New, Old Faces Return to Represent Concord's Wards

The Concord City Council is going to have some new faces and familiar faces returning to the city’s municipal board.

Penacook will have a new city councilor in Brent Todd who beat Adam Czarkowski and Cassandra Rasmussen easily. Todd received 246 votes out of 414 cast. Czarkowski received 114 votes with Rasmussen getting 49. 

ALSO READ: The full results for the 2013 Concord municipal election

Todd thanked the voters of the ward for having confidence in him and was looking forward to serving.

“We have a lot of important work to do,” he said, “and I want to make sure that the council priorities of continued work on the Penacook TIF district tannery and Rivco sites stay as a top priority on the council and also want to make sure that we really pay attention to our local businesses during the reconstruction of Route 3 and Village Street, which starts next spring."

Todd said he was also hoping to meet more voters that he didn’t meet during the campaign and get their input on the issues facing the village.

In Ward 2, Allan Herschlag will be representing the ward, easily besting Tim Bauman, 224 to 95. 

"I have to say that it just hasn’t sunk in yet," Herschlag said. "I’m truly appreciate all the support I received and I’m humbled by it. I think it was the most stressful and most enjoyable campaign. I really enjoyed having Tim as an opponent. We both respected each other and had a great campaign together."

In Ward 3, incumbent Jan McClure was able to retain her seat against an aggressive challenge by current Ward 2 City Council Jennifer Kretovic, who was redistricted into the ward. McClure received 220 votes, Kretovic came in second with 171 votes, and Rick Cibotti came in third with 40 votes. 

“I’m very pleased with winning in Ward 3,” she said, adding that she wanted to thank all the voters for supporting her again.

McClure said she was surprised by the high turnout of voters in the ward – at nearly 23 percent, the highest turnout in the city – was a indication that the councilors were doing a good job and “making Concord more vibrant, and productive, and exciting place to live and work.”

Cibotti, while disappointed with the results, was also thankful for the votes he received. 

“I feel as if the Red Sox just won the World Series … they did … frankly, I’m humbled by the numbers,” Champlin said, adding that he wanted to thank DelloIacono and Bloom for running “positive races.”

Champlin said that he and DelloIacono were friends and agreed to run positive campaigns. He was “humbled by the volunteers" and the “strong numbers” out of Ward 4.

“(They) obviously felt that I could deliver on my promises and my vision for the city,” he said. “Now I’m going to get to work.”

Matson said that while she was at the polls, she didn’t think she was going to win, since Soucy and his wife knew so many people coming in to vote by their first names. But boosts by the endorsement of the Concord Monitor and the Concord Firefighters Union appeared to have made a difference in the very tight finish. 

“I didn’t think I was going to carry through,” she said. “It was still a close race … He was there the whole day; so was I. I think we both put a lot of hard work in. I’m glad I won, obviously, but he did a lot of work too. I’m looking forward to doing a good job and representing the ward well. I’m very excited.”