Clamdorsements 2025: General Election Time!

MAYOR: 

TL;DR: The Clam endorses Paul Lundberg for Mayor. 

Greg did ok as Mayor, and we came out hard for him in 2023, but that middle finger during the teachers’ strike? Oy. It set him up for a possible loss against Jeff Worthley. We really don’t want to endorse someone who would flip off a constituent during a teachers’ strike, especially if the alternative could have been this guy. 

A few concrete reasons we are supporting Paul: when the East Veterans School was just a (very uncertain) dream, Paul stepped up to become Chair of the Yes for Gloucester Kids Committee. He could have just continued to sit on the Board of Addison Gilbert Hospital and serve on volunteer commissions doing things like consulting on bringing passenger rail lines to Western Massachuetts, but then he answered the call and came out swinging for Gloucester Public Schools after stepping down from the City Council. 

Paul also came out strong in favor of passing the state’s recommended 3A Multi-family Overlay District way before Greg did. Then, we ended up with a special election in April because Tracy O’Neil (see the Ward 1 section below) convinced 4,000 people to sign a petition and get it on the ballot, potentially undoing years’ worth of work on the part of the City Council, the Planning Board, and the Planning Department. FWIW, this special election cost the city almost $40K. Messaging from the Mayor’s office could have – and should have – been stronger in refuting the obfuscations, exaggerations, and outright lies Tracy and her ilk have spewed for years on end all in the name of keeping Cape Ann as white as possible. 

We get it, Greg, it’s a hot potato, but 60% of those Gloucester voters voted yes in April. If the Yes for Gloucester team had had more time and bandwidth, we bet the split would be more like 70-30 or 80-20. We’ve always known the silent majority here has been in favor of housing options and streamlining red tape even if the vocal minority puffs itself up and looks scary. You know what’s scarier? A mayor who can’t make a full-throated and consistent endorsement of a measure that could have lost us millions in grant money if it hadn’t passed. This penultimate endorsement in April was just tepid AF. 

Paul’s done the work of campaigning at the ground level. Gloucester answered, coming out strong for him on September 16 with a definitive 2,388 votes to Greg’s 1,608 and Jeff’s 1,124. A conversation for another day is, if there are over 20,000 registered voters in Gloucester, why did, like, 15,000 of you stay home? Don’t stay home on November 4, ok? Or you don’t get to complain about anything ever again. Not even on Gloucester Things. 

The bottom-feeding line: We don’t hate Greg. Not at all. We just think Paul will do a better, more level job, and we would like to spend the next couple of years making sweater vest jokes.

 

COUNCILOR-AT-LARGE: 

The Clam’s Slate:

Jason Grow (incumbent)

Tony Gross (incumbent)

Hannah Kimberley 

Barnaby Prendergast

Councilor-At-Large Incumbents: Tony Gross and Jason Grow, both solid and dependable voices, with Tony serving as an effective Council President and Jason being our progressive voice of reason. Vote them back in, folks. Just do it. 

Hannah Kimberley: Outside of teaching high school and writing books about other amazing women, Hannah has been more behind the scenes via her work with League of Women Voters (which we always confuse with other superhero leagues, frankly) and Gloucester’s Human Rights Commission. Gloucester would benefit from her perspective, humor, and courage. 

Barnaby Prendergast is stepping away from replying to Internet trolls and is stepping up to more officially squash trolls, for the benefit of the community, at Kyrouz. He’s also on Gloucester’s Clean City Commission which unfortunately doesn’t have a quorum right now, so it hasn’t met in some time. Barnaby’s Facebook profile says it best: “I’m not here to make promises that can’t be kept, but I will try my best to serve all of the people of Gloucester honestly and well.” Plus, he’s got legal training and has worked as a Gloucester fisherman. 

We like Shawn McQueeney and think he should get even more active in local stuff. His energy and perspective would be great on a Board, Commission, or Committee, and he’d do well in Ward 1 if Scott decides to step back. 

Patti-Ann Page: Remember how we linked to Don’t Boston My Cape Ann in Paragraph 2? Patti’s fingerprints are all over that. She also voted R in 2024. She voted R in 2024. Yes, we know we’re kinda partisan here at Clam HQ. But we’ll excuse an R vote in 2016. Not now.

She is not who you think she is. 

Just don’t vote for her, please and thank you. 

 

WARD CLAMDORSEMENTS

Speaking of Ward 1: Scott Memhard (incumbent) vs. Tracy O’Neil

Clamdorsement: Scott Memhard (duh)

Clam Nation, do we have to remind you of what Scott’s opponent Tracy O’Neil has done? Well, we don’t have the time or the energy to do it all because gestures at everything, so here’s a link reminding you this woman actually made it onto the City Council one time and we never want her back there. We did find a couple of O’Neil-isms from social media worth sharing, though. Tell your Ward 1 peeps: vote Memhard. 

Ward 2: Dylan Benson (incumbent) vs. Don Tgettis

This is Dylan’s second election cycle, and he’s shown himself to be passionate about representing Ward 2. We like Dylan and will gladly Clamdorse him again. 

Ward 3: Marjorie Grace (incumbent) vs. Joe “Monkey” Orlando

Clamdorsement: Marjorie Grace

We admit we came out hard against Marjorie when she ran in 2023, but she’s proven herself to be a thoughtful advocate who knows her neighborhoods inside and out. We need more of this leadership style in government up and down the ballot. Mea culpa. We were wrong then.

Wards 4 and 5: Frank Margiotta and Sean Nolan, both unopposed. These dudes are decent, kind, and active in the community. We’re lucky to have them representing several thousand of us.

 

SCHOOL COMMITTEE

Incumbents:

Kathy Clancy

Jeremy McKeen

Bill Melvin

Keith Mineo

Melissa Teixeira Prince

Laura Weissen

 

Challengers: 

Heather Dagle

Brianna Hodgkins

Andrea Liacos

Nas Tber

After last Fall, we here at Clammedia HQ are gobsmacked all of the SC incumbents are running again. Regardless of how you felt about how the 2024 teachers’ strike went down, we were nervous to think we’d be looking at no choices for the SC race because things got ROUGH. 

Four challengers have stepped up, making the SC race a whopping 10 candidates. We haven’t seen that many SC candidates in some time. Please don’t ask us how much time. We’re tired. 

Anyway, we think the incumbents have worked their butts off. The strike was hard on everyone, and the incumbents did their best. We don’t think angry mobs of parents and teachers should have come to School Committee members’ houses and stood outside screaming. That is not cool, bros. School Committee members have to learn gobs of information to do even the bare minimum required for that position. It pays, yes, but a monthly stipend not even half as much as the City Council gets. 

The four challengers have a lot of smarts and passion for our schools. Some are parents of GPS students and/or GHS graduates themselves. They have also been working their butts off. We are so fortunate to have such a huge pool of worthy candidates. 

We here at Clammedia HQ are pretty well divided on 7 of the 10. No one at The Clam is voting for Keith Mineo. He’s a bit too conservative for our taste. We don’t know enough about Brianna Hodgkins or Nas Tber, either. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a shot, though! 

Thank you for running, folks. Seriously. Our schools need dedicated stewards. No matter how things shake out, that’s what we are going to get. 

And we know we’ve said this before, but we’re really going to be serious about trying to be funny more often after the dust settles.