Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll Sets Sights On Statewide Office

SALEM, MA — After 16 years as Salem's first woman mayor, including the past two years when the city's aggressive coronavirus mitigation efforts have helped elevate Kim Driscoll's profile, the recently re-elected mayor is setting her sights on a statewide office.

Driscoll declared her candidacy for lieutenant governor on Tuesday just two months after winning a fifth term as mayor of the Witch City.

Driscoll is one of the first candidates to officially throw her hat in the ring for the No. 2 spot in the state after Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said she, along with Gov. Charlie Baker, she would not be running for a third term in November.

"These past few years have been tough on our communities, our commonwealth and our country," Driscoll said in her announcement. "Mayors like me have been on the front lines of our most urgent fights. from COVID-19 response and recovery to racial equity to climate crisis, strengthening our public schools and making housing more affordable.

"At this moment of change, so much is at stake," Driscoll said. "We need leaders who can understand and empower communities."

Driscoll has embraced progressive objectives during her tenure. After several attempts, and a change in state law that eliminated the need for a "supermajority" for it to pass the City Council, her push for accessory dwelling units in the city finally passed this past spring.

She advocated for measures to reduce the city's emissions and become a "car-light community" — such as the BlueBikes rental program and the Salem Skipper municipal ride-sharing service.

Throughout the coronavirus crisis, she has also pushed for aggressive mitigation efforts that started with outdoor masking outdoors early in the pandemic, the Halloween "Stay Away" from Salem campaign in 2020 ahead of an expected fall and winter wave of infections, a renewed mask mandate and a negative-test requirement to enter large indoor events this past Halloween season, and most recently she publicly supported the Board of Health's vote for a visitor and employee proof-of-vaccination entry requirement for bars, restaurants, gyms and other indoor entertainment venues open to the public.

Salem and Boston are the only two cities in Eastern Mass. to enact such a requirement, which begins in the city on Saturday. The town of Brookline issued a similar order Tuesday night.

She said during her re-election campaign against former City Councilor Steve Dibble that she would also be in favor of a vaccination requirement for all city employees and students in public schools.

"It's time for a commonwealth that works for and welcomes everyone – and for leaders who are prepared to make that happen," she said on Tuesday."That is why I am proud to announce my candidacy for lieutenant governor."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)