Select Board, Planning races headline town election

Contested races for Select Board and Planning Board will headline the upcoming annual town election after the field was set on Tuesday with 12 candidates returning nomination papers for 10 open seats.

In the race for the lone Select Board up for grabs, veteran incumbent John Connolly will face his first challenge in recent memory with a head-to-head showdown against political newcomer Susan Harrington.

Connolly, a lifelong Canton resident and CHS graduate, will be vying for a 13th consecutive term on the board and is one of the town’s longest serving office holders along with Assessor Bill Galvin, who is also seeking reelection this year.

Harrington, by contrast, has not held elective office but has served the community for nearly three decades in various other capacities, including as a board member of the booster group MusicCounts and more recently as an appointed member of the town’s Bylaw Modernization Committee.

The other contested race on the ballot is a two-way battle between incumbent Planning Board member David McCarthy and challenger Hamilton Rodrigues, who has past experience on the town’s Economic Development Committee and Canton Center Design Review Board and previously ran for Select Board in 2021.

Besides Harrington, newcomers on this year’s ballot include Amanda Ryder, who is running unopposed for the three-year School Committee seat that’s being vacated by Maureen Moran, and Sonja Grauds, who is currently serving on the School Committee in an appointed capacity and is running unopposed for the remaining one year on the seat last held by Laura Arboleda, who resigned in September 2024.

Besides Galvin, there are several other incumbents who are running for reelection in uncontested races, including School Committee member Kristian Merenda, Board of Health member Anjali Bayliss, and library trustees Peg Mead, Emily Prigot and Nancy Connery, all of whom are seeking three-year terms.

Also set to appear on the ballot is a non-binding question about whether to move local elections from April to November so that they coincide (in even-numbered years) with state and federal elections. The proposal, spearheaded by Canton Residents to Move the Vote, will also be put to voters at the 2025 Annual Town Meeting, with the Select Board having the final say over whether to advance the measure to the state legislature via a home rule petition.

The 2025 town election will take place on Tuesday, April 8, with an option available for voting by mail. For additional information about the election, including a precinct map, polling locations, and a vote by mail application, visit town.canton.ma.us/259/Town-Clerk or call the Town Clerk’s Office at 781-821-5013.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Feb 20 2025. Filed under News, Town Election, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.