BOS race presses on amid COVID-19 pandemic

Many facets of everyday life remain on pause due to the coronavirus pandemic, but democracy is still alive and well in Canton with a municipal election and both an annual and special town meeting on the horizon in June.

Early voting by mail is available to all registered voters. (Moira Sweetland photo)

In the case of the town election, in-person voting has been rescheduled to June 16 but voting by mail has been available since early April for any registered voter who formally requests an early ballot. Applications to vote by mail can be downloaded from the town website and a sample ballot can be accessed via the “2020 Local Town Election” link on the Town Clerk’s homepage.

Similar to the past several town election cycles, this year’s ballot is headlined by a contested race for Board of Selectmen, with four candidates vying for two open seats — marking the fifth time in the last six years that voters will have a say in the composition of the town’s top executive board. Officially, the remaining nine offices on the ballot are all uncontested, although a newly announced write-in candidate has opened up a three-way race for two School Committee seats. (See announcement on page 12 and a future issue for a candidates snapshot.)

In the BOS race, incumbents Chris Connolly and Tom Theodore are both seeking reelection to a second term and face two challengers: Lisa Lopez, a 2019 selectman candidate, and Joe Amrhein, a first-time candidate.

Connolly, a former two-term Planning Board member, said it has been an “honor and a privilege” to serve on the Board of Selectmen over the past three years and he’s hoping to continue in the role for another three years, noting that it provides him with a “meaningful sense of belonging and contributing to our Canton community.”

A graduate of Holy Cross and Suffolk University Law School, Connolly is a practicing local attorney who specializes in real estate and business law. In his tenure on the BOS he has served as vice chair and now chairman, while also representing the board on the Paul Revere Heritage Commission, Route 138 Committee and the Traffic Committee.

Theodore, a lifelong resident, has also enjoyed his time on the BOS and wants to “continue to represent and serve [Canton’s] residents.” An alumnus of the Canton school system and a graduate of the New England Institute of Anatomy, Funeral Directing and Applied Sciences at Mt. Ida College, he currently works as a funeral director at the Dockray & Thomas Funeral Home and has been the owner of New England Trade Services for more than 30 years. He previously served on the Parks and Recreation Commission as a member and chairman and presently serves on the Pequitside Task Force as well as the Community Preservation, Beautification, and Reservoir Pond Advisory committees.

Lopez, whose initial bid for BOS fell just three votes short after a recount last spring, is back for another run in 2020 and is eager to put her skills to use in service of the Canton community. “Now that my three children are grown and I’m retired, I would like to contribute, particularly during these challenging times,” she said. “The quality of local leadership has never been so important.”

A graduate of Ohio State University and Yale Law School, Lopez had a lengthy legal and business career, mostly as a senior executive at Haemonetics Corp. Since retiring, she has served as a director for a virtual bank in Boston and as a part-time pro bono immigration attorney for minor children. She has also served on a number of professional and nonprofit boards and has been active in the Canton community with leadership roles on the Community Preservation Committee and the Revere Heritage Commission’s Open Space Committee.

Amrhein, while a newcomer to the local political scene, has strong Canton roots and is running for office in hopes of restoring “accountability, accessibility, and transparency” to the town in which he was born and raised. Believing that Canton has a spending problem and that its government is not always attuned to the wishes of its residents, Amrhein said he hopes to bring a “fresh set of eyes” and to restore civic engagement through service on the BOS.

An alumnus of St. John’s and Blue Hills Regional, he has an associate’s degree from Minneapolis College and a bachelor’s in political science from Augsburg University. He has experience as a substance abuse and youth counselor and had a 20-year career with the U.S. Postal Service while serving as a union steward and former election judge for A.P.W.U. Local 100. He has also done extensive volunteer work and currently delivers Meals-on-Wheels for the Canton Senior Center.

To better prepare voters who have not yet completed an early ballot and assist them in making an informed choice at the polls, the Citizen recently conducted a Q&A with the selectman candidates that will be published in excerpted form over the next two weeks. In addition, a discussion with the candidates, presented by the Citizen and Canton Community Television and hosted via Zoom, will air on CCTV throughout the coming week and is available online at cantoncommunitytv.org.

See page 14 of this week’s Citizen for a Q&A with the selectmen candidates. Click here to order your subscription today.

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Posted by Jay Turner on May 22 2020. Filed under News, Town Election, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.