Politics & Government
Worcester's Konstantina Lukes Bowing Out Of City Council Election
City Councilor-at-Large Konstantina B. Lukes is the longest serving member on the council, now in her 30th year in the position.
WORCESTER, MA — Konstantina B. Lukes is Worcester's longest serving City Councilor, but she is ending her 30-year reign on the council this year and will not seek re-election. Lukes, 77, is one of the at-large members of the council and was coming up on her 16th term when she decided to bow out of the election. Over the course of her political career in the city she has served not only as a City Councilor but as mayor and part of the School Committee.
Lukes was elected to the City Council in January of 1990, but her political career in Worcester started before that. She came to the city from Connecticut and was a lawyer — she had previously served as the director of the Central Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union. City Manager Francis McGrath made her chairwoman of the first City Manager’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women in the 1970's. From there she was elected to the School Committee in 1979 and served from 1980 through 1987.
Lukes served for three years as mayor from 2007 to 2010, which gave her an automatic seat as an at-large councilor. She had been previously elected to one of the at-large councilor seats on 1990. Lukes was the first woman to be popularly elected as mayor in the city and ran for re-election 2009 but lost to Joseph C. O’Brien.
Lukes told the Telegram Gazette that she decided not to run because of "priorities and family life."
Lukes has gone head to head with several city managers, school superintendents and fellow councilors but tells the Telegram, she rejects the label of "contrarian." She told the outlet she believes she was labeled this way because she is a woman and that men in similar positions don't get the same treatment.
Lukes has advocated for a more environmentally conscious city and for more transparency in the School Committee's budget.
