Unofficial election results have arrived in Northampton’s preliminary election, narrowing down a historically large field of City Council and mayoral candidates ahead of the general election on Nov. 4.
According to results posted by the City Clerk’s Office, the biggest vote-getter of the night was Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, who took first place in the mayoral race with 2,991. But in the four-way race, 3,206 people ended up voting for candidates other than the incumbent. Sciarra will face off in November against former Downtown Northampton Association head Jillian Duclos, who received 1,510 votes to come in second place. Dan Breindel came in third with 1,214 votes and David Dombrowski finished last with 482 votes.
Duclos was one of five candidates endorsed by the Support Our Schools and Services Political Action Committee, all of whom advanced Tuesday night to the November general election. The SOS PAC emerged from the grassroots movement to fight against staff cuts that resulted from Sciarra’s budget in 2024, which a majority of the City Council supported.
Incumbent at-large City Councilor Garrick Perry was the top vote getter in the at-large race, beating out his five opponents with 2,249 votes. Meg Robbins was close behind with 2,201 votes. Rounding out the four-person race will be Benjamin Spencer and Deb Henson, who along with Robbins is an SOS-backed candidate. The four will compete for two seats in November’s general election.
The at-large race eliminated two candidates. Yakov Kronrod fell just outside the winner’s circle with 1,510 votes. And William O’Dwyer — one of the two Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed candidates to lose on Tuesday — received only 894 votes.
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The race for Ward 1’s City Council seat will see Gwen Nabad, the top vote-getter with 343, take on Michele Ronco, who received 277 votes. Nabad has received the endorsement of current Ward 1 Councilor Stanley Moulton, while Ronco is the SOS-backed candidate.
Eliminated from the Ward 1 race was the other Democratic Socialists of America candidate, Niko Letendre-Cahillane, who received 245 votes.
Laurie Loisel, the director of communication and community engagement for the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, took first place in the Ward 3 race. She will compete in November against incumbent Councilor Quaverly Rothenberg, the former professional cellist and court stenographer, who placed second. Ace Tayloe was eliminated.
And in Ward 5, current School Committee member Aline Davis won the evening with 439 votes. Endorsed by current Ward 5 Councilor Alex Jarrett, Davis will face off in November against Vincent “Luke” Rotello IV, the co-chair of the local chapter of the Communist Party USA.
Rotello, the SOS candidate in the race, beat out longtime former city councilor David Murphy by nine votes. Murphy has now run unsuccessfully for City Council for four consecutive elections, first losing his Ward 5 seat to Jarrett in 2019.