Updated list of current candidates for 2021 City of Lynn Election

Below is a list of all candidates who have taken out nomination papers so far. We will be conducting informal interviews with Mayoral candidates before our more formal interviews this summer, & will be linked below.

This list is provided to us by the City of Lynn Election Office & is current as of April 7th at 3:45Pm.

• MAYOR – Darren Cyr  (interview coming soon)  |  Jared Nicolson (interview)  |  Michael Satterwhite (interview)
  
• COUNCILOR AT-LARGE – *Buzzy Barton  |  Jose Encarnacion    |  *Brian Field  |  Marven Hyppolite  |  *Brian LaPierre  |  Nicole McClain  |  *Hong Net
  
• WARD 1 – *Wayne Lozzi
  
• WARD 2 – *Rick Starbard
• WARD 3 – **Coco Alinsug  |  George Meimeteas
  
• WARD 4 – *Richard Colucci  |  Natasha Megie-Maddrey
• WARD 5 – *Dianna Chakoutis  |  Sandra Suarez
  
• WARD 6 – *Fred Hogan
• WARD 7 – *Jay Walsh
• SCHOOL COMMITTEE – *Brian Castellanos  |  *Donna Coppola  |  Eric Dugan  |  *John Ford Jr.  |  *Lorraine Gately  |  Sandra Lopez  |  Tiffany Magnolia  |  Rocio Mora  |  Lenny Pena

 * denotes an incumbent     ** Currently on LCTV Board of Directors

Updates from state government

• As of Tuesday night, DPH reported a total of 609,553 cases of COVID-19. The state reported 1,566 new confirmed cases. The state has now confirmed a total of 16,993 deaths from the virus.
• Governor Baker got the first of two doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in his upper right arm and then booked an appointment in three weeks to get his second and final shot. Baker, 64, had repeatedly said that he would not cut the line to get inoculated against the coronavirus that has dominated his work for the last 13 months. He became eligible for the vaccine on March 22 and said his experience obtaining a vaccine through the state’s preregistration system is proof that “the process is working.” The governor said that First Lady Lauren Baker had also preregistered to get the vaccine at one of the state’s mass vaccination sites, but was able to score an appointment for herself at a CVS about a week ago.
• The governor said 82 percent of Massachusetts residents 75 or older have received at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, surpassing the national average of 76 percent, and that 24 percent of Black residents and 16 percent of Hispanic residents have gotten a vaccine doses, both rates more than double the national average.
• As state tax revenues continue to race past expectations, Governor Baker expressed interest in replenishing the state’s “rainy day” savings account this year but stopped short of suggesting how lawmakers should alter their near-term budget plans. The Department of Revenue announced Monday that it collected $3.061 billion in March, about 15 percent more than in March 2020 and nearly 27 percent more than the Baker administration anticipated bringing in over the course of the month.
• Asked Monday if he believes the state should move away from plans to spend $1.6 billion from the stabilization fund in the fiscal 2022 budget, Governor Baker said “we’ll see where we are” at the end of the current fiscal year. The Baker administration has projected using $1.35 billion to $1.6 billion from the rainy day fund as part of its $45.6 billion fiscal year 2022 budget, following a net reduction of about $978 million in the current fiscal year. At the start of fiscal year 2021, the fund had a balance of about $3.5 billion.
• Since Baker filed his spending proposal in January, President Joe Biden signed a stimulus package set to deliver almost $4.55 billion to state government in Massachusetts. If the next three months of state tax collections hit DOR’s benchmarks, the state will have collected $1.45 billion more in taxes than the administration projected for the year. House plans for the rainy day fund could become clear when the House Ways and Means Committee releases its fiscal 2022 budget.
• Governor Baker touted his budget plan’s provision to control the rising costs of prescription drugs and was joined by Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, who is pursuing a nearly identical policy in his own state. The budget that Baker filed in January (H 1) includes an outside section (Section 28) that would impose a penalty on drug manufacturers whose prices increase by more than the consumer price index plus two percent. While there is no real connection between the Massachusetts and Connecticut proposals, Baker said he and Lamont decided to jointly discuss the idea because they had been talking to each other about it for a while and thought it could be helpful to other states that are looking for ways to control prescription drug prices.
• Removing gendered language, declaring laws that produce unequal outcomes for different groups to be unconstitutional, and banning some eminent domain land takings are among the changes that some Massachusetts lawmakers want to make to the state constitution. Three months into the 2021-2022 session, the Legislature is winding up to consider constitutional amendments at the Constitutional Convention the House and Senate must convene by May 12.
• At a Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Adam Hinds urged his colleagues to support his amendment aimed at creating a more robust state response to reduce racial and gender inequity across Massachusetts. The amendment (S 21) filed by Hinds (D-Pittsfield) would declare “persistent unequal outcomes” for groups with constitutionally protected status, such as race or sexual orientation, to represent inequality and therefore be unconstitutional. That change, he said, would force lawmakers and the administration into a more “proactive” position on issues such as housing access, education funding and justice system oversight and to excise “racist policies” from state law.
• Tuesday’s hearing also included testimony on two constitutional amendments proposed by Rep. Mindy Domb. The first (H 79) would replace what Domb counted as 83 instances of the word “he” in the Massachusetts constitution with the gender-neutral phrase “the person.” That change, Domb told lawmakers, would make the document more inclusive to people of all gender identities and make its language more consistent, the word “person,” she said, already appears 64 times.
• Domb’s second amendment (H 80) would allow lawmakers in Massachusetts to affirm their oaths of office rather than swearing them. Under the constitution as it stands, she said, only Quakers can affirm the oath of office, forcing everyone else to take an oath with religious connotations that might not mirror their faith or belief system. Several speakers testified Tuesday in favor of a constitutional amendment from House Minority Leader Brad Jones (H 82) prohibiting the use of eminent domain to take land for private commercial or economic development interests.
• One of the most high-profile topics that will feature at this session’s Convention, a proposed 4 percent surtax on household incomes above $1 million per year, was not on the agenda for Tuesday’s hearing but is automatically on the convention agenda. The measure needs approval from Constitutional Conventions in two successive lawmaking sessions before it can go before voters as a ballot question for final approval. In June 2019, the Constitutional Convention advanced the constitutional amendment with a 147-48 vote to clear the first hurdle. If it passes again, as is expected, the question will be placed on the ballot in November 2022.

