East Longmeadow's election season coming to a close

Dec. 17, 2012

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

EAST LONGMEADOW — The special election on Dec. 18 will be the end of what may have been the busiest and most complicated election season in the history of East Longmeadow.

Two seats on the Board of Selectmen will be filled in what will mark the seventh election the town will have hosted in 2012.

In addition to this election and the corresponding preliminary on Nov. 20, residents have participated in a national election on Nov. 6, a state primary on Sept. 6, a town election on April 10 and the preceding preliminary on March 12 and a presidential primary on March 6.

"In a calendar year, I don't think there have ever been seven elections," Town Clerk Thomas Florence said. "I could go back in the records, but I'm pretty sure there is no way, even if you included override and debt exclusion elections."

Battling it out for the seat of Enrico "Jack" Villamaino is Debra Boronski and write-in candidate Bryan Doe.

Villamaino's position, with a term that runs through April 2014, became available because of his resignation from the Board on Aug. 22 in the wake of a voter fraud scandal for which he was arrested and arraigned in October.

The second seat, for which Peter Punderson and Angela Thorpe are competing, is that of James Driscoll, which carries a term that expires in April 2013. Driscoll had announced his intentions to resign from the board in July, but stayed on in the wake of the Villamaino scandal in order for the town's government to continue working.

Punderson and Thorpe won the opportunity to vie for the position by beating out Joseph Townshend and Nicholas Chiusano in a preliminary election that yielded a strong turnout of 14.3 percent.

That interest is something Florence said he anticipated would continue through the special election.

"We were happy with the turnout for the preliminary and I think we'll see something a little bit better this time around," he said.

Florence said part of the reason for the interest in the election was the circumstances leading up to it, but another major part was the fact that there are two viable races.

While Boronski is the only name on the ballot for Villamaino's seat because she was the only one to return nomination papers for that race, Florence said that Doe's viability as a write-in candidate appears legitimate.

"He has been very active and aggressive in reaching out to everyone he can," he said.

With that said, Florence admitted there was still a chance for a lower turnout.

"The extended forecast looks like we may get some snow," he said. "On a good day, I would expect 15 to 20 percent turnout, but inclement weather may have something to say about that."

Barring unforeseen circumstances, after the election, there is no potential for another until March, Florence said.

"The next election possible would be the preliminaries in March if there are enough nomination papers for open positions that one is necessary," he said. "We will have about three months to breathe."

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