Newcomer Challenging Worcester Councilor Mero-Carlson​ In 2021

WORCESTER, MA — The 2021 Worcester City Council election is more than a year away, but District 2 resident Johanna Hampton-Dance says she'll need all the time she can get to muster a challenge to incumbent Candy Mero-Carlson.

Hampton-Dance, 42, filed paperwork to run for the seat last week, and says she knows the three-term Councilor has a lot of support. She felt the need to step up after watching Mero-Carlson handle issues ranging from the response to police violence to the Christopher Columbus statue at Union Station.

"You're the first line of defense for the people and their concerns in this community, but you've not represented everyone in this community?" Hampton-Dance said this week. "There needs to be some new fresh eyes in there, fresh ideas."

Hampton-Dance, a Merrifield Street resident, has lived in District 2 for about six years. She was born in Boston, but moved to Worcester as an infant, and has lived in almost every part of the city, she says. She works at UHealth Solutions in Shrewsbury, and as a singer and DJ at WNRC, the Nichols College radio station.

Her motives for running range from a lack of diversity on City Council to how side streets are cared for. Education funding, prison reentry programs and elderly services are also top priorities. She highlights the 2019 choking death of a 10-year-old at Belmont Elementary as a sign that schools need more attention and funding for staff.

But it was recent debates around the police budget and outcry over the June 1 protest in Worcester that sealed Hampton-Dance's decision to run. Mero-Carlson, she says, "stepped back" during those discussions, and has not shown an interest in the Black Lives Matter movement.

She points out that Carlson is a member — along with Councilors Kate Toomey and Donna Colorio — of a controversial Worcester police union Facebook page, where commenters rail against Black Lives Matter activists and police reform. On a recent post about tire marks left on the Worcester Black Lives Matter mural, some commenters complained that the vandalism wasn't severe enough.

"Quite frankly.. whoever did that burnout could have done a better job atleast," one person wrote.

More recently, Hampton-Dance didn't like that Mero-Carlson voted against District 4 Councilor Sarai Rivera's bid to move the Columbus statue at Union Station. During debate over the issue, Mero-Carlson said if would be unfair for Italian-Americans to have to give up the statue.

"You pick and choose who you want to represent and how you want to represent them, meanwhile everyone else is left to the wayside," Hampton-Dance said. "That's a concern."

Hampton-Dance acknowledges she has a challenge ahead as a first-time candidate. Mero-Carlson first won the District 2 seat in the 2015 election, beating Jennithan Cortes by nearly 10 points for the seat last held by Phil Palmieri. She hasn't faced a challenger in any election since.

"I know this is going to be an uphill battle, it's never easy to take on new challenges and have people who have been in the political world for years take you seriously," Hampton-Dance said.