Special thanks to MassAccess for providing us with these updates.

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From Mayor McGee’s office: The Lynn Public Health Department has confirmed that as of today, the number of active, confirmed positive COVID-19 cases is 363 with 40 new cases today. 16,201 Lynn residents have recovered and 209 have died. The total number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Lynn since March 21, 2020, including those who have died and recovered, is 16,773. Please visit the City of Lynn COVID-19 Data Dashboard which is updated daily.

The City of Lynn is one of 20 Equity Communities selected by the State to receive assistance on vaccine equity and education efforts. Residents can visit https://www.mass.gov/info-details/lynn-covid-19-vaccine-equity-initiative to learn more about the equity initiative and view vaccination data specific to the City of Lynn.

COVID-19 vaccine appointments are available at Lynn Tech Fieldhouse for people who live or work in Lynn & Nahant or are Lynn Community Health Center Patients and meet state eligibility requirements (Massachusetts Phase 1 & Phase 2 Steps 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5: 55  year of age or older or with one or more chronic health conditions, Educators and certain workers. Residents age 75+ may be accompanied by one caregiver who can book an appointment themselves.) Please visithttps://www.lchcnet.org/covid-19-vaccine-scheduling to make an appointment online. Residents without access to the Internet can call 2-1-1 to make an appointment 7 days a week.

Please visit http://www.ci.lynn.ma.us/covid19/resources.shtml#p7GPc1_2 for the most up to date COVID-19 testing information, as well as more detailed information on the State and City of Lynn’s Reopening Guidelines. We will continue to provide regular updates on COVID-19 through the City website (www.lynnma.gov), social media, and the Smart 911 emergency notification system (sign up at www.smart911.com).