a major shake-up. (Mike Carraggi/Patch)

MELROSE, MA — The mayoral field for the Sept. 17 preliminary election is set. The ever-growing field of aldermen is not.

Aldermen-at-Large Manisha Bewtra, Monica Medeiros and Mike Zwirko, State Rep. Paul Brodeur and recently departed Director of Community Services & City Operations Jackie Lavender Bird are the five candidates to replace Mayor Gail Infurna this fall. Infurna said before being chosen by the Board to finish Rob Dolan's term that she will not run for reelection, meaning Melrose will have its first open-seat mayoral election in some time.

The preliminary election, which is nonpartisan, will parse that field down to two as each voter chooses one candidate. Voters will then choose between the two remaining candidates in the Nov. 5 election.

Find out what's happening in Melrosefor free with the latest updates from Patch.

>>>Read: What We Learned From June's Melrose Mayoral Forum

The latter election will also allow residents to vote for their ward aldermen and four at-large aldermen.

Find out what's happening in Melrosefor free with the latest updates from Patch.

The deadline to pull papers for aldermen (and School Committee) is Sept. 13. No matter what the results of the election, the Board is going to look unrecognizable come next year. Only four aldermen are running for reelection - pending last-second changes from Bewtra and Medeiros (Zwirko has already said he won't run for alderman) - and all but one of them have challengers.

Below are the candidates who have filed Statement of Candidacy Forms with the Election Office as of July 31:

Mayor

Manisha Bewtra

Jaclyn Lavender Bird

Paul Brodeur

Monica Medeiros

Michael Zwirko

Alderman-at-Large

Kate Lipper-Garabedian

Maya Jamaleddine

Leila Migliorelli

Christopher C. Cinella

Peter I. Navarra

Jack Eccles

Alderman Ward 1

John Tramontozzi

Alanna Nelson

Alderman Ward 2

Jeffrey McNaught

Alderman Ward 3

Robert Stewart

Alderman Ward 4

Robert Boisselle

Mark Garipay

Alderman Ward 5

Shawn MacMaster

Alderman Ward 6

Jennifer Grigoraitis

Alderman Ward 7

Cory Thomas

Ryan Williams

School Committee

Edward O'Connell

Lizbeth DeSelm

Margaret Driscoll

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