By Adam Swift
A close race for five at-large city council seats highlighted the Revere election ballot on Tuesday.
With Ward 1 Councillor Joanne McKenna stepping over to the at-large race, there were six current councillors out of the eight candidates vying for the five seats.
The unofficial results on Tuesday night showed the ballot topped by Robert Haas, III with 2,484 votes; followed by McKenna with 2,342; Anthony Zambuto with 2,145; Michelle Kelley with 2,082; and current Council President Marc Silvestri with 2,065. Juan Pablo Jaramillo was the lone incumbent to finish out of the running, trailing Silvestri by only 13 votes with 2,052 votes. The race was rounded out by Anthony Parziale with 1,406 votes and Wayne Rose with 1,040 votes.
In Ward 1, James Mercurio defeated Brian Averback by a tally of 647 votes to 243 to take the seat currently held by McKenna.
The other five incumbent ward councilors – Ira Novoselsky in Ward 2, Anthony Cogliandro in Ward 3, Paul Argenzio in Ward 4, Angela Guarino-Sawaya in Ward 5, and Christopher Giannino in Ward 6 – all ran unopposed and were returned to office.
Thanks to a home-rule petition, there was a new configuration for the school committee this year, with two at-large seats and six ward seats, along with the mayor, as opposed to the current configuration of six at-large members and the mayor.
Current school committee members John Kingston and Stacey Bronsdon-Rizzo took the two at-large seats, finishing ahead of Frederick Sanella and Ralph DeCicco Jr.
In the Ward 1 School Committee race, current school committee member Jacqueline Monterroso topped Kathryn Schulte-Grahame by a margin of 453-425 in the unofficial results.
“I want to thank the Ward 1 voters for coming out and having your voice heard,” said Monterroso. “I can’t wait to keep producing results for Ward 1.”
In other school committee ward races, Alexander Rhalimi topped Rafael Feliciano by 20 votes, 189-169, on the ballot in Ward 2. Rhalimi thanked his wife and family and noted that he was the first Moroccan-American to be elected to office in the country.
Anthony Caggiano in Ward 3, Stephen Damiano Jr. in Ward 4, Aisha Millbury-Ellis in Ward 5, and Vanessa Biasella in Ward 6 were all on the ballot unopposed. There was a write-in campaign mounted in Ward 4 by Don Martelli and those votes had not been counted by the end of the night, although Damiano finished with 629 votes, which was in line with the votes tallied by the other ward candidates running unopposed.
“The turnout wasn’t as high as everyone liked, but there was still plenty of turnout to be thankful for,” said Damiano. “I’ve been working on this campaign since the inception, and it shows that hard work does pay off.”
A non-binding ballot question asking if voters believe the city council should repeal its prohibition of recreational marijuana facilities in the city had 1,884 voters saying they did not want the retail sales prohibition repealed, while 1,676 voted in favor of a repeal.
During the RevereTV election coverage, Mayor Patrick Keefe said he expected total turnout for the election to come in at around 5,500 voters, or about 17 percent of the city’s registered voters. Keefe also praised the efforts of new Election Commissioner Danielle Pietrantonio and her office during the election.
