North Adams Will See 3 Mayoral Candidates in Preliminary| 07:34PM / Thursday, August 20, 2015 | |
 NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Three mayoral candidates will face off in a preliminary election on Sept. 22 to determine the final two nominees for the general election in November.
All candidates for the preliminary and general election ballots had submitted nomination papers and had them certified by the Thursday deadline.
Richard Alcombright, Eric Rudd and John Barrett III all returned nomination papers with enough signatures of registered voters to be appear on the ballot. Two other potential candidates, Nik Lareau and Richard David Greene, did not return papers although Greene said he plans on running a write-in campaign.
This year's mayoral matchup sees three candidates who have run against each other in the past. Incumbent Alcombright, who is running for a fourth term, beat Barrett, then the longest-serving mayor in the state, in 2009. Rudd had run for mayor in 1997 but washed out in the preliminary when Paul Babeau and Barrett, running for his eighth term, took the most votes to head into the general election.
So far, one preliminary debate has been proposed by the North County Cares Coaliton for Tuesday, Sept 15, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the American Legion.
Twelve candidates are running for nine seats on the City Council. Of the nine current councilors, eight will be on the ballot: Lisa Blackmer, Keith Bona, Eric Buddington, Nancy Bullett, Benjamin Lamb, Kate Merrigan, Joshua Moran and Wayne Wilkinson.
Also running are Ronald Boucher, Robert F. Cardimino, Joseph Gniadek, Robert R. Moulton Jr. Boucher and Moulton are former councilors who both also recently ran unsuccessfully for mayor.
David Bond, a former councilor, David M. Owens-Branco and Ronald K. Sheldon took out papers but did not return them; Edward L. Lacosse, the first to return papers, withdrew his name on Aug. 11.
The School Committee initially had three four-year seats open with no candidates but by Thursday, a four-way race had appeared.
Newcomers Karen M. Bond, Nicholas P. Fahey, Tara J. Jacobs and Miles D. Wheat will face off in November for the seats being left vacant by Mary Lou Accetta, Lawrence K. Taft and David Lamarre.
iBerkshires will be posting a series of interviews with all the candidates beginning in September.
Correction: Two potential council candidates were incorrectly identified as having returned papers. There will be only 12 candidates for the nine seats.
